The third wave has abated. Life is getting back to where we last left it. Children are back in schools, busy making up for lost time to prepare for the dreaded Board examinations. This mother of all assessments is a strange phenomenon indeed. The preparation process is a journey of self discovery. You realise that with good training, you could qualify to be a Superhero/ heroine as you see yourself surviving, without sleep or food, in a semi-zombie state, and yet, reeling out mathematical equations and chemical formulas. It is also the time when your family goes through panic attacks, as if the universe’s fate depended on your performance. No matter how many decades later, well settled or not, you will always look back at this phase with bewilderment, wondering how you lived to tell the tale.
This twice in a lifetime occurrence (if you don’t have arrears) has even altered our landscape. One look at our streets and you will see tuition centres that promise the best exam results, mushrooming everywhere, nudging their way into educational patterns. An early morning walk at 5 am, will reveal scores of students, wide awake and walking or cycling to their respective coaching centres, while the fading night sky battles with the rising sun. This, in turn, has a profound effect on institutions and academies that offer regular or weekend art classes for school students. Once the exam fever catches on, attendance is normally thin. Stepping into the ninth grade however, ensures that art classes become completely forgotten chapters. Art competitions too, which normally would have attracted huge crowds, given the mega prizes to be won, barely have any entries when the Board exams have reached a significantly sniffing distance. Parents who normally accompany their children, proudly carrying home the mixie or pillow won by their offspring in these contests, are willing to forsake this gift-hamper winning moment of glory to secure focus on the uncrowned kings of all academic subjects.
Sadly, nothing can be further away from the truth. All stressful conditions need some respite. Today, every corporate company wishing to proclaim their New Age business philosophy, has specially designed activities, where employees are bundled into the company bus, taken to some hillside resort or beach house, and made to de-stress by laughing together, playing games that had been relegated to childhood memories of birthday parties and annual school Sports Days, and most importantly, bonding outside the confines of the office atmosphere. Corporate gurus guarantee an abundance of energy to return to the chaos with renewed vigour, if these methods are employed.
When an adult’s need for some breathing space is duly recognised, then why are children pushed to the brink and having to spend all their hours pouring over textbooks? Enroll your child in a weekend art class, if you haven’t already. An hour or two a week, spent in being creative and allowing tender imaginations to blossom will work wonders on the child’s mental well being. Try it and every child will roller skate through the Big Boss of all exams — LIFE.