About a decade ago the Principal of a CBSE school asked her students to port a few bricks as some new rooms were being bulit. According to her even if a child ported five bricks it would be a huge work that would be accomplished and the children would learn the value of work. Fun would be an added bonus. But the lady got a very negative respose from the parents and the management. The episode had quite an unpleasant ending. What type of job does a person want in India? A middle class family spends money on a child's education so that he can occupy some chair in some good office. Interestingly no one thinks that if everybody occupies a chair who would be left for doing the physical work. Luckily in Punjab we have Bhaiyas of Bihar and UP to do hard manual work. Some Punjabis also do physical work but only if they are totally uneducated. All educated people want to work either by moving a pen or by pressing the buttons of a key board. All mothers want their children to get educated and become big Sahibs. This mentality is responsible for fifty percent of the unemployment menace in Punjab. There is an equivalent of labour square in Jagraon called 'Labour Adda' near the Raikot Adda. Once I suggested my students to come along with me and stand at the labour square on some Sunday morning to learn the dignity of labour. All took it lightly. One said, "Lo ji Sadde hun anne marhe din aa gaye?? (O, and you think we are going through such bad times !)". Once when I was in my late teens in Delhi, I got fed up of the remarks of my elders calling me worthless. I took a bus and went to the railway station. I asked a gentleman if I could carry his luggage. He got a bit scared and hurried his way to avoid me. Some labourers came to me and asked if they could give me something to eat in case I was hungry. I refused and took another bus to Karol Bagh area where a photographer had advertised for a helper. That gentleman refused me work as according to him it was quite a low grade work for me. Then I took another bus and went to Patel Nagar area where some family wanted a tutor for their child of fourth grade studying in some elite school. To my good luck they employed me. A few years ago I asked my elder son (who is presently pursuing am MBBS course) to try out earning twenty rupees from somewhere. He rode on his cycle to Ajitwal as there could be several known people watching him in Jagraon. As per his narration he was surrounded by a crowd at some Dhabba. Some truck wallas were ready to help him by giving him money without any work. He refused that. Finally he got a chance to work. He broomed the shop of a Tyre walla and earned twenty rupees. He came back happily and wanted to give me his wealth. As I declined to pocket away his earnings, he went to a nearby grocery shop bought some Giri Pakoras and shared with us.
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