Idiots

By Akhilesh at 29 December, 2009, 7:05 am

The film 3 Idiots describes when we call a person an “Idiot” in day to day routine. It is when someone is trying to create something new which is not known to the masses or when the person is trying to create his or her own path. This impelled me to look into the dictionary and find out the actual meaning of “idiot”. The psychological definition of Idiot is as follows, “A person of the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.”

Teachers are in a habit of calling their students “Idiot” when their answers are not in accordance with what they expect. We continue to follow the curriculum that exists controlled by board and universities etc. and continue to mug books after books. Students, who are good, get into a cycle of intellectual ego and start considering other students as “lesser mortals”. Parents, instead of being compassionate to their beleaguered children and getting to the root cause of the problem start finding faults in their children. This is a very dangerous situation for the child because at the time of distress he is looking for support and not criticism. This lowers his self confidence and falls into an abyss of self pity and negative attitude toward self ability. Beating up children is very common practice for parents in such situations. I personally am strictly against beating children up. I think it should be the last and the most avoidable resort.

If we take into consideration people who can be called creative geniuses are either school dropouts or college dropouts. The most glaring examples are Thomas Alva Edison (He was told by his teacher that he was too dull to be in 5th standard and he lighted up the entire world with his creation), Albert Einstein and more recently Bill Gates. Again, it is not true that every student who drops out of the school/ college is going to achieve such stupendous feat but at least he/she may know his calling for life.

Parents are missing a crucial point here that they are a support system for the child. The child is not a machine to fulfill their unaccomplished desire. The great philosopher Kahlil Gibran compared children and parents relationship as a bow and an arrow. He said unless the arrow leaves the bow it does reach its destination. Similarly if children are not allowed to find their own path they will not reach the destination of their lives too. I haven’t found a better explanation regarding how to be a support to your children to achieve their goals. Children can have goals that may not fit into rigid patterns of the common society that has been created. If such is the case, then it is the duty of the parents to become a support system and not ridicule or get into a self pity syndrome.

Another dialogue that was stressed quite a few times in the movie was, “Life is a Race. If you do not run then the person behind you will stamp you down and go ahead.” To that I say, “If Life is a race then that race ends up at the graveyard and sooner or later all of us will meet there.”

The whole point is we have to stop, think and analyze what are we doing and what is the reason behind that action.

But Alas! These questions are not that simple to answer; simpler is to follow the norm. Even then we all have the power to choose, to find the true calling for your life or to follow the routine. Ultimately the power of what I choose will determine the song that we all shall be singing when the time to leave the body will come. The song can be “Give me another chance so I grow up once again” or “ ALL IS WELL. Pappu is Life ke test main flying colours ke saath paas hua”. The choice is ours.

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Categories : Entertainment