One for the real topper

Aneet Kanwal Randhawa

I WOULD like to state at the very outset that I have no prejudice against toppers, although I was never one. They are hard working and deserve all the accolades due to them. All those photogenic moments, savouring laddoos under the media glare, are justified, for they have been earned by the sweat of their brow.

But these are taxing times for those who perform below par. Even those who were academically the crowning glory of the previous generation with their laudable first divisions stand no chance. They inadvertently yield to their complexes and hide their certificates in  inaccessible deep dungeons. 

In the din of this topper glorification, every year we hear of some underperformers attempting suicide, and some succumbing to it. As a consequence, there is some brainstorming about our education system for some days. But we don’t see any substantial change on the ground and witness a repetitive trend the following year.

No, please don’t mistake me as somebody who has the ability to diagnose the ills of our education system. All I can do is to speak for the individual self that is belittled every year at the altar of this competitive sham.

The individual worth is unfathomable. It may not necessarily manifest itself in academic brilliance, but rather in unconventional wisdom. It may unleash itself in creative forms such as music, painting, dance, poetry,  etc. It may set a sporting field ablaze. It may exhume supreme valour as a soldier and set the finest benchmarks for national sacrifice. It may still yearn for higher peaks after conquering the mighty Everest. It may not be bogged down by successive failures and may keep taking newer leaps. It may firmly believe in an honest day’s hard labour and not get swayed by dishonest means. It may be an embodiment of a supreme set of values.

Those mentioned above are still the achievements of the materialistic realm. How about those elevated souls who make a fine spiritual connect and enter elevated realms? Souls that are continually yearning for the Lord and singing His paeans. The individual worth of such souls is beyond reckoning.

It is this individual worth that needs to be glorified. Only it can redeem those individuals who resort to extreme measures. Indeed, this can be a panacea for so many ills.

Not all talents manifest themselves as hyacinths and roses. There are a multitude of unsung heroes. A host of possibilities which never saw the light of the day. It is only for them that Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib has remarked:

Sab kahan kuch lala-o-gul mein numayaan ho gaeen

Khak mein kya suratein hongi ke pinhaan ho gaeen

(Not all, only a few as flowers manifest. How many remain hidden in the dust, none may ever know.)