Destiny of a Nation is shaped in its classrooms

 Have you ever noticed how clay pots are made? There are various complex procedures involved to give it a shape which is required and demanded in the market. And now think of the students sitting in the classrooms prepared to go through the rigorous process to get moulded according to the market forces of their particular nation, and here the potter are our teachers who intricately design the fate of their students to the best of their abilities. But can we say that then the destiny of a nation is actually in the hands of their teachers? Let's delve more deep into this.

From the ancient time, in the vedic period, their was a system of guru-shishya which could be seen in the Brahamanas, and that is beautifully followed in our country till now. And if we talk about Mauryas, Ashokas, Guptas period, the story didn't change much. Various universities were setup by subsequent rulers like Nalanda, Vikramshila etc which helped India to be the centre of learning in all over the world. The importance of classrooms in the destiny of the nation can be seen in the present world by looking at the universities like Harvard, Oxford, Yale etc which is mostly in the developed countries in the recent time. India is following the same path of building their classrooms with the renowned institutes like IITs, IIMs etc which are ranked in top 100s according to the various reports published in the market. Recently, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugrated the Nalanda university again to emphasize the importance of classrooms in the nation building process. 

Our leaders previously has done a lot to change the destiny of a nation by giving legal and political backing to the classrooms. Jawahar Lal Nehru emphasized the importance of teachers and their intricate relationship with students. Indira Gandhi had added Fundamental duties by 42nd Amendment which talked about education, subsequently various prime ministers had played their role like Atal Vihari Vajpayee by changing the subject matter of Article 46 and adding Article 21A into the constitution giving people the Right to Education which was the focal point in shaping the destiny of a nation. But how giving the right to education changing the destiny of a nation?

The poor strata of society now has the access to the basic level of schooling by Right to Education, which in turn helping them to ripe the benefits in the longer term and to the society by increasing the demographic dividend of a country. Now, there will be more literate people who are more skilled which can effectively contribute in the society in turn increasing the GDP and National income of a country. Increase in GDP will in turn help the government to spend more on the classrooms and various institutions, making a vicious cycle impacting the society in a good manner. If we compare according to the literacy rate, the south is contributing more in the nation's GDP as compared to the north and the reason can be attributed to the high literacy rate of the south. As we can make a logical conjecture that if we impact our classrooms in the right manner, the students in the longer term will be benefitted for the right and impact the society in large in various dimensions like economically and socially.

An example of government spending which can be highlighted here is Atal tinkering labs - designed to increase the quality education of schools, where the students are supposed to apply the knowledge gained in the classrooms. Government is working towards enabling these labs into every classroom, so that the students are enabled to apply the knowledge practically and to be in sync with the market standards. Such tech initiatives taken shows the will of the government to change the destiny of a nation by shaping the classrooms.

The social discrimination between people can slowly diminish if we start impacting it from the root level i.e classroom learning. India is a hub of social discrimination when it comes religion, race, caste, sex etc but all of that can be improved when it is instilled in the mind of young students in the classrooms. USA can be seen as an example where even after being touted as a developed country, it is known for racial discrimination. Such instances can be minimized to zero when social learning will be imparted to the young minds shaping the social structure of India from the classroom itself. 

Some might disagree to this fact that the destiny of a nation can be shaped in its classroom, as there are many parents who teaches their wards in their safe space at home, but they are oblivious to the fact that wherever any sort of teaching is happening, that space becomes the classroom itself. The students who are doing home schooling, their home becomes there classroom and it can not be denied that any change in the classroom directly impacts the future of the nation i.e students.

We should learn from different countries about how they are changing their classrooms for the good and how it is helping them to write the destiny of their nation. China can be the good example where they are incorporating extra curricular activities with the conventional style of learning which in turn helping them to do great in Common Wealth games, leads to higher stature in the global world when it comes to sports. Such kind of initiatives can be incorporated as the child can be moulded like the clay pot without much difficulty in the initial stage, which could help in changing the destiny of the nation. Initiatives like Atal tinkering labs should be encouraged to power the young minds. The age bracket for the Right to education should be widened in the future to incorporate young minds from the very beginning. Adequate budget should be provided by the government to certain institutions which are impacting directly the future and destiny of nation i.e Students.

