(Bhagya Luxmi Yadav, Intern Journalist): New Delhi, 04 July 2020: Making an acute angle from the east, the sun was sneaking up behind the clouds. It was the splendid starting of the day, Sarah awoke with pandiculation and was excited for the result which was going to be out that day. All done with morning activities, she pulled the chair and switched on the tv for the news. Half-past eleven, news flashes on the screen, class 10th result out. Hurriedly, her father checked the result and stood dazzling as she secured 94% in the examination. They all celebrated, after a while, phone rung and Mrs. Dutta, Principle of Sarah’s school was on the call, she congratulated and informed that she stood first in the class. This news doubled the happiness of Sarah and her family as well. Till evening, Sarah accumulated tonnes of wishes from friends, teachers, and relatives. As a surprise her parents gifted her a smartphone, it was the ecstatic moment for her, she hugged her parents and thanked them. The advent of the phone was the turning phase in her life. For one year she used her phone for educational purposes, attending online classes, studying from online apps, and a lot of activities. In 11th she once again topped in the class. One day, she was suggested to enter the world of social media and entertainment platforms by one of her friends. She did as well, and get dragged into it slowly. Spending her most of the time on the phone and ignoring books made a matter of concern for her parents. they discussed it with Sarah, but she left them unheard. Overconfidence was inculcated into her to the fullest. Her parents were tensed, near the end of the session, they snatched her phone and forced her to focus on study. She tried but phone, FB, Insta, Snapchat were all hovering in her mind. Practically she was present but mentally she was absent. Her parents scolded her and asked if you will not perform well in this examination, they will never return her phone. For grace, she accepted to study but it was late, exams were shortly coming. She did what was available to her. Amid March three out of five exams were over and she has to prepare for the rest two. But the harsh time appeared. It was the surge of Noble coronavirus and the country went under lockdown. All the activities were kept pending, till when? No idea. The time passes by, she was repenting of what she did. All-day long, she kept thinking, “her three exams went poorly, she might fail, will the examination occur soon?” slowly-slowly, she got frustrated and then stressed and finally depressed. She was frightened to share about her experience of exams with her parents. she was away from her friends and left with no medium to express her feelings to anyone. Around three months later, India came to get unlock but what about examinations? discussion to be held. Till now, she was under depression. Before the day at night, when the board council has to discuss the examination dates, she committed suicide. In the morning, her parents came to know that she had put an end to life.
The above story was all assumption based, but the concept of the story is very deep. This situation shouldn’t be taken casually. From infancy to getting old we go through many phases, in which we come through many ups and downs. Student life is not as easy as it looks. A lot of care should be taken. An iron should need to be heated to mold it in perfect shape, the gold undergoes the process of melting to make it shine. A person will reflect the personality, what was enshrined into him/her during childhood. The bond between parents and children should be as strong to teach the children basic lessons as parents are the first teacher of children. And the very first lesson a parent should teach is the lesson of ‘Respecting the time’. The one who respects time can succeed in any race. Parents of Sarah gifted smartphone for her betterment, but concerning that if they have taught her the lesson of time and made her aware with both pros and cons of the smartphone, then might Sarah shouldn’t proceed through the step she took. In this phase, a child should be taught about the understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of everything.
The four Ashrams in Hinduism or Vedic period, itself describes that Student life or Brahmacharya the best, it was primarily intended for fostering spiritual values. Memorization and skill development were subsidiary to character formation and self-realization. Even sons of the royal family were expected to undergo this austere and rigorous training. Students were meant to perform celibacy and went to Gurukul to acquire knowledge. This is the real meaning of Student life. A student should be focused and live a simple life free from any sense of pleasure and material allurement. Respecting gurus and parents should be the dharma of students. They should surely have the essence of discipline, simplicity, purity of thoughts, cleanliness, soft-heartedness, kind, and so on. That was an era which gave us the idle like Ram, Eklavya, Karan, and many epitomai to perfect students. But due to modernization and urbanization, the very principles are shredding. They have become delicate. In this world, the meaning of student life has changed totally. Technology has vanished the real identity of Student nowadays. Which student wants a simple life? Now, even children are running for luxury. The face of innocence has demolished, now most of the students use slang and abusive words for their teachers also. A student doesn’t want a peaceful life but surely cries for a smartphone having Pub-G installed in it. Instead of being transparent, they tankage black history in their inner core which even lead them to end their life. Every hour one student commits suicide in India, with about 28 such suicides reported every day, according to data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB data shows that 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018, an increase from 9,905 in 2017, and 9,478 in 2016. According to a 2012 Lancet report, suicide rates in India are highest in the 15-29 age group — the youth population. The report says that among men, 40% suicides were by individuals aged 15-29, while for women it was almost 60%. Surely, Suicide is not a solution to any problem, and if a student steps to end his/her life then it’s not Student life according to basic principle. If a student is expected to sparkle in front of the world then the dark side should also be diaphanous for the parents and friends. The relationship between students and Parents should be heart to heart.
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