Education and Latur Pattern
The University Stands For Humanism And Tolerance, For Reason, For Adventure Of Ideas And For The Search Of Truth. It Stands For The Forward March Of The Human Race Towards Even Higher Objectives. If The Universities Discharge Their Duties Adequately Then It Is Well With The Nation And The People. - Jawaharlal Nehru
These are views on education by our first prime minister. Did we really stand for that goal which he has mentioned?
I always ask this question to me. Am I really educated? I still couldn't find the answer. I don't know what is meant by education.
The famous Indian player Sachin Tendulkar has failed in S.S.C. though he is considered as the most ideal person in India. The question remains does one has to spend his/her twenty to twenty five years in formal education to achieve something?
Whenever I go to my native place Latur I meet a person. He is a roadside vendor. He sells salted peanuts (Kharimuri). Once I asked him what is his qualification? He said S.S.C. failed. I asked him why he had discontinued his education. He answered his family is poor. His monthly income is five to six thousand rupees.
This is one example.The other example is of my regular laundry boy. He has his formal education till S.S.C or H.S.C. after that he is looking after his father's dry cleaning business. I asked him why he has not taken up University education. His answer was very simple. If he has to look after the traditional business then why waste time in taking degree education.
If we look around we will see that lots people are going away from education still we are hoping for the best talent in the world. In between these two examples one thing is common that these persons are interested in education but somehow they couldn't manage. They have to give a full stop to their talent, career and waste their time in doing unnecessary things. Though earning money is not wasting time in India.
There are other persons who failed in S.S.C., in H.S.C., at degree level or left school at primary or higher secondary level. If they are failed where do these students go? What do they do for living or can we simply say destiny will decide their future? These and other issues I have handled in my first novel Latur Pattern. The novel is in Marathi. It is not about an immediate solution to our problems but faithful picture of contemporary socioeconomic conditions.
The synopsis of the novel is as follows:
Nitin Balkrishna Vagdale is an Arts graduate. After passing H.S.C. he goes to pursue bachelors degree in science as he couldn't manage to score valid marks for Engineering admission. His parents were not happy to see his B Grade marks. In the first year he fails and next two years he tries to clear first year papers but doesn't cope up. During these three years he gets frustrated and depressed due his parent's behaviour.
His parents think that he is of no use, he should try something else. He thinks that mere failure in college or at degree level is the parameter to taste one's inability to achieve something. He asks himself what is meant by achievement. Is earning money and a better position in an MNC the criteria for achievement? What about his self-confidence which tells him that he can also do better things as of other clever students?
Due to parental force he takes up Arts only to have a degree with him. During the two years in B.A. he met one Prakash from Aurangabad. He had come to Latur for H.S.C. His parents wanted to give him the best education at twelfth level. But he wanted to be a lecturer and poet as Mangesh Padgaonkar. In twelfth standard he fails in English paper due to that commits suicide.
Nitin thinks what is the use of education if it takes one's precious life? In second year of B.A. he comes across some students. They are Deepak Gaikwad, Sunil Bhoyrekar, Santosh Mane, Ashish Kaldate and others. These are all failed students in their respective fields. They had established an organisation called 'Upekshit Lok Sanghatana'. Their aim is to gather as many as failed students and do something that will wipe out their frustration.
His parents think that he is of no use, he should try something else. He thinks that mere failure in college or at degree level is the parameter to taste one's inability to achieve something. He asks himself what is meant by achievement. Is earning money and a better position in an MNC the criteria for achievement? What about his self-confidence which tells him that he can also do better things as of other clever students?
Due to parental force he takes up Arts only to have a degree with him. During the two years in B.A. he met one Prakash from Aurangabad. He had come to Latur for H.S.C. His parents wanted to give him the best education at twelfth level. But he wanted to be a lecturer and poet as Mangesh Padgaonkar. In twelfth standard he fails in English paper due to that commits suicide.
Nitin thinks what is the use of education if it takes one's precious life? In second year of B.A. he comes across some students. They are Deepak Gaikwad, Sunil Bhoyrekar, Santosh Mane, Ashish Kaldate and others. These are all failed students in their respective fields. They had established an organisation called 'Upekshit Lok Sanghatana'. Their aim is to gather as many as failed students and do something that will wipe out their frustration.
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Comments
Dear Mr Vivek,
Gone through your novel Latur Pattern. It is really excellent. It is really a soul-stirring sorry plight of the failed students. Parents’ attitude towards their failed kids and kids’ reaction to it are quite real. It is what the parents across the globe should awake to. I subscribe to your view that parents should not impose the burden of their unfulfilled ambitions on their children. Children are the individuals in their own right. It’s quite natural to expect from children to fulfill the dream of their parents, but it should not be a compulsion. Crushing influence of any sort is to be abhorred. Democracy at home too must be practiced. Every one has his or her own individual views and choice.
Your reference to Prakash and his suicide will make any sensitive soul think twice about imposing parents’ dreams on wards. Children turn away from parents and fall in a vicious circle. They really need help and love from their mother and parents. They don’t get this and chose the most unpleasant way of exit from the world.
Your character of Dipak is also very realistic. He stands flesh and blood before the readers. The whole Naapaas Gang is outstanding. The character who is obsessed with repairing two-wheelers is also very deftly sketched. His loss of interest in education and love bike repairing is most credible. We get to see such guys in thousands around us. Only that they must be supported. The must be believed in. Though uneducated an engineer like talent may come to fore from within them.
This apart, your style and language are good. The Latur dialect is expertly used. It will be represented for the first time throughout Maharashtra.
What more, on its flipside, there is much of narration in the novel. It lacks in action. More situations need to have been there in it. The second half is comparatively filled with more action. Long narration is difficult for readers to sustain their interest and attention. However, you have the power to persuade the reader to read on and on far into the novel to its end.
A nice beginning of your career of writing. Wish you all the best.
Hope to get more from your pen. Let there be next something pure and pious (my individual expectation).
With warm regards,
Yours
Deenanath.
P.S. : This is direct and unpremeditated response to your novel. Let you know my well-articulated views in the due course of time. Thanks.
Regarding the flip side of the novel, I deliberately put the narration long as I don't want to tell a story but to give reality check to readers. And the second thing is I want people think for some time before deciding their child's so called career.
Again thnx for believing in me that I can write a novel.