Literate or educated?

6.30 a.m.: I rise. It’s the first day of school after a month-long break. I am really reluctant to wake up as the scrappy sister didn’t let me have my “beauty sleep” and *usne usme bhang dala. I wish I was a **pandit, at least I could tell her that what she has done is a ***ghor apradh and ****usse iski saza milegi.

7.30a.m.: Surprisingly, the bus arrives in time. I thought the fact that school’s starting so early might just be a hoax, but really, we have school!

8.30a.m.: I reach school. I meet old friends, make new ones and the classes start. We are all back to the same old school routine.

10.30a.m.: I must admit that one of the reasons I go to school is to eat other’s tiffin boxes. We all share and eat, so we have a seven-course meal each day. I really live for eating and not eat for living.

11.30a.m.: Its Hindi class. While reading about Mahadevi Varma’s experiences with *****gillu, a boy suddenly looks up and claims to see a lizard. Another boy rocks his chair to see whether there is actually something and falls off. Everyone bursts out laughing. The first boy tells us he never actually saw a lizard but did it for fun. Your good old Hindi teacher gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder and tells him that tomorrow she will hit him with a ******belan and will say it was a joke.

12.30p.m.: Its lunch time. I eat how much ever I possibly can.

3.00p.m.: It’s time to go home! I enter the bus. One of my buddies in the bus tells me about her vacation. We have a lot of teachers in our bus. Our bus goes on the wrong side of the road to drop a child!

I am dumbfounded. So many teachers, who impart education, can’t educate the driver or bus attendant about what’s wrong? They educate us; make us understand life and they don’t understand such a basic thing that’s wrong? The driver and bus attendant don’t have enough common sense to know which side of the road they are supposed to drive from? I don’t complain, because it won’t really matter.

A school bus, a bus of a temple of education, a place where people go to become “literate” is taking the wrong side? What if our bus crashes? What if we have an accident? The school will be held responsible!

I guess I now understand why “educated” and “literate” are different words. All these people have basic education, but their level of literacy is still at zero.

Not all educated people are literate.

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*usne usme bhang dala- she disturbed it

**pandit- Hindu priest

***ghor apradh- grave offence

****usse iski saza milegi- she will get punished for this

 *****gillu- name for a squirrel 

 ******belan- rolling pin