Science for an Indian boy

Younger son gets IISc Bangalore to pursue Science as a result of his score in KVPY exam. Govt of India is funding his education till PhD. Period.

So, is this for trumpeting a family victory ? Certainly not.

I could have written this in Tamil, got a few hundred reads and moved on. But I wanted this to reach a wider audience and hence have chosen English.

It was an arduous journey for the last four years. Young Bharatram spent the last four years in complete isolation and had to prepare for the entrance exam. Neither did he attend any family function nor could he spend some time on the ground playing his favourite sport, football.

Let me tell you the complete story.

I got transferred to India just because the then young Bharatram was interested in doing science at IISc Bangalore only. Add an element of Swami Vivekananda, Sir CV Raman, Tata, Homi Bhabha and you get the picture, right ?

So, from 2019 onwards his preparations began. I enrolled him, apart from regular school, with a local institute that taught higher physics and mathematics. No compulsion from my end, though. Bharat’s aim was to clear the KVPY.

He chose Biology stream at school though he wasn’t particularly interested in the subject. Reason : KVPY SA stream had biology and that was a scoring subject for the exam. On his own, he completed his Class XII biology text ( NCERT ) while he was in class XI. Reason : KVPY SA had Class XII biology content yet held during Class XI and he had to master the subject before the school taught him.

Covid intervened. He spent most of his awake time in front of the computer, either attending some lecture on PCM ( Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics ) or some online class from School or some lecture session from the coaching institute.

He didn’t play, he didn’t watch movies, he didn’t socialise. He studied. Diligently. For four long years.

In the meanwhile, KVPY was postponed twice for some reason or the other. He got some more time to prepare. When it actually happened, he cleared the exam scoring an All India Rank under 250.

Then government scrapped KVPY and proposed yet another exam for the subsequent years. No clarity on what would happen to those who had cleared KVPY. So, in confusion over his future, he started preparing for JEE, yet another arduous journey.

Repeat the online classes, periodic tests, worksheets, past-year question papers, mock-tests et al, in addition to the school’s own testing schedule.

Now that IISc has decided to admit him, his wait for JEE Advanced result is over.

So, what is the moral of the story ?

For a child interested in science to get into one of the prestigious institutes of the land, he has to sacrifice his childhood. Though I had persuaded him to stop his JEE preparations ( as KVPY rank was good enough for IISc / IISER), he couldn’t stop himself.

As a parent, I had tried to stop his torture, in all sincerity. But Bharat’s refrain would be on the lines of : What if KVPY score is not considered ? Logic couldn’t win over his worry. So, tried reasoning thus : Why not IISER ? Answer : But CV Raman didn’t work in IISER.

I am not able to compensate for his lost childhood. The system is such that if he doesn’t remain on top, he is discarded. Having been through this system myself, I know the harsh reality. However, I am pained to see the same torture on my son too.

He was interested in playing the violin, was attending online violin classes as well. But the current competition has drained the creative energy out of him.

Entrance Exams Yes. But such ordeal, No.

I am not an academician nor am I an academic policy maker. As a parent, I see thousand other Bharathrams spending their childhoods, toiling for attending these exams. And, if the child is from the cursed ‘forward-community’, then the troubles are multiplied.

To rephrase Poet Bharathy, ‘என்று தணியும் இந்தக் கொடுமையின் வேகம்’ ?

I know I could be trolled for sounding elitist or castigated for intending to point against reservation or for speaking up against the ordeal of the entrance exams.

Nevertheless, fact remains that nothing can be done to reclaim Bharathram’s childhood.