Eventually, we were at a stage where we had nothing. All money we had was already invested. Our neighbor was a competition to us (he also had his own academy). Our location was off-road whereas there were many other academies proliferating in the main market of Vishrantwadi. And now we didn't even have kids to be taught. Only 5 were left with us. It was a critical situation. Indira Gandhi must have put emergency in this situation.
Soon, Raj started getting annoyed of all this stuff. Not because we had no money. But because the students were the worst we have ever seen. All five of them. Raj used to say "Yar wo Shweta, Meghal vagairah kitni sahi bandiyan thi. Kam se kam dekhti to thi meri taraf jab main padhata tha". Long back, when I used to teach the same 5 students in USA, they seemed to be brilliant. Now we came to know that that lusture of these non-metals was relative. They were graphite, not diamonds. Now you can imagine what sort of kids were left there in USA - "all ace".
Vinit added to this irritation of Raj. Vinit usually used to irritate Raj willingly (in humor) for money we have lost. And I used to buck him up. But the fact is, all this was just internal humor of friends. In reality, we all 3 were feeling the same thing "have we lost everything in this public-service work?" We were not hungry for money. But we were bursting to teach to good students. Money was important, I agree, But it was secondary.
And one day, two of those 5 kids gave us the full fee all of a sudden. We had 16000/- in our hands. We were undergoing a critical financial crisis and here it was : water to thirsty crow. It gave Raj a chance to pay his debts, and Vinit to enjoy with his pseudo-fanti. Well, for me, I was yet to pay 10,000 to my dad (which I did within next 10 days). And it was such a relief.
One thing we three used to discuss was "why these kids are so ignorant about studies?" And the reason was that there was zero awareness about future life and competitive exams among them. None of them really knew how AIEEE and IIT-JEE exam was going to affect their life. They were just like "Aaaahhhhh! what a life? We are cool dudes and punks". So, overall, there wasn't any fault from the student's side. Moreover, neither the parents were that much aware. All these kids belonged to middle-class families. So, it is quite expected that the parents won't be knowing much about the world going around education systems.
Even my mom-dad didn't know. Parents come to know only when one of their children has gone through these times. My sister was elder. And my dad didn't even have the slightest hint of competitive exams. Result of this ignorance was the loss of 2 years for my sister preparing for PMT exams. Though for me, dad had enough experience by this time and I had already seen year-drop of my sister. So, I was more aware and conscious about the competition.
Now, the parents of these 5 kids - all they could do was put them in good schools, academies and hope (and believe) that the school is gonna take fine care of their child. But actually this APS Pune was one of the worst schools I have seen in terms of studies and its related environments. Most students were spoiled wards of Army Officers, and the wards of JCOs and ORs then try to adjust and imitate with those rich kids. Parents do everything their children demand but in return the kids get lost in their own world. Neither the teachers payed attention to such a drastic change in the youth towards being cool, listening to Enrique & Brittney, wearing sweat-shirts and converse shoes, and enjoying the chill life without even knowing that there is something known as "IIT-JEE". Students from whole nation were busy preparing for that 'one of the toughest' exam every single minute of every single day for continuous 2-3 years.
We introduced that face of the world to these 5 students. When Raj used to tell them his stories how he used to study in Kota, they used to listen in amusement like "Wow!!" It effected them for few minutes, instigated them with new enthusiasm and by the time they used to go home, they forget that story. Daily we tried to fill these student with zeal, but soon these things started fading away. Now scene has converted to such a situation that whenever we used to tell how we used to study, they had to JUST listen reluctantly and thinking "ho gaye shuru apni raam-kahani batene, roz-roz ek hi cheez". They never cared what we really wanted to convey. Many times we used to tell that the world is not waiting. Every minute they lose in eating ice-creams, waiting for bus at bus-stop, enjoying in malls, going for piss, that minute someone is practicing objective questions somewhere in India, to take a lead of 2 marks.
Wait a minute! What if we have told them so much that they have been demoralized? So lets make their morale up again. "You still have sufficient time to through the whole thing if you do it the way I am telling you". And we used to tell them the methods. "Daily wake up at so-and-so time, at least this-many questions per day per subject, so many chapters within so-many days, and you will get not only above 90% in boards, but also a very good rank in AIEEE".
And this trick worked exactly opposite like "Hey! we still have a lot of time. Why not enjoy a little more?" WTF?
Somehow, we finished the batch one month prior to board exams and called kids for just random classes and doubts sessions. I blame no-one but to ourselves for all this. We wanted something good, but it turned out to be so worse. We did exhaustive hard-work those days. And at the end of the day, all we got was blames "It was you who made us so. We were doing fine in USA. We used to be the best there".
