[Dear friends I am writing this story in the form of a fiction, but what I am trying to convey is a real problem that I have witnessed in our society. I hope you will appreciate the thought behind this writing.]

Ravindra, a boy of class-8th, was nothing short of a laughing stock to the class. He could never answer any questions in the class and at most times he was found dozing in the class. Every day he was rebuked by the teachers and even the frequent guardian calls could not bring any change in him. Both the teachers and the parents of Ravindra had almost given up hopes about him.

Things turned worst when the first term results were declared, Ravindra had failed in all the subjects. His father a medical representative threw up his arms and declared that he could not afford the expenses of the private school for Ravindra. His mother too rebuked him and locked him in a room. Ravindra was very sad and without his knowledge, he had gone off to sleep. 

Suddenly in the dead of the night he heard somebody calling him in a sweet voice. He thought it was his dream, but as he opened his eyes he was surprised to see a man of nearly 3 feet height and a miss-shaped structure standing in front of him. Ravindra’s throat went dry and he tried to scream, but could not find a voice. The man now smiled at him and told him not to be frightened as he had come to help him. Before Ravindra could say anything the mis-figured man introduced himself as SANSHANIKA, he had come from a different planet to understand the education system over here. During his initial research he had identified Ravindra as the poorest student and so wanted to help him become knowledgeable.

Ravindra was feeling happy. He asked the man if he could out do David, the boy who always stood first in the class. The man assured him not to worry about David even the teachers would find him challenging. The man also told Ravindra that he would meet him after three days and then he vanished into thin air. For sometimes Ravindra remained silent and could not make out, if it was a dream or fact.

Things took a drastic change from the next morning. Ravindra woke up at 5 in the morning, went out for a morning jog. Came back at 6:15; freshened himself and then sat with his books. His father seeing him on the study table mocked at him. Ravindra just looked back and simply asked him, “father you have been a medical representative for 15 years, but do you know the composition of a simple pill like paracetamol? No, but you want me to know everything about every subject at the age of 13, isn’t it funny?” His father was shocked at his son’s reaction but could hardly say anything.

At school too things were different. As soon as Ravindra entered the other student started mocking him. Ravindra walked up to the podium of the class and said, “Can any one of you say how you can mathematically find out the radii of the in-circle and circum-circle when the area of the triangle is given?” The class was silent. Ravindra then smiled and said, “Ok friends meet me after class hours I shall teach you!

The first period of the day was physics, the teacher was teaching about Newton, Ravindra got up and asked, “Sir we have been reading about Newton, that is fine, but can you explain a bit about Stephen Hawkins’s Quantum theory? And also relate it to Newton’s Laws”

The teacher was taken a book, he said, “Who teaches you all these nonsense? Just get out of the class.” Ravindra just smiled at him and walked out of the class.

The next class was history. The teacher was teaching about Herodotus, the father of history. Ravindra got up and said “mam Herodotus was born in 484 B.C, and Gautama Buddha had died in 483 B.C. That means Herodotus was only a year old when Gautama Buddha died and so the man who wrote about Gautama Buddha had written it even before Herodotus was born, then why is Herodotus called as the father of history?”

The teacher was totally shocked and out came her shock answer, “Get out of the class and don’t ask silly questions.”

In the mathematics class Ravindra argued with the teacher as to why he should not use rule-of-three method as it was easier than the unitary method. Then in the computer class he asked about the Indian saint Panini and his binary method. In both the classes the teachers sent him out. 

By recess time the school was almost on fire. The teachers complained the head master about Ravindra and called his father immediately to the school. At the school meeting room, Ravindra stopped his father from defending him and said that he had not asked a single silly question. The teachers were unable to answer him because they had not updated themselves. Father he said, “I don’t get any interest in studies because it is not giving us knowledge it is only filling our brain with information’s. We are not analyzing the scientific truth but only repeating what somebody has taught us.”

The headmaster was taken aback by what Ravindra said, but he understood that Ravindra had a valid point in what he said, so, he controlled himself. And said “I think his questions are quite valid, but we are bound to teach whatever is there in our syllabus”

He then asked the teachers to be more patient with the students and told Ravindra to co-operate with the teachers as nothing could be changed immediately.

As Ravindra’s father came out of the school, he was feeling proud for his son. But Ravindra was only waiting to meet the alien, Shanshanika, to tell him how he got along in his school.   

                                          ---------------- To be Continued………………..

                                                                              -----------Anupam,