FATHER, DEAR FATHER

FATHER, DEAR FATHER

A young boy writes a letter in reply ito the one he has received from his father. Let us see what he has to say.

SECTION I

Dear Papa.

This is iin answer to your letter about my transgression, Yes, my first rank, slipped to the Secound. You advise that I should think before answering the papers. Yes, the operating word 'think' did make me Reflect and these are the exultant of those reflections.

Father, we've never really been close and I can't rightly say you've been my friend, philosopher, guide, etc. Yet I would like you to be aware of my thoughts. They are very important to me. You are highly educated and you provide very well for the family. But in your departmental store, do you apply Pythagoras 'Theorem or Newton's Law of Gravity ? For that matter, does your doctor friend ? Or your lawyer brother ?

Papa, my grandfather speaks to of a carefree and Heautiful childhood. Of days spent in planking mangoes and guavas from their orchards, of picnics on the banks of the river where the men cooked mouth-watering food, of playing marbles and gilli danda. From his talk, it seems, studies were an ancillary subject: and living and Experencing, the major subject. Father, is he fibbing ? Or is it possible that the world has turned Rossy turvy in just about 70 years ?

Papa, my Grandmother is semi-literate. Yet she is at peace with her pots, pans, her flowers and garden, her Bhagvad Gita and scriptures. My mother, highly qualified, is highly strung, tense and nervous. Do you think literacy makes us, restless, afraid and frustrated ?

SECTION II

Which is more important-wisdom or knowledge ? What should our education do for us ? Let us read on and find out what the writer thinks.

Oh Papa, last week, my rose plant almost died. Some pests. I asked my Biology who keeps gardening things. He'll tell you. We learn about pesticides but we do not know how to use them. Oh father, it matters not to me why the apple does not fall upwards, nor do I care what Archimesdes did. What matters to me is that my rose plants remain healthy; when there is a fuse in my house, I should know how to do something about it: I should know how to make a desk for myself from my carpenters tools. Instead I learn about Bypotenuse, relational square roots.................

Papa, once I asked my grandmother how she got to be so wise. Do you know what she said ? By living and experiencing. And she laughed as though I had asked something which was so obvious. Are we living Papa? Or is life by 0 passing us?
What I fear is that if I were to meet Newton face to face , I would fail to recognise him, so busy am I learning about him ! You know, just like that boy. Vinu, in that award winning film, he Prattles on- "the Hibiscus is red" 0 a hundred times, but in his book, he colours it yellow. Are we missing out on the cemented of life?

Anyway Papa, do you know where I lost that quarter mark the brought about my fall? It was a fill-in-the blanks. I hold that I was invited to tea and my teacher was adamant that he was invited for tea. A matter of Grammar. And Papa, if he says Gorge in my Bush is the president of India, it will have to be so. If he says the sun rises in the west, so be it: and if he says the earth is flat, it will be, my Papa. At least on my answer papers. My frst rank is at stake, you see. Still, my dearest Papa, I shall keep your advice in mind and try not to lose any quarter of marks.
as always,
Yours ever obedient son,
Rahul
P.S Your eyes will not see this Aguished please don't, my father. This was only to lighten my over- burdened hearken. It is not all arteries and muscle. it feels too.

-a newspaper article from The Hidu