(Samajweekly) It is said the fragrance of good things spread around automatically. I experienced this instantly. On invitation, I met and spoke to the young students of Ryan International School on November 6 at an Inter-active Session and wrote about this pleasant experience in my blog which may be accessed at:
https://diplomatictitbits.blogspot.com/2024/11/interactive-session-with-young-students.html
On November 7, I got an unexpected call from one of my acquaintances, Asha Rani, a Lecturer at Government Girls Senior Secondary School of the Village Sarinh in Nakodar (Jalandhar). She wanted to come and meet me with regard to an important educational activity. I agreed to receive her. I was surprised to listen from her that
she was hosting an Inter-active Mass Career Counseling for the three Government Senior Secondary Schools for the young students of 10+2 of the area on November 8, the next day and invited me to the School Event as a lead Speaker. There was hardly any time and I tended to politely decline the invitation. Asha and her husband Sandeep felt dejected but while, appreciating my constraints, said that it was not their fault but that of the chaotic system and added that they had received the formal permission to hold the Mass Career Counseling Session from Chandigarh only today and if they don’t avail of the opportunity, the students would suffer without any fault on their side. Not standing on ceremonies, I accepted and agreed to join them for the benefit of students.
Asha Rani picked me up and drove to the School at Sarinh in the morning of November 8 passing through the village roads, partly pot-holed and partly newly resurfaced. I may say that Sarinh is a kind of ‘Model Village’ in the area. The School, with more than 125 students (Girls), is located and situated in a fairly good building in
the lush green environment. The premises were neat and clean. It was gratifying to note. The School In-charge, Prof. Kanwaljit Singh (in the absence of regular Principal) received us in his modest office. He said while we take tea, the students from other Schools would come and join their host counterparts. I found him slightly ill at ease and rightly so. He was truthful in sharing the real reason for his discomfort. He told that the nominated official to over-see such activities in the DC’s office in Jalandhar had telephoned to say that they would come and join the Counseling Session in the afternoon and directed the School to arrange attendance of 300 students. Obviously, it made no sense. It seemed that they were not interested in the purpose of the Counseling Session meant for the advantage of students but in making a good report on paper for their bosses and make picnic with some of their collaborators from various educational groups and other concerned offices as usual. Prof. Kanwaljit Singh informed them that the Guest Speaker, Ambassador Ramesh Chander, that is
me, was already on the way and they would start the Counseling Session at around 12 noon and requested them to come accordingly, if possible otherwise they can come in the afternoon and do their work. Our informal chit-chat was an eye opener for me with regard to the state of affairs of our educational set and its functioning. Frankly, I was surprised to get this disturbing information. I may write about this to the concerned authorities appropriately, in due course.
Coming to the Mass Counseling Session, I can say with a sense of satisfaction that in spite of the fact that it was arranged in a hurry yet it was a well-arranged event with an attentive audience of about 50 young participants from the three government schools in the rural area. I was all the more happy to see that it was conducted by the
Coordinator of the Career Counseling chapter of the School, Asha Rani and Teacher- In-charge, Prof Kanwaljit Singh without any fan-fair and without any monetary inputs made by the so called ‘Educational Administrators’ sitting in their cozy offices. All of a sudden, many aspects of our much neglected ‘Educational Edifice’, cress-crossed my mind particularly with regard to the rural governmental schools which generally hosted students belonging the weaker sections of the society. It would only be good, if this question troubled all of us.
Giving my humble social background, I briefed the young audience about my chequred diplomatic career. I tried to make them at ease by saying that I was there not to lecture them but to talk to them informally as one of them. I said that there was no need to talk big
and in a lighter vein quoted a famous saying about diplomats, “a diplomat thinks twice before saying nothing’ and as such would not say much. Before coming to the crux of Career aspects, I advised the young boys and girls in their formative years that the first Mantra to succeed in life was ‘Get Organized’ both at home and in school – listen to your teachers and parents with a sense of belonging and the second was to ‘Be Aware’ of what was happening around. I added that follow the dictum “Take care of small things and big things will take of you.” – read newspapers and listen to news, read and write beyond the bookish syllabus. I gave an over-view of the career choices and said that to my mind, the first consideration should be to get ready and trained to earn ‘bread and butter’ with dignity. The other things would follow. Starting from the supportive services of Clerks, Data Assistants, Police, Agniveers etc. conducted by Staff Selection Commissions after dong 10+2, I briefly touched the State Services like PCS and Allied Services conducted by the State Service Commissions and the Civil Services Examination conducted by the UPSC for recruitment to coveted careers in IAS, IFS, IPS and other Allied Services. I specially mentioned about the Commissioned and Gazetted positions in the Armed Forces and Para-Military and Security Forces under the banner of CDS, NDA etc. I was under the impression that most of the things were going over their heads but subsequent inter-action with the young audience turned to be satisfying.
During my inter-action both with the students and the teachers, I felt that non-availability of Science, Medical, Engineering, IT streams and the socio-economic background of the majority of the students in the rural schools was a matter of concern and worry not only to the
students and parents but also to the teachers which might become a cause of ‘Inferiority Complex’ among the students. While appreciating their concern and thinking in this regard, I tried to down-play the issue and added that the job opportunities were wide open to the young school or college Graduates with the subjects in the Humanities (Arts). What would matter and be counted at the end will be ‘Hard Work’ which would fructify into realizing the dreams and fulfilling the aspirations.
I concluded with a Urdu couplet of Allma Iqbal to wish the young boys and girls all the very best in the years to come:
- Mere allah! burai se bachana mujh ko
nek jo rah ho us rah pe chalana mujh ko - Lab pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
zindagi shama ki surat ho KHudaya meri!
