Yuvraj first came to me s a three year old, a plump inactive toddler with a penchant for putting everything in his mouth. He had a favorite toy an autorickshaw (tuk tuk) which he wheeled on the floor.
“I want to enroll him in --- school, ” the mother proudly announced. “We have the money. My husband has a job in Dubai.”
I did not want to discourage her, but, ”That school has a tough syllabus, ISCE, they want the parents to be graduates. You don’t want to stress him”.
She did not speak a word of English. She had studied upto 5th grade. The boy would really find the going tough.
She announced proudly, “ everything has a price. I paid money in the office. “ She winked at me. “He will get in.”
She paid money and she sent a surrogate to pose as the mother. A lady she hired for a price. A MA in history. Women in Tamil Nadu only put an initial before their name. There is no last name. The school asks for a birth certificate. They do not ask the lady accompanying the child for proof of ID!
He had difficulties in Preschool itself. He sat in a corner eating every bit of paper he could lay his hands on. He did not socialize or respond. At the parent teacher meetings the real mother was now posing as the aunt and the surrogate the real one (for a price)! Life was becoming complicated.
The government made a rule that no child was to be detained till eight grade. He could not read, write, add or even sing the songs taught in class.
The school made desperate pleas,
“Perhaps he would like to stay back in prechool? He will make new friends. Perhaps you would like to transfer him to another school? “
She was adamant. He now had after school tuitions from his class teacher, and later at home from the surrogate. He had no playtime and no physical activity.
He cruised along till 8th grade. Then he failed in every subject and was asked to leave.
“ I want to file a case against the school. I have money. They are victimizing my son.”
He listened to her silently. He still had the tuk tuk.
Finally I said, "be reasonable and listen to me!"
I sent him for an IQ evaluation where he was pronounced borderline with some learning disability.
The mother finally headed my pleas and switched schools.
He passed his tenth, “cost me 3 lakhs,” said the mother proudly. I bought the marks.”
“Please put him in the polytechnic,” I said, ”let him learn a skill. It was one of the few times I heard him speak. “Can I learn driving?”
“That is not a subject, but you can learn it privately when you are eighteen.”
I saw him a week later (very underage), minus a crash helmet driving a high powered bike on the main road. I tried to reason with the mother, but the only answer was ,”I have money!”
She paid for him to pass 12th and then capitation for engineering.
At the end of the course (4 1/2years) they came again.
“My money is not working. He has 28 arrears. “
I think there were only 28 papers in the course!
“We have to think of what to do,” I said, “ maybe he can clear them two at a time?”
“That will take him 7 years to get the degree,” wailed the mother. “He will be thirty by then. Who will marry him?”
That seemed to be the least of the problem. Personally I did not think he would ever clear the papers at all.
“What would you like to do? “I asked him.
He opened his mouth for the second time in all the years I had known him, ”I want to be an auto driver. Ask her to buy me a real auto. That’s all I have ever wanted to do.”
Dr. Gita Mathai
The writer is a paediatrician with a family practice at Vellore.
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