Many of today’s youngsters know a lot about gadgets—computers, cell phones, memory, RAM, android, apps, chatting, gaming, etc. I include the 13-21 year-old group here as the 20-21 year-olds are not that much more mature than the 17-19 year-olds. And the urban scenario is more familiar to me so I cannot speak of rural teenagers to the same extent. A relative was telling me of how only one of her classmates had downloaded some tables onto his cell phone and when the teacher threatened to make them do the work on their own, the whole class transferred the tables onto their phones in a matter of ten minutes

The best person to consult when you want to buy a new computer or cell phone these days is your own or your relative’s or neighbour’s teenager. Who taught these kids? Why aren’t we doing more for our own cybersecurity in India with such expertise? We are exporting our talent abroad with H-1B visas and negotiating