Examination of Examples!

As a school kid, I used to love “examples” in the school text books!

The only place where the person (whom we kids 'regarded' as far-more-intelligent than 'even-the teacher'), who wrote the text book, shows his kindness to we-the-kids ... quite liberally... So easy to understand that, even the teacher just ignores the scope to 'further' elaborate an example :)

That was what an 'example' was... any other 'show' of what 'something-would-be-like'... was only a 'sample' (a mild caning on the outstretched palm, by elders, for instance would tell us the trouble in-store for the trouble-we-cause :) ... beware!)

It was the 'easiness' of the examples in maths text book, which made the 'sums' (the problems caused unto us kids, with a very funny-title “Exercise”) look 'far-more-tough' than what it really is!... Reading that 'examples' again and again felt like some wasted-effort, once we had decided that problem to be an 'impregnable-fortress'!

It was thus, we ourselves wove that thick covering over the event called “Examination” :)

The scare created by the teachers and 'parents' was alike, about the thing called 'examination'... It never really occurred to us to even 'examine' the name called 'examination'! The 'process' was utterly simple, and self-explaining, (if only we had the patience to look at it as a two-in-one, example of examination!)...

Years later, I had visited 'north' (where I had worked for a livelihood, for a decade)... this time, for fun...
There, my colleagues and their family had gathered to have a dinner with us (my family was the 'minority-community' and as guests-too, within that drawing room of the 'owner-among-hosts' )....

The kids just played around, with no other visible-purpose known to them for 'such a gathering'...

One of my colleagues, who happened to 'remember' me as an 'example' of how good a motivator can be, (when he struggled with 'promotion' test become a clerk like me), suggested to me “Hey, why don't you speak a few words of motivation/inspiration/whatever-nonsense... to our kids here?.. the schools of this small town does not seem to nurture that-kind-of academic competition like large towns/cities etc”...
And, not waiting to know if I am at least inclined, he proceeded to gather the kids around, and placed me at the centre of that small circle! (With hunger in the stomach, and a delicious fragrance emanating from the dishes, on that large dining table, with the lids kept partially open, ... a very wrong time to indulge into lenghty 'lectures'... I and we the kids knew well!)...

The other negative factor was... the kids are unlikely to gather around thus, a 'next' time!

So, that squeezed me into an unenviable discomfiture of compulsion to squeeze whatever I had to say, into very brief words!

After a few 'initial' gimmicks to 'get-their-attention'... I asked “for whom is that 'exams' at our schools?”... the kids said, “us the kids!! who else ?... ain't we the sole-sufferers? :) ..”
I asked “Really?... Please take a look at it again... That 'driving-test' by RTO , who gives a licence, if we 'pass'... He likes to know, 'if we can drive safely'... and the licence tells that policeman(on behalf of public) later, that we do-know 'how to drive safely'... But, when do we know, if we can drive?... Or, ... when do we propose-to-learn to drive?.. On the eve-of-test?”

They gaped... they seemed to be able to afford themselves a chance for the concept of 'examination' to percolate into them in a 'user-friendly' manner!

I nudged it further into a proper-groove, with a brief utterance “Oh! To me, it looks like.. that exam is either for the teacher (to know how well he taught), or for the parent to know how well the kid had learnt what was taught... etc... but nothing to do with the examinee... who is just a specimen, a sample on the examination-table!”... They had a hearty laugh!

I left it to their choice to ... 'further-examine' the distortions forced upon the sanctity of the concept called 'examination' by everybody around, whether knowingly or not, willingly or not, etc..

Some neighbour drinks to death... spoiling his liver... etc... He is a 'live' example (unlike those deceptively simple examples in the maths text book, which doesn't 'exactly' tell me how to deal with 'tricky' sums!)... he is a living or a dying example (whichever way )... of how 'drinks' can only-spoil, and not nurture health... when we over do it...

Somebody continues the 'growth' in a linear direction, when the nature-designated vertical growth ceases to oblige him.... an example of what it can do with our 'freedom' of movement, health etc!

Hey..... if I fail to examine these 'samples' as my-examples... I fail in my-exam... negative results!

Now came the tough part... I had to 'examine' how well I examine! (Each breath seems an 'example-afresh', that I am alive!.. It is my-examination, whether I pass or fail, when I pass by, failing to notice it... to decide whether I 'examine' well, this 'pull' of life.. exam-pull/example!)

Sample of yours,

psn(29th November, 2015)