Ruchi Chabra
Many children today find studies burdensome. They drag themselves through routines, waiting for the bell to ring rather than hungering for the lesson. Behind this lies a deeper failing—not always of the child, but often of the adults who raise them. Too many parents never nurture curiosity, never sharpen analytical abilities, never impress upon their children the lifelong advantage that knowledge provides.
The result is a generation where many grow up emotionally immature, quick to distraction, unable to see beyond the temporary high of screens and shallow popularity. When parents themselves undervalue learning—treating grades as a chore rather than knowledge as a gift—they cannot pass on the fire that education should ignite.
Parents must tell their children stories of leaders who, despite poverty and hardship, rose to greatness because of their hunger for learning.
Take Lal Bahadur Shastri, who lost his father at the age of two. To attend school, he swam across rivers with books balanced on his head. No car, no comforts, just grit and knowledge. That boy grew up to lead a nation and coin the immortal call: “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan.”
Or Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the boatman’s son from Rameswaram. He sold newspapers to support his family, but his true wealth was the second-hand science books he devoured under a kerosene lamp. From those humble shores he rose to launch India’s missiles and satellites, and finally to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan as the People’s President.
Think of B.R. Ambedkar, forced to sit outside his classroom, denied even water because of his caste. His father was a Subedar in the British Army—strict, disciplined, but poor. Ambedkar devoured books under street lamps, clung to them as his lifeline, and transformed himself into the architect of modern India’s Constitution.
Or Abraham Lincoln, son of a carpenter, who borrowed books and read them on a shovel with charcoal. That awkward boy, raised in poverty, became the President who held America together.
These men had no Instagram accounts, no expensive sneakers, no cool bikes. They had books. They had questions. They had knowledge—and that made them stand head and shoulders above the rest. None of them had indulgent parents to pave the way, no shortcuts, no privileges. What they had was a hunger to learn. And that hunger turned into greatness.
By contrast, it is painful today to see students vaping away their future in clouds of artificial flavour and smoke. Aimless minds, no goals in sight, no zeal to achieve them—just a glazed escape into nothingness. Parents, instead of demanding ambition, console themselves with their child’s social media popularity: “At least he’s popular, at least she has followers.” What a pitiful measure of life.
This is not the youth India once dreamt of. Without vision, without purpose, without knowledge, young men and women turn into drifters, tossed about by every new trend. A nation cannot be built on selfies and filters. It is built on clarity, conviction, and the hunger to learn.
Knowledge does something no amount of money can. It wires your brain differently. It gives you clarity when others are confused, courage when others falter, and dignity when others try to belittle you. It is the most powerful revenge against those who mock your accent, your clothes, or your background.
So to every student drifting through life, treating education as a burden, hear this: Knowledge is not about parroting lessons. It is about curiosity. It is about asking why until answers open up like doors. Books are not weights to drag you down—they are ladders to lift you up.
To parents who excuse mediocrity with Instagram likes—stop. Likes do not build futures. Learning does.
The truth is simple: the only lasting power worth having is the power over your own ignorance. Everything else—money, fashion, popularity—is temporary glitter. Knowledge, once acquired, is yours forever. It never deserts you.
The youth of today must choose: the fleeting high of smoke and screens, or the lasting power of knowledge. One leads to emptiness, the other to greatness. The choice, as always, is theirs.
The writer is Principal, DPS Jammu |
