Nostalgia…

School life is not complete without a few things which aren’t given much thought. What you ask? lazily watching someone trip and fall, absentmindedly watching someone get blasted by teachers, impishly watching teachers redoing their makeup, gleefully watching tennis balls land in the swimming pool, merrily watching the football shatter something, nonchalantly watching students knocking down dustbins and walking off without much concern, indolently watching students elbowing each other to get to the canteen…much more. Only in those last few days will you notice such things and give thought to it. Only when you enter college will you notice that instead of asking “what’s the next period?” you ask “what’s next hour?”, instead of saying, “when are the next exams?” you ask “ when are the semesters?”. School life is irreplaceable. School is where you find the teachers on the brink of madness, over-enthusiastic students, mismatched socks, illegal usage of mobiles in the washroom, girls teasing boys, boys teasing girls, boys having fist fights, girls having cat fights, getting caught in the assembly for unpolished shoes, teachers barking at you to pull your tie knot up, hunting for lost ID cards, scribbling on desks and if that’s not bad enough; scribbling on the washroom walls and classroom walls, and writing stuff like “A boy was here” in the girls washroom….and some more madness that only the perpetrator can explain!
School is where you can find the students innocently walking down the corridor when a teacher suddenly pounces on them without warning and barks “pull your socks up!”, or “Where are your ribbons?!”.
It’s the temple of education. Education in various fields, like, how to copy in exams, how to read the wrong kind of books, how to make paper rockets, how to write anonymous notes and the likes. It’s a student’s second home, where you find the teachers stuffing the seeds of knowledge into the heads of largely unwilling subjects, where the school nurses have to pin you down to apply ointment on your wound, where your friends become an essential part of your life. School is where you learn the basic survival techniques for the future, it’s a place filled with people who are better than you or worse than you in something, a place which enhances your skills, talents, a place which helps you discover your talents, develops new ones. School is where you find 17yr olds being reduced from the role of a student to a psychologist, counselor, nurse, sister, mother etc., a place where you find boxing matches in the classrooms, a cricket match with spectators in the classrooms, a place where you find a ‘big fight’ (lame debates like, “Dravid is cuter that Ganguly.”) taking place.
School takes a good 14 years of a person’s life. In those 14 yrs, we learn, how to spell, count, write, talk, read, sing, socialize, forge signatures, respect elders (though, you can see a decline in that nowadays), values, how to think and the most of all, you learn to Live.

 Here’s to you School life. Cheers!! 

IT ISN'T JUST A WORD.

NO ! DON’T SAY THAT !

‘Oh, don’t be a retard!’
We hear that statement being made pretty often. We don’t give a thought to the aftermath of using the word ‘retard’. Many think it means stupid and the likes. But the word retard, lame, moron, imbecile, idiot all has a world of meaning and suffering behind it. The word ‘Idiot’ indicates the greatest degree of Mental Retardation. Who would have thought a simple word like ‘idiot’ would indicate that he is someone who can’t guard himself against physical dangers? But those who did notice the severity of the word have replaced the term ‘Idiot’ with the term ‘Profound Mental Retardation’. The word ‘Moron’ connotes that the person is, ‘Feeble-Minded’. It isn’t as bad as being called an idiot, but it still isn’t pleasant being called ‘feeble-minded’. This term was replaced with ‘Mild Mental Retardation’. ‘Imbecile’, though the word isn’t used too often, it can be derogatory too. It is less extreme than idiocy. But it came to be replaced with the term, ‘Moderate Mental Retardation’. The word ‘Lame’, though not associated with the Intelligence of a person, it still is derogatory in Physical terms. Earlier, the word ‘Lame’ meant ‘crippled’, or a person who has lost a limb or has a limb that is void of any function. But today, when a person says, ‘That is so lame’, it means ‘uninteresting’, ‘boring’ or ‘insignificant’ This term came to be replaced with, ‘Physically challenged’, ‘Crippled’, ‘Handicap’ etc.




Maybe the negative connotations associated with these several terms for mental retardation reflect society's undecided attitude about the conditions that the Real sufferers are faced with. Mental retardation, more commonly now, Intellectual defectiveness is not something that has to be looked down upon. It is just a Biological given that a few Humans are bestowed with. And those of us, who are blessed with a flawless Human body and acceptable Intelligence, hurl insults at fellow humans by the offensive words mentioned above. The use of the words ‘idiot’, ‘stupid’, ‘moron’, ‘lame’ and the likes are being discouraged by Psychologists and other sensitive enthusiasts.
Support Mental Retardation. Don’t attach stigma to the word. It is Natural, just like our existence.
"Disability is natural. We must stop believing that disabilities keep a person from doing something. Because that's not true . . . Having a disability doesn't stop me from doing anything."
--Benjamin Snow


So those of you, who add an ‘idiot’ to every sentence you speak, replace the word with ‘Profound Mental Retardation’. I’m sure you don’t want to say the huge word, or better still, you don’t want to use the word because of its offending nature.