Reading Vikram Karve, “THE STREET SMART FAUJI BRAT” I felt the first thrill of excitement. At first, I failed to find any humour in the write up. But that is OK. Everyone has his/her own idea of humour and anyway I am a bit thick. I failed to find any humour and felt despodent because according to my knowledge, what we used to call ‘Arts Subjects’. Especially Economics is the first choice of the kids of today. The IIT has lost the pride of place that it held when I was a student. A large number of the kids appear for IIT entrance exam just for the heck of it, just as they appear for the NDA exam. The numbers of serious contenders are far less than the numbers, who actually appear for these exams. Then I tried harder; just as I had done in my fifth class of Municipal Board Primary School, No 2, Laxmi Bai, Nagar to understand my Vigyan (science) lesson. There is that world famous expression, ‘Eureka’. In my fifth class, (Hindi medium) I was taught that ‘Arashmidsh’ (yes, the same Archimedes) jumped out naked of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Paris/London/Moscow/Syracuse or where-ever, shouting, “Pa liya! Pa liya!!” (I’ve found it! I’ve found it!!) I don’t have a bathtub at my home and anyway, the dogs in my colony are ferocious; they only recognize me in my clothes. So I jumped up and down under the shower and shouted, ‘Eureka!’ And ‘Pa liya’ alternately. The gists of my findings are: ‘Humour!’ My main finding is: For years we have been crying hoarse about the dismal state of the indigenous arms and equipment. But now with the ‘fauji’ kids taking over the DRDO our problems are over! We can start a debate as to how many years it will take us to overtake the US of A in quality arms and equipment production. My secondary finding is: Why those who could not clear the SSB were patronizingly told, “Don’t lose heart, you can always try for IIT!” (I hope my humorous response to a humorous write up will be taken in a humorous spirit.)
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 08:57:32 +0000
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