Perhaps education is the problem

Travel in a crowded bus or train and you will hear all kinds of harrassed, disgruntled commuters who will be busy swearing and more importantly "theorising" on the reasons for all the rush and inconevniece in Bombay. Amongst the popular reasons that are given some are : UP/Bihar has downloaded most of their natives into Bombay, Bangladeshis roam freely in the guise of being Bengalis, traffic is too much, IR is cancelling trains at will etc. In the heat of these moments , during rush hours, many times during a tiff with co-passengers one also hears such statments like - "itne padhe likhe hone ke baad bhi itna akkal nahi hai kya tereko"( "Dont you have basic sense inspite of being educated") or some variation of this "padhe likhe" ("education") theme. These comments are usually reserved for the "white-collared" kinds of lookalikes.

Now think again. Perhaps education is the problem itself. Assuming that the white-collar was indeed educated and thereafter has put himself/herself in such a situation, then it does mean that perhaps the white-collars education must have had some "influence" on the behaviour of that individual. Many times you see that apparently uneducated looking people keep their cool and senses better than the "padhe likhe" types. There used to be a t-shirt that urchins usually wore and which said - "i was born intelligent but education killed me" or something like that. Perhaps, a lot of sense in those words.

So, having a B.Tech or a D.Litt against your name doesnt automatically gift you with the powers of sanity and civility. You still have to make a hell lot of effort to stay civilised and to live life without doing anything stupid or harming others. It does take some effort to do that.

Perhaps it would help if B.Tech and D.Litt curricula are so amended so as to keep these breeds safe. In other words the "padhe likhe" safe.