“RAT TRAP”

Oh yes! Perfectly, impeccably, flawlessly

chosen word for so called Joint Entrance Examination or JEE MAINS!

Oh what am I talking about? Did I just say that INDIA is having plenty of sheep running one after another? Indeed yes. 13 lakh! More than the population of Mauritius, Bhutan, Iceland and many other countries.

Yes that’s the number of applications every year for AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Exam) which sometimes sound like census for youth population every year.Who am I? Am I one of those preachers who rebel against coaching institutes? Or am I the one abused by the competition and end up grinding at some private college, who advertise more than they teach.

I am one of those survivors who somehow swim the tide and end up at NIT JALANDHAR.
Fancy words from a student of national Institute, isn’t what you all are thinking about? Yea I love playing with words but  the journey was never easy for me either.
But the more important is the word ‘survivor’. Not everyone is equally strong whether it’s mentally, physically or economically.
The hype of entrance examinations and breath taking competition made it even callous for the weak ones. Every year great number of students crush under the pressure and lose battles of their life.
I, my self when failed in 1st attempt, didn’t able to gather enough confidence to go out in marriages and parties as everyone around was making fun of me. 
I cried every single day as I was ashamed of letting hopes down.
But let me ask you, who is responsible for creating such an environment where after school, life is nothing less than tapasya, in which day and night books are the only companion, when syllabus starts haunting you even in the dreams and the criteria for evaluation?Just a day,The Judgement Day.

Two years of struggle and that just vanished away in hours! One single question could cost you 5000 rank! And my friend, if you somehow had a bad day, pack your bags for another year of struggle. 
A country where a piece of paper(newspaper) describe your astrology and a piece of paper(money) can decide your luck, education is merely a chance for rich people. Ones who can afford, go for coaching institutes which even add more pressure to perform to worth the money.
In India Rahul Gandhi is not the luckiest man, kids with reserve tags on their bum are the luckiest. They never fear the thrust. Oh! why would they be? They have to work less, but earn more as they are the real vote bank.

I am not against competition not even coaching institutes, but the way it’s going on, it’s tough for anyone to pick one institute out of the sale.

Moreover government should have a check whether these institutions are good enough as one is investing not only money but hopes too.
It’s important for our parents to understand that every child can’t be Einstein, some may be like Virat Kohli, Ratan Tata or even better.
Not everyone can be billionaire, but one must try to be, but not at the cost of life.
India is developing rapidly and in hour of demand of skilled engineer, but engineering is not the only option.
This year one lakh less students applied for the JEE MAINS and I hope for further decrease in numbers to achieve the better quality.
The point is how many of us are seriously trying to change the mindset of parents? It’s important to end up ‘Sharma ji ka beta scored this, how much u did’ system. What the government is doing to stop suicides and how much are they serious about modifying stupid reservation system? 
One man can’t, one-one together can change the world.
Comment what you think about the system and what changes you would like to bring, if you have the power?

This article is part of PaGaLGuY’s innovative internship certification programme for engineering students. Currently, two such programmes are on – one is an Internship in Creative Writing, and the other is a Certification in Digital Media. If you are interested in partaking and bagging a certificate, besides learning the nuances of effective writing, write to us at [email protected].