THE END

The evening was balmy.But ironically, the atmosphere was equally inclement.She was in a state of complete consternation.It was a condition that resembled that of a body which is paralyzed, like of a fish seconds out of water, trying to survive, trying to just elongate the life, the breath.


She brushed aside her whorls which were scattered all over her face.The face which used to blossom at his sight, was looking like a barren land pleading the almighty for the elixir,a solicitation that was futile.The lips which used to be like a bud ready to sprout at the sight of the spring, were puckered, as distraught as it could get.Her eyes, which were equally cryptic like an ancient treasure hitherto unexplored, protected by lids and girded by fine brows which furrowed each time the wind touched her face, brimming with tears.She tried with all her might to control the stream flowing  across her cheeks which he used to caress.That touch would bring a subtle smile to her lips and a shimmer in her eyes.She missed that touch today.


She turned towards him.Her dappled maroon coloured saree fluttering as a strong gush of wind blew across the courtyard.Her visage was again caressed by the wind as she moved towards him like a hypnotized soul.


He lay there wrapped in tricolour with a battery of men in green around him, their magnificent rifles pointing to the azure of the horizon.She bent down to embrace him one last time.She touched him one last time, perhaps knowing that this touch would be the last one.A tear trickled down her face in this process.But, she swabbed it off.
She was a widow of a martyr, a man who had brought unparalleled glory to the motherland.A baronial soldier, who puts all he has at stake to shield his country, to hedge it from all evil.
She should not cry.She must not cry.
But a layer behind that brave woman was a newly- wedded bride.A dainty girl, who had just entered a new world,had novel hopes, fabricated new dreams and aspirations and new apprehensions about her life as a wife.All this had shattered for her.For she was a widow now.
She should cry.She must cry.


The men in green fired their 16 rounds and bend to pick the body.She stared hard to get that one last look.The vermilion on her brow was swiped forever.
She finally let go off the tears she had been holding back.



(written for those thousands of widows of war who inspite of adversity and bereavement stand up, accept the destiny and move on, lets salute their gut, grit and courage)
Jai Hind


Udit Bhatia
Electronics and Communication Engineering
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi

India has an exam system but not an education system

In the thick of the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch to the Prime Minister from his own scientific adviser has termed such tests as one big menace. 

Strongly recommending an immediate halt to the system of sitting for a pile of exams, C N R Rao, who heads the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SACPM), said in a letter sent last week that the American method of holding one national exam before joining university is the way.


Putting it bluntly, Rao told the PM that India is said to "have an examination system but not an education system... When will young people stop taking exams and do something worthwhile?"


Referring to the exam overdrive, Rao briefed Manmohan Singh on the various flavours of examinations that dot a student's life: "It is important to relook the entire examination system including the system of final examinations, entrance examinations, qualifying examinations, selection examinations, and so on. Now one hears of a proposal to have a qualifying or accreditation examination for medical graduates and post-graduates."


Students who groan under the pressure of multiple entrance exams will cheer this advice. Citing the example of Joint Entrance Examination conducted by IIT, he said: "IIT entrance exams have the reputation of being difficult and purposeful, but they have also had a negative effect on young minds. Young people suffer so much to succeed in these entrance exams, and in the process lose excitement in education itself."


The lakhs who don't make it across the IIT gates, Rao told the PM, get exhausted and can't perform as well as young people with fresh minds.


Talking about the agony that the Indian higher education sector is in, the SACPM, in a brief document sent to the PM recently — accessed by TOI — noted, "Today there is not a single educational institution in India which is equal to the best institution in the advanced countries".


In view of the growing number of aspirants for higher education, the SACPM has readied a 10-point checklist of key problems and challenges. It has asked the human resources development ministry to set up a taskforce to come up with an action-oriented document within a year.


"We should seriously consider a possible scenario wherein the young India advantage enables India to emerge as the provider of trained manpower for the entire world in the next 20-30 years. This could be a worthwhile national objective," he told the PM.


Rao's checklist for higher education include: 


Raising the bar: Provide all required support to 10 educational institutions to enable them to compete with the best in advanced countries


Look ahead: There's a manpower mismatch in many countries with too many professionals in some subjects. Prepare a vision document which foresees the problems 20 years hence


Inclusivity: Increase the number of fully residential schools up to higher secondary level in rural India to nurture rural talent

TOI report

10 THINGS TO LEARN FROM JAPAN

1. THE CALM

Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak

8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly






Anwesha Bose