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We put our children in the best of English schools, but once they have to shift to colleges ,there is always a mad rush of percentages and parents have to run from college to college to get their child admitted in a reasonably good institution .
It marks a big difference from well organised schools to completely disorganised college atmospheres in India .
From my own past experience , I realised that if a child does graduation or post graduation in a particular subject and doesn't wish to go in for Research or teaching ,one has to face difficult time settling down .There are many roads open to a child leading to confusion till he or she gains clarity about her own self .
We always felt proud that our children were different from the general lot .Well behaved, very respectful to their elders and trying to find their own niche areas to succeed ,rather than running in the ever growing mad rat race outside .
My daughter was always fond of reading good books of English literature .She composed very good poems from her early age .
Teachers at her college won't teach well and most of the students used to go to an outside tutor who was running parallel college classes in mathematics, just opposite their college .He taught the students like a strict school master and he was never short of students wanting to learn mathematics from him .
After her graduation, She cleared GRE exam for applying to US universities for doing her PhD .
Fortunately,she got admission at Rutgers university in USA but was tied closely with her own classmate who was a shade better than my daughter .University offered her PhD but on payment basis and I could not afford to spend Rs 13 lakh per annum those days and she continued with her masters in Mathematics at the south campus of Delhi University .
There were a few students in her class and their professor always sponsored a student from her batch every year for Houston In USA for doing PhD .
The teacher never chose my daughter , since she was a shy and introvert student and an extrovert ,more ebullient student was chosen ,who was a close friend of my daughter , from north east ,quite fair and an active girl ,The teacher was impressed with her and selected her to be sent to Houston to do her PhD .
My daughter did try to apply again after her masters for going to USA but wasn't successful this time .
This made my daughter quite sad and more introvert and she lost all interest in pursuing mathematics .She could have gone for her PhD at Delhi Unibersity or followed some other course in her life .
Here I had a realisation but much later in my life .
I didn't perform the role of a good friend to my daughter , by boosting her self esteem , which was going down in her abysmally low .
My son had passed out his class XII exam with a great difficulty .He had no love for tight schedule of school and college education , which bored him to hell .
I did help him to clear his class X exams , when I was jobless and he passed out with flying colours .
But after we shifted to Gurgaon and I got busy with my own job,he started slipping again in his studies .
We put him in a local school at Gurgaon and I helped him with his compartment examination in Physics , so that he cleared his final class XII Board examination .
A bright young boy ,who was interested in astronomy and so many other fields of learning in life, but sitting tight and cramming the subjects were not his cup of tea .
As a father I was often worried about my son’s education .( But consoled myself that even Einstein and our great Guru Rabindranath Tagore also hated going to their schools , but both of them became nobel laureates in their own fields,later on in their lives . )
As parents , we wanted our son to do graduation, even by a long distance education which would help him in his life all through , anywhere in the world .
But ,despite my taking leave from my office to teach him ,it just didn't work .
Destiny had something else in store for him and he was to become a successful professional musician in his life later on ,
He was struggling to find his way out of the mad race ,after finishing his class XII exam .
He started pursuing music, by learning acoustic guitar by himself or with the help of a computer and singing at a local restaurant.He used to sing at the small balcony outside our flat or go upstairs on the rooftop to sing freely and loudly .
As a father ,I started feeling that he needed a better vocal training and we got him a South Korean teacher ,an opera singer and a conductor . This teacher taught him for almost for two years and after that he left for South Korea,He did a good work on my son’s voice and I did see visible improvements in my son's voice control .
He had borrowed a good baritone voice from me and his grandfather but didn't posses the range of higher notes which myself and my father had .
His teacher used to be a conductor in city minstrels( -a choir group who would sing Christian hymns on Easter or on other events and the choir consisting of volunteers of all age groups ) and my son became a part of this choir .
As parents we always attended his shows at the local church or at an auditorium ,
For western music , there were hardly any institutions for learning Western music , one could learn at Delhi School of Music or practicing on one's own .
He did join a newly opened school of music by Rai foundation at Delhi and my son had his own motorcycle to travel now .But this music school closed down after a few months .
My son learnt music with the help of his computer and his own patience and passion for music .
I always wished I had known earlier that my son wanted to pursue western music and I would have got him a good teacher early on in his student days .
As children my son and my daughter used to learn Indian classical music with a private tutor , after their school .My daughter completed her diploma for three years but my son left it in between .
Later on I realised his interests lied more towards learning musical instruments especially in western music .
Music has always been a part and parcel of our family genealogy .My father had a good deep baritone voice and he used to sing for pleasure .I used to sing Light music on stage till my university days but we never thought of making it our profession .
Entertainment industry had started coming up in India during 2000's ,opening several avenues for young performers .Parents had also changed their old mindset about entertainment industry .
My son got admission in Berklee college of music at Boston in USA but annual fees was Rs 20 lakh per annum .This college was quite renowned ,not only in America but the world over for Contemporary western music and many other areas of western music .
Now the value of my flat had gone up and I decided to sell my flat to send my son by paying his first year fees.
The entire graduation course was for five years .
My
