Valley News Desk

Dr. Arshed Iqbal Dar

When a carpet is beaten with a stick, the dust comes out of it because of law of inertia. The carpet and the dust were at rest, so everybody was having a thought, it is an easy job to address the dust, but once the carpet was beaten with a stick, the dust was bound to come out of it and it has created a huge storm with an intense effect on the respiratory system of the individuals. Better was to use the vacuum cleaner instead of beating stick to avoid this storm. But that vacuum cleaner is lying in the coop with a tag touch me not, hope this tag gets transmuted into touch me, touch me and kiss me, kiss me for the benefit of all.
The story goes like this, once upon a time, a lady was beating the carpet with a stick, the dust was dancing in the air and in the meantime, her husband arrived and said, why are you beating this poor carpet? Lady of the house replied, your father has bought dozens of vacuum cleaners for cleaning this carpet but they are lying in the coop with a tag touch me not. The intensity of beating the carpet got increased on her husbands intrusion. Poor carpet was crying bitterly due to a harsh treatment by the lady of the house at home. Poor carpet wrote an open letter to the head of the family and the letter reads- Respected head of the family, as you know, the schools are locked, the fields are closed and the hall of our home has transmuted into the classroom as well as the playground for the children. Electricity has been arrested and the vacumm cleaner is lying in the coop with no use and lady of the house is taking all her stress and anger out on me, have a look on my morphology, my normal structure has been deformed, please guard me from the maltreatment of the lady of the house. Without paying any attention, the grievance of the poor carpet was ignored by the head of the family and the lady of the house at home was stuck to her guns and she continued to beat the carpet with a beating stick.
On the very next day, lady of the house at home received a call from the school administration to send her children to the school tommorow for an online examination, lady replied, Oh! my gosh! online examination and that too at school. What are you saying sir, how come it is possible to send the children amid corona virus pandemic to the school. And you are talking about online examination, what is the need to conduct the online examination when you are inviting students to the school. Are you out of your mind? You are well versed with the nature of internet connectivity in our area, it is sometimes low G and sometimes no G, you know, my children are not satisfied with your online

classes, please develop some other mode of teaching and then assess our students. A person on the other side of the call said, madam, I am following the guidelines of my boss and it is my duty to convey the message related to the examination of your children and now it is upto you, whether to send them school or to keep them at your home, choice is yours but I wanna let you know, the school administration shall not be responsible, if your children failed to appear in the online examination at school. And the phone call was disconnected by the person. Lady of the house at home, redialed the number of school administration multiple times but was not received by the school administration. Lady shared the message of school adminstration with her husband and after a brief discussion, they decided to send their children out of their homes amid covid-19 pandemic to the school for online examination. On the very next day, mobile phones of parents were handed over to the children and they reached to the school for online examination. Lady of the house at home (mother of the children) was eagerly waiting for their children and when they reached home after examination, they were asked by their mother about their examination, how was the online paper? They replied, the link of the question paper was shared with us by our teacher and we were asked to open the link and attempt the questions, once the link was opened, the interruption in the internet connectivity was at its peak and we were not able to submit our answers personally and then our concerned teacher took our phones and then we don’t know, how the answers were submitted. Mother of the children once again dialed the number of the school administration, and once again, the response was, we have orders from higher-ups and we are bound to follow the orders. Next paper, another link, same mode of examination and the continuous donnybrook from the other side of the examination. Parents of these students were confused and they called one of their relative, who is working in the education department and they shared the same story with him. To their utter surprise, the respected teacher said, it is a type of mass promotion but to avoid the tag, it has been given the name alternative mode of examination by the higher-ups, so dont be panic and let the school administration do their job and follow their guidlines in letter and spirit.
Last but not the least, the vacuum cleaner is rusted, books are dusted, internet is namby-pamby, mode of examination is dilly-dally, students are under the pump and flummoxed, parents are in heebie-jeebies and the authorities are sitting on the fence. Hello boss! May I have your attention, please? We are not expecting eggs from cocks and milk from bulls.

Dr. Arshed Iqbal Dar
Assistant Professor, Govt. Degree College
Sumbal Sonawari (Jammu and Kashmir)
[email protected]

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