Think......not remember!

When I joined Teachers College, in my first semester, one of my Professors said this "Write about anything that you like". And my first reaction was "What sort of a teacher is she? She doesnt even have a topic for us to write on". In a few seconds, my thoughts changed to "Ok so now since I have to write on a topic that I am interested in, what could that topic actually be". Believe me, this was the toughest assignment I was ever given. I had to come up with a topic that I like and write anything that I wish to.......I hadnt done this EVER! I had a masters degree before I came here and I was so used to tests and exams and more tests and more exams. I had to derive equations, solve mathematical problems all the time and this made my life very symmetrical and orderly. Write what I want to write was so vague! Besides it was never really an option given to me before. I write only in exams and I write based on rules and guidelines given to me.

Reading today's news about making the 10th grade exams optional is like bringing India to a new age. I feel that I have learnt much more in my PhD program than in all my past years of education. I really enjoyed my classes here. And yet, I put in fewer hours of study than what I used to. There was a time in my school days that my mother used to tell me that one day she would see roots growing under my chair. I sat on my study chair days and nights to prepare for my board exams. Do we really need to study that hard? Is it actually learning? I know I did it and so did all my friends.

So coming back to my first assignment at TC... which seemed totally illogical at that time...What do you mean by write anything you want to? Absurd! So my first challenge was to figure out what I want to write about. I started to think, what do I really like? I realized that I had never written about anything that I really liked. My next task at hand was that I was required to think and not remember anything. Thinking, is another thing that I never did, but I remembered everything. Till now I have a great memory. I had to memorize Hindi poems, Sanskrit grammar rules, History dates and events and standard procedures to solve math problems...I had to remember everything. So now I am thinking what to write for my assignment.....I thought for a day and didnt really know what to write....It was hard! Think....and not remember, difficult! But since that assignment my quest for knowledge never stopped. I think more, read more, discuss with my friends, write about anything under the sun and I really love life.