'The Road Not Taken': Manoeuvering Young Minds

There are times when the road ahead is clear, and at times it’s foggy as well. Coaching helps set goals you really want to achieve, by distinguishing between your potential, your aptitude, and your interest. When you dream of something you actually want – you are more likely to take action to achieve it. A well charted plan is therefore, the need of the day and this brings us to one of the most important advantages of enrolling to a coaching class. These centres offer a range of academic and non-academic services to students. They also include help in school admission, lodging and boarding, and as well as counselling.

I believe that the regular never makes you extra ordinary. Coaching centres help you discover and hone your own abilities so as to make you fly at the highest sky. They provide relevant exam-oriented suggestions, notes and hand-outs which help students to utilise their time optimally. Exams such as CAT undergo frequent pattern change, sometimes as frequent as every year, so under such circumstances, studying under the aegis of experienced and expertise is the best option.

Classroom learning has also now evolved efficiently, thanks to the technology. The blooming ‘practical’ way of teaching via smart boards in schools and other institutions has led to a significant hike in the fees of such coaching classes. In addition to it, sending kids for tutorials since an early age harnesses the mental growth of children. These days getting enrolled in tuition classes is the norm which is followed widely.

I vehemently oppose such norms and ideals, which separate the child from his childhood. The exhaustive competition of scoring good marks in school exams, college exams has kept the kids away from where their passion. It could be dancing, painting, sports and much more. The excessive pressure from peers, parents and from oneself has increased the burden on the young minds manifold. What escapes me is that why parents in India are against their own child who adroit in non-academic genres and the rationale behind their opposition is naive to me. I am not doubtful of the worth of academics and its effective outcomes in enhancing the prestige and personality development. Different is good.

The rapid growing trend of coaching classes has sapped children away of their myriad imaginations, and from discovering their own path in life. Academics is essential because it nurtures one’s personality, educates them to stand their ground with different people groomed in varied social, geographical and economical spheres. In addition to it, academics will always remain a great back-up for all those aspirants who fail in concourse of the conquest of their dreams due to unforeseen circumstances.

A job driven by passion is always done meticulously and the outcomes are there to see: Sachin Tendulkar won’t have been a household name if he would have followed his father’s footsteps to choose writing as his profession, same goes for Amitabh Bachchan, and all other people who have left a mark in history, and more shall follow who listen to their heart’s desires, and work hard to achieve it.

So here I urge you all to open up your hearts to all the possibilities in the world, just follow those and make it BIG in life. In Chetan Bhagat’s words:

“Don’t take life seriously, life is not meant to be serious it’s rather temporary. There is no point of getting your promotion on the day of your break-up. There is no happiness in driving a car if your back aches and so on…..hence, spend money on things you love (don’t keep it saving for the future which is not even sure to come to us), bunk a few classes , play pranks on your friends and much more….”

The man whom I have quoted above reflects my thoughts pretty impeccably. An IIT graduate and IIM alumni went to Hong Kong to work in a bank and earn prosperity, and realised that this job was not ‘him’. He got fired from the job, returned to India and to finally where his heart lies: writing.

I will sum it up by giving you all a piece of advice, “Choose the job where your heart lies and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”.

AT THE THRESHOLD

Summer vacations generally are welcomed by school students as the stress buster from the montonous schedule of going to school, tuitions, playground in a time-bound

manner. College students eye over this break as a time that creates place for everything to be done in the world, say, internships, summer jobs, recreational activities, tutorials for various competitions, honing skills in extra curriculars and sports and so on.

But there is a greater melodrama to this, as the story unfolds. Students who appear for class XII exams have to first meticulously strive to do well (oops! The “best”) in board exams irrespective of their forte and their ability. It has to be then suceeded by joining some crash courses or going through the regular vicious cycles of self-studies several times in a day. The preperations of all such entrance exams are surely met by the exam dates for the students. Cramming up of formulae, theorems, are followed by mugging up of the entire chapters and rote learning of mathematical problems.

Finally when these entrance exams bid adieu, CBSE and other state boards announce the results! Let me just enlighten you by one “fact-of -the-matter” : No matter what you've scored in your board exams you'll get that droplet of sweat rolling down your cheeks atleast momentarily while filling up forms, standing in never-ending queues on the admission days in University Of Delhi.

Almost every student enrolling for an undergraduate degree aspires to be the part of the most coveted university of the nation: DU, sharing the stage space only with the IITs. Clearing your entrance exams definitely falls in your to-do list but DU remains the chart toppers for all courses that it offers except B.Tech. Besides this one course, DU is considered as the premiere institute of the nation by students and professionals alike for all courses.

So pretty obviously, DU opens no easy entrance doors for any student. Forget about an SRCC doing a 100% cut-off while releasing the cut-off lists, even an RLA does the same. The days while applying for admissions in DU are and will always be uneasy both for students and parents alike. Early morning wake-ups for newspapers, or late night internet searches are followed by choosing the college that should be visited first in case, you score good enough to get admitted to a few colleges in the first cutoff only. At times, bigger shocks await you inside the college premises. For example, the college will come up with additional eligibility criteria and will inform you only when you get there for mark-sheet verifications; hence, wasting your too precious time that could have been utilized by heading towards another college where you would have atleast procured a seat, since the time bound admission days open up only for 3-4 hours in a day and only continue for 2-3 days after the cutoff list is released.

Those regular tiring days under the sun, those drives from one college in north Delhi to the one in South from my house located in West Delhi can never turn oblivious to me, atleast. Those sprints that my parents and I made in haste, in various college campuses seeking for someone to resolve our queries, to lend a helping hand...urghh.

But you know, what's the best part going to be?.. when you'll get admitted to any of the college of DU, you'll exclaim in your hearts of hearts “Aaaaahhhh....It was all worth it!”.

You might have migrated from chennai, assam, mumbai, kashmir and so many other and most likely all the states, to get admitted in DU. DU takes away the cream of the nation, almost all the toppers are within its reach. So, I was saying that you'll exclaim those tiring efforts..yes! You will.

From the innumerable societies such as dance, drama, music, photography, poetry, fashion to joining NCC, NSS or taking up sports from shooting to swimming to lawn tennis, you'll receive a delicious platter in the very opening and the beginning of your college life. If this isn't enough, you can try your hands-on experiences such as working in a media house, NGO and many more. I doubt if any other university will offer you with so many opportuinities and co-operation just like DU does.

Then, comes the University's election time; when you can have a lot of free movies, lunches, trips to amusement parks and so on;) . The elections are grand and real, for your information! You'll spot candidates and their supporters indulging in physical violence, marching rallies and immense patrolling on the polling days.

The election feast is followed by the Annual Fest Season of DU in all the colleges. One can witness the cast and crew of several upcoming movies in colleges at that time. The star nights are the highlights of the fests. They are humongous carnivals in the entire university. The campus life, hostel life and the almost daily Delhi trips are breathtaking, backbreaking, swashbuckling and spinescent simultaneously.

You are even taken to various field trips, leisure trips and day trips to let yourselves enjoy. The innumerable workshops, orientations from professionals and from the elite panel of international universities is also extremely informative and it opens floodgates for several students to make wise planning for their career. The campus placement cell of DU is also an incredible launching pad for all the students of DU. Top MNCs target DU students to be hired as an employee..DU becomes like a brand name for you to soar high!

Hence, the platter is hot and mouth watering.. and I'll repeat myself..”those tiring days are all worth it!”. Being a DUite is a matter of pride and the coolest identity as a teenager you can carry about when it comes to flaunting your institute's name!