The exams have been postponed! Can you believe that?" they could hardly contain themselves as they exchanged the news. For weeks, I had seen the two gossiping about the government employees' strike in Kerala over hot tea and snacks every Friday evening. Judging by their tone, this news by far seemed the most momentous. They could never get through without a detailed recap of the week's events at office. They manage, every once in a while, to drive me to my wit's end. But I tell myself that they are nice people, just unwinding in their own way. On this particular day, the topic of exam postponement ruled above all else. Bringing to mind old times in Trivandrum (or Thiruvananthapuram, as it is called now) -- especially, my struggle in that 10th year of school. My mother's blood pressure and my father's culinary skills were put to test then, along with my sanity. My belief is that the importance of the school board exam is blown way out of proportion. A student just passes the 10th grade, after all. Though folks in Kerala would cite a good many reason why it holds such a prestigious place in their lives. I got a whopping good grade, back in 1989. What did it do 'for' me? Well, sometimes, I get to brag to people I know, kinda rub it in when all else fails, that I have a high score for most subjects. And they seem to take it, for they too hold it in such high esteem! What it did do 'against' me? Oh, it immediately placed me in the coveted bracket of students eligible for science courses at a leading college. And all my pleas to follow another path were brushed aside. Year after year, for the next one decade, I studied science and technology, never figuring out until the very end, why the electron went in one direction and the corresponding arrow pointed in the other. Anyway, students about to finish school must feel overwhelmed with the strike and the postponement adding to their usual woes. I can also imagine a set of two parents per student dealing with anguish hitherto not experienced. A few days later my mom informed me that the strike had been called off; she seemed very relieved. And I silently wondered why! I had been in Trivandrum during the first few days of this strike and the one perceptible difference to my day was the less populated roads. If you haven't attempted driving in Trivandrum, you couldn't even begin to fathom why. I do most of my praying when I drive. If I were to elaborate on that, it would have to be a diary in itself. But of all the things that go wrong on the roads, I find the jadhas the most objectionable. Jadhas are processions -- mostly in protest against the government, and it could be for a reason as grave as why the chief minister wore a green shirt, instead of his usual white, the other day. The time and place that their issue becomes my issue is when I am driving on a road and out of the blue some policemen stop traffic. And this happens every once in a while. Trivandrum is a typical government employee town and with all that I had seen, I am all for cutting down on their benefits, which was what the strike was all about. I thought it was high time someone showed them their place. The rationale: I have never known another working community that earns its living by doing so little work. To the argument that the private sector pays more, I would have to say that they do so after putting in lots of effort and taking many risks. The average government employee, it seems, earns easy money. Then, the ultimate ambition of many young people and their parents alike (let's leave software engineers out of this, please) is to pass some test and land a government job. That attitude needs changing. "It's life-long security dear," my mother has often repeated. To which I always ask: "What if the person dies in a few months or years? If he didn't like the job or the earnings when he was alive, then what's the point?" And she would immediately come up with the argument that the spouse would get a pension or something on those lines. It is not only the financial security these people seek, but also the opportunity to work very little and keep earning for a lifetime. Many an able person wastes his/her abilities this way, never giving form to their true potential. So many of them could have sought out other rewarding fields of work. Small-scale industry would have seen more enthusiasts. For years my mom and I argued about the pros and cons of government employment. She used to often urge me to write some test or the other and we would start off again. This time I was determined to tell her all that I felt in regard to this subject. She had the last word, as usual: "You can say all this now, dear, we did what we could to give you a good life and we were government employees. We have retired, collected all the benefits and your life is not going to get affected any more. So go on with your tirade." Not for nothing has Lekshmi Nair based herself a long way off from the land of strikes, in the United States. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh Tell us what you think of this diary Be part of an exciting venture!   Write a Diary!
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