Odd Numbers

 

The slow motion replay doesn't show how fast the ball was really travelling-the world  watched like a hawk, the official trajectories issued by the covid hit countries and relaxed , only to get caught off- guard by the thoroughly misconstrued yorker. What then seemed like a 14-day lockdown has now been translated into an obscure inconclusive quarantine(atleast for the student community) or rather a perfunctory démarche.Three months back (when things were presumably appearing to settle down) ,all I cared about was the grass that pricked my bare feet and the noise and tohubohu around that barged in on my self-talk.Ironically, the same noise leans against the entrance of my residence today with a smirk hanging down its slender profile,chiacking me.Today as I see the sun switch shades of crimson and yellow and repeat the cycle the next day ,I wonder about the shade that would kiss the earth back to life . On a graver note, as I witness fellow citizens getting unemployed and others still coughing politely, eyes bashfully gaze at the shadowy future. Let's not get into the economics of it given that this isn't an editorial column. It's funny how these school goers have been trapped inside for some 1.5 years? The next time they visit school , whenever that's going to happen,half of the bunch would've lost their brain for even basic mathematics. All these years , I've been a hard-line advocate of home-schooling but what's fickler than an opinion really. It's definitely not for those sprogs who're still learning to read the time on their wrist watches.No wonder, half of them have lost the desire to step back into school.A few weeks back I heard an 8-year old saying she was no more interested in human interactions and yes my head turned to that . This reminds me of SAMVEDNA(Sensitizing Action on Mental Health Vulnerability through Emotional Development and Necessary Acceptance) - a Toll-Free Helpline launched to provide psycho-social mental support for Children affected during COVID 19 Pandemic.Just in case.Of all the people,these hapless 10th and 12th graders whose boards got cancelled were taken for a bigger surprise last week with the whole 3years-formula and somehow it's so comforting yet untoward.Sincere sympathies but seriously it gives me immense pleasure to see consistency being rewarded . The whole situation becomes even more interesting when you see the school records for 11th standard where nearly 66.67% of kids underperform.The whole 40:30:30 formula is so perfect especially when you think of people who either switched boards or schools or countries for that matter in those rewarding 3 years .So reasonably fair and just.This was the Central Board.Speaking of it, the other board went one step ahead and gave a 6years formula to the SC.By golly, some kids just pull their socks up for 2 standards and by some I mean most, and by most ,81%(as per one estimate). They're just basic figures though . I'm surprised the whole teaching community is willing to put in the effort to calculate futile numbers that probably won't even count anywhere and  I think I've heard that  diversion of resources is a problem in our country.Well,does it matter when it comes to the matters of the heart( of the government)? The whole year these kids studied under uncontrolled anomalous conditions only to welcome a series of surprises (read accidents) that 2021 brought.I'm convinced that it's not just me who's obsessed with odd numbers.The government is a bigger fan and very soon I'll be outdone.

      Meanwhile I see my cousins having the time of their lives and for some reason it's killing me to see them kill time .In the same vein, I rest my case against homeschooling in perpetuity and ever so sincerely hope for schools to come to life again.