Oh c'mon! What's the use of being the best among fools? Compete with the top-star baby. We just opened your eyes. You used to think you were gonna crack every exam easily. Now here is the mirror. Look at your inner self and now you have come to know how far you still are from your target.
Soon, Raj started getting annoyed of all this stuff. Not because we had no money. But because the students were the worst we have ever seen. All five of them. Raj used to say "Yar wo Shweta, Meghal vagairah kitni sahi bandiyan thi. Kam se kam dekhti to thi meri taraf jab main padhata tha". Long back, when I used to teach the same 5 students in USA, they seemed to be brilliant. Now we came to know that that lusture of these non-metals was relative. They were graphite, not diamonds. Now you can imagine what sort of kids were left there in USA - "all ace".
Vinit added to this irritation of Raj. Vinit usually used to irritate Raj willingly (in humor) for money we have lost. And I used to buck him up. But the fact is, all this was just internal humor of friends. In reality, we all 3 were feeling the same thing "have we lost everything in this public-service work?" We were not hungry for money. But we were bursting to teach to good students. Money was important, I agree, But it was secondary.
And one day, two of those 5 kids gave us the full fee all of a sudden. We had 16000/- in our hands. We were undergoing a critical financial crisis and here it was : water to thirsty crow. It gave Raj a chance to pay his debts, and Vinit to enjoy with his pseudo-fanti. Well, for me, I was yet to pay 10,000 to my dad (which I did within next 10 days). And it was such a relief.
One thing we three used to discuss was "why these kids are so ignorant about studies?" And the reason was that there was zero awareness about future life and competitive exams among them. None of them really knew how AIEEE and IIT-JEE exam was going to affect their life. They were just like "Aaaahhhhh! what a life? We are cool dudes and punks". So, overall, there wasn't any fault from the student's side. Moreover, neither the parents were that much aware. All these kids belonged to middle-class families. So, it is quite expected that the parents won't be knowing much about the world going around education systems.
Even my mom-dad didn't know. Parents come to know only when one of their children has gone through these times. My sister was elder. And my dad didn't even have the slightest hint of competitive exams. Result of this ignorance was the loss of 2 years for my sister preparing for PMT exams. Though for me, dad had enough experience by this time and I had already seen year-drop of my sister. So, I was more aware and conscious about the competition.
Now, the parents of these 5 kids - all they could do was put them in good schools, academies and hope (and believe) that the school is gonna take fine care of their child. But actually this APS Pune was one of the worst schools I have seen in terms of studies and its related environments. Most students were spoiled wards of Army Officers, and the wards of JCOs and ORs then try to adjust and imitate with those rich kids. Parents do everything their children demand but in return the kids get lost in their own world. Neither the teachers payed attention to such a drastic change in the youth towards being cool, listening to Enrique & Brittney, wearing sweat-shirts and converse shoes, and enjoying the chill life without even knowing that there is something known as "IIT-JEE". Students from whole nation were busy preparing for that 'one of the toughest' exam every single minute of every single day for continuous 2-3 years.
We introduced that face of the world to these 5 students. When Raj used to tell them his stories how he used to study in Kota, they used to listen in amusement like "Wow!!" It effected them for few minutes, instigated them with new enthusiasm and by the time they used to go home, they forget that story. Daily we tried to fill these student with zeal, but soon these things started fading away. Now scene has converted to such a situation that whenever we used to tell how we used to study, they had to JUST listen reluctantly and thinking "ho gaye shuru apni raam-kahani batene, roz-roz ek hi cheez". They never cared what we really wanted to convey. Many times we used to tell that the world is not waiting. Every minute they lose in eating ice-creams, waiting for bus at bus-stop, enjoying in malls, going for piss, that minute someone is practicing objective questions somewhere in India, to take a lead of 2 marks.
Wait a minute! What if we have told them so much that they have been demoralized? So lets make their morale up again. "You still have sufficient time to through the whole thing if you do it the way I am telling you". And we used to tell them the methods. "Daily wake up at so-and-so time, at least this-many questions per day per subject, so many chapters within so-many days, and you will get not only above 90% in boards, but also a very good rank in AIEEE".
And this trick worked exactly opposite like "Hey! we still have a lot of time. Why not enjoy a little more?" WTF?
Somehow, we finished the batch one month prior to board exams and called kids for just random classes and doubts sessions. I blame no-one but to ourselves for all this. We wanted something good, but it turned out to be so worse. We did exhaustive hard-work those days. And at the end of the day, all we got was blames "It was you who made us so. We were doing fine in USA. We used to be the best there".
Oh c'mon! What's the use of being the best among fools? Compete with the top-star baby. We just opened your eyes. You used to think you were gonna crack every exam easily. Now here is the mirror. Look at your inner self and now you have come to know how far you still are from your target.
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