October 16.

Shreya and Chiyu went to school without bags and books. Thursday was Kalam birthday and their school did away with bags and books. Chiyu sounded cheery on the phone. They played; boys broke benches, girls jumped them. Teachers took a break as there was no class work and home work. Evenings for garba. Today it is green day and they will go green to school. Teachers, books, bags, study will start. Teachers will mourn from their chairs; Chiyu and Shreya will nod. Me had no such luck. Other day one had a surprise chat with a relative Krishnamurthy Gopalakrishnan. Have never met. But we talked of the school we went to, Hindi High School, 1Moira Street, Calcutta. He was my junior. We talked of principals Arthur Osborne, Scotsman Muir and Dubeyji. Muir one remembers. He said: Son, dont fail. None from this school has failed in Class XI public exams. Dubeyji backed me. Me passed, just about. Muscle man and gym coach, K.K. Banerjee (Kela Khaya Bandarji); never hit anyone; had a fetchy laugh. Terror Sardar Sarwan Singh made us march for hours; marching was compulsory as ACC (Auxiliary Cadet Corps) and NCC (National Cadet Corps) were. Misery. Hindi High School belonged to business families of Rathores, Shahs, Dagas and Kotharis for teachers to favour and me sighted the unequal equations of power. They were favoured by most teachers. Teacher-student or guru-shishya is a power partriarchy; its equivalent, the partiarchy at home. A patriarch or a matriarch is old, dominates; never suffers a debate. Till date son Ganesh is not reconciled to the bureaucracy of school, the power games of teachers with students; dislikes teachers. And the idea gets transplanted in the power games of Indian politics. In today's India, old and dead men (includes me) and women run amok their writ on youth; decide on their walks with a girl or boy, on their eats, on their smokes, drinks and kisses; on their thoughts; on their gods, if they have any; there is no power equilibrium with the young; the young have no choice; and when they dismiss their parents from their thoughts and place them in Old Homes, they are the accused in courts; street corner gossip. Khushboo Narayan told me, the young in India want to live not die before their olds hit the graveyards. Old fakes cannot an elegant India make. Quit. Or else the young will quit to US, Europe, Australia. Young rush for life is on. Give Shreya and Chiyu a chance.