The Alien

“Do not let the student within you die”, said the Prime Minister of India at the convocation ceremony of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) (coinciding with the centenary celebration of the University). Sage words from the honorable Prime Minister to a large gathering of students. “Your convocation should mean the end of your course and not your education, which must be continuous” he said. Again, unexceptionable words by the PM while addressing these bright young minds.  I asked myself, does he really understand who a student is? The surrounding noise seemed to suggest that he is rather unaware of what a student is and is delivering polemics that suits the occasion. A student is not a conformist, he /she is a rebel standing for all causes - small and large, a person questioning the faith, beliefs and traditions and someone who will never accept any sentence that ends with “because, I said so”. Does this Government (or any other) have the wherewithal to deal with such “ignited minds”?

In the movie P.K. – there is an alien who lands on this earth – in India and is forced to interact with the locals. It is a hilarious interplay of situations/events that are part of daily life seen through the eyes of someone who has no knowledge of these whatsoever. I guess through the innocence of a person alien to our culture, the film makers wanted us to question everything around us and to not accept anything as a given tradition. Using religious faith as a subject, the story makes a very compelling case for revisiting many of our traditions and superstitions. In many ways, being a student is like being an alien. Innocence to cultural practice is utmost importance and equally importance is the zest to learn and question everything. Debates, discussions on any and all topics should be part of student life. Unless you question and debate, you will never know anything completely. Questioning old traditions help create newer ones and debates lead to solutions that were not thought of thus far.

“You shall respect your elders” / “you shall pray to God daily”/ “you shall follow this faith”/ “you shall obey these rules”. It is always – you shall. A student should hate these words and oppose anything that follows- as a rule of thumb. The moment we accept a ‘You shall’, the scope for debate is over and a tradition sets in. That’s how our previous generations did it and the ones before. Accepting things at face value is the anathema for education and growth. Can you imagine if Sir Isaac Newton had “accepted” the fact that an apple falls to the ground and never asked “WHY?” Can you imagine if scientists accepted the notion “An atom cannot be split” and not asked “Why not”? A true student must question everything and not accept anything until they are convinced of the case presented by the promoter of the idea. A student should be like a child, willing to learn everything from scratch without any previous hang-ups or preconceived notions or prejudices.  Try any and all ideals – often radical and untraveled territories, for you have the benefits of being an alien to this civilization and it should be OUR JOB to convince you of our way of life and traditions. 

So long...