A show of bravery or torture

I spend a considerable amount of time on the roads to travel from home to office and back. Most of the time, I used to have a quick nap and sometimes, listen to one of the Chennai FM stations. My favourite FM station is Radio One [frequency - 94.3] because of the RJ Suchi who conducts the show from 7 am to 11 am.

At 8:00 am she will start an interactive show called “Suchi Sabha”. There will be a topic chosen for that day [it could be anything, from the perception of the RJ – something that happened in her apartment complex, or something that appeared in the morning news or some strange thoughts like which cricket player appeared in most of the advertisements etc.,] and the audience can dial in to the given number and share their perception / opinion about the topic.

On Wednesday [July 28. 2009] the topic was about a karate stunt conducted in a government school in Tamilnadu. In fact, I was not aware of this news before i heard it in the FM radio.

The karate master demonstrated the skills [bravery?] of his students by riding a motor cycle on their fore arms. He also made a motor cycle drive over a plank kept on the abdomen of a girl student. The chief guest of honour had to interfere to stop this atrocity! 

This was told in the “Suchi Sabha” and the parents were requested to dial into the FM station’s telephone number to share their comments on this and also share some of the dumb activities their wards were forced to comply with in the name of extra curricular activities.

The first caller [named Padmavathy] was a mother of a student studying in PSBB Millennium in Chennai. She told that such things are very common in the school and it is a regular practice to demonstrate such “brave” acts to the parents and the parents also appreciated this.

Such is our craze on the brand value [PSBB here] that we accept anything and everything forced on us [as parents] by these corporate brand products [the schools, i meant].

There was an article on NDTV web news and strangely, there was a statement by Ms. Y G Madhuvanthi – parent and correspondent of YGP School [one of the schools of the YGP institutions brand under which PSBB is also a part]

"Very disturbing. What if children start doing this on the roads? Saying we can put our hands under any passing vehicle?"

In fact, it is very disturbing to me now. Can someone tell her [Ms. Y G Madhuvanthi] that the same thing is being exercised in one of their own institution [PSBB Millennium, that is]

Oh GOD, sorry to put you in trouble. But, when will our people stop acting too smart? It is true that noone is perfect, but noone should not hide from being imperfect :(

There is actually a different personal story for all this fuss and fury about the brand names in education system. I will share it in a later point of time.

So long… bright