Saturday, August 26, 2017

The tunnel of life


There was eagerness and fright in equal parts;
As the kids inched into the school wearing out their hearts.
Nudged by their parents to take a bold forward step;
Into the classroom to their teachers welcoming prep.

It was the parents who struggled to let their children go;
Clinching their hand as they tread their kids tow.
Futile they knew, yet struggled to break that bond;
But it was time for kids to see the world, family and parents beyond.

Our schooling system I think, is an inevitable trap;
Where futures are chalked on preset map.
Our birth on earth and the walk into school themselves are a tapering path;
The education degrees and careers are just a narrow aftermath.



~Narendra V Joshi

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My son started going to school this week. It was a big day for him and more so for my wife and me. We went to drop him at the school on his first day and this poem is about the thoughts I had about the kids, the parents and our school system in general.

Of all the planets in this universe we are born in this solar system, on this earth, in a specific city, go to a specific school, get degrees and create a specific career. From the moment we are born, our life passes through a broad set of ‘universal’ possibilities to a narrower path, down through a funnel finally converging to the point of final rest.

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1 comment:

ಮಹೇಶ್ ದೇಶಪಾಂಡೆ said...

The poem is simple and narrates all the over enthusiasm of the parents than the kiditself.We the parents always tend to make the tunnel (life) of kids as predetermined as per our wish depriving the child of it's privilege of innocence and right to learn by its mistakes. Congrats and best of Luck to lovely Anish and to proud parents.

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