Are Misfits truly what they claim to be?

 What is Misfits? Who is known to be a misfit? Who is Naman Shrivastava? There are numerous questions which are hovering around these days when someone come across the name of misfits or it's founder.

A misfit is a person who is different in some way from the majority, and this is something which we all think that we are one of them because all of us like to be called as different. Still confused? Look at the Harry potter, a fictional character, who was one of the misfits in Hogwards school of Magic diving deep down in the darkest secrets unravelling the puzzled stories with ease. But what about Naman? He is the dumbledore of the misfits community, who is known to instill the magic within all of us, binded like minded people together with this community.

But is it really a community? or an another fancy name given to a sub par coaching centre? This is something which I would like to answer by my own experience. I had done my graduation from SRCC (Delhi university) and had taken coaching previously from the so called best renowned institutes which are available in the market for UPSC. But till now, I haven't met a teacher like him, who made me to break my shell and come out of my comfort zone to such an extent, that now I don't have to think for an another second to speak in front of hundreds of people live with confidence. 

I used to be an extreme introvert, but as the journey passes with misfits, the dosage of motivation from Naman sir to participate in classes and to come out of the comfort zone made me think to move myself and to start participating in the classes which gradually given me the confidence not just to attend lectures live but to be as confident in my real life talking with people having no hesitation.

But there are many professional teachers/influencers who are there to help you speak confidently, so what's again different with misfits? It's not "just" about making people participate or make them speak, but it is more about how a person thinks and speaks with logical conjectures having limited knowledge. There are certain scientific methodologies which are adopted by him in this whole journey which made all of us to think in a coherent logical manner. Now the subjects like History, Geography, Polity etc are not just subjects for us, He made all of us to fall in love with all the subjects and reach to the answer logically. Though a single exam can not decide the fate of our lives. We have come across numerous people in the journey of misfits who had failed in UPSC but did well in their life. The sense of confidence which we have whether we fail or pass this exam, the hustle is not going to stop, to strive for the best and for the society has been instilled by this community.

But How misfits is dealing with the human tendency of being selfish and how the sense of competition is being handled in the community when there is cut throat competition in an exam like UPSC? The first and foremost thing which was made sure by Naman sir was to instill a sense of community having a basic premise of helping each other and that is not limited to misfits only but in all spheres of life. The Ethics module was taken care by Shatakshi mam which made all of us to think in a moral and ethical way and get out of this dilemma, and to have that sense of unity in the community which don't make us to think twice to share any relevant material at the portal or in the personal messages sharing the notes/strategy etc with each other.

It seems so perfect, right? But how a community like misfits can be that perfect? In my opinion, there is nothing like perfect thing which could exist, but something nearby to it. Though there are certain drawbacks which can be seen here as well. Naman sir operating misfits like one man army, juggling with most of the tasks (though there is a great portion which was handled beautifully by Shatakshi mam and other misfits team) but you can see him working much harder than anyone else which could lead to burnout at the some point of time. The second point could be the change in perspective of the people who are there in the community, as people don't want to help till the time they are preparing for the exam fearing that it is going to increase their competition, the sense of community and unity will erode with time. The third point could be Naman sir himself, as he is the most important link between all of us, if in case he became inactive, the sense of community will gradually decline and it will become another group of community of Linkedin. 

No matter what will be the fate of the misfits community, all of us are going to do well in every sphere of life, this is something which I can be assure of and proudly claim that. Misfits has turned us in a better human being, and it is not going to just help us but to the whole society in large. I put forth my logical arguments in front of my friends and relatives, giving them different perspective to think of, which made them to think about their pre-conceived notions about a certain topic. The main goal is still to be in the services for most of us, but if in case something went wrong then we all are prepare for that as well with a smile, impacting the society for good outside from the services just like How Naman sir is doing from his end. We all are well equipped to think of our way of contributing to this beautiful society.