It is August 1 today, Lokmanya's death anniversary. Hence this tale which has many a moral for times today! The story goes back to Lokmanya's school days. Once, during the short break, a few students ate turnips. They littered the classroom with the shells.
The teacher was very angry with the dirty classroom. As nobody was ready to own up, he started caning one n all. When it was young Bal's turn, he refused to be punished as he had not committed any crime. Nor was he ready to rat on his classmates, to tell tales.
The matter reached his father who supported his son's version as Gangadharji never gave any pocket money to his kid. So he buying stuff by the road side was out. Sure shows the story Lokmanya's sterling qualities such as truthfulness, bravery, solidarity, rebellion against injustice, and so on. Equally laudable is his father's response.
Now compare the story with the narratives today. Here are thousands of students who download questions and best answers from "Telegram" groups. Here are parents who are ready to shell out monies for helping their wards to dodge the system. Here is the tuition mafia ready to leak the question papers. And here are God'a plenty to take political advantage of an ugly situation. We sure need Lokmanya's galore!
Pratima@ It is necessary to add some quotient of punishment to students who download leaked question papers, and to parents who encourage their children's wrong behaviour. How about all the non-scholarly teachers who do not teach the entire portion, despite being paid lakhs in salaries? Instead, they prefer to directly and/or indirectly leak the probable questions! A lot is indeed rotten in the academic arena!
Quote of the day: "A hero is someone who knows that responsibility comes with his freedom," says Bob Dylan.
Word of the day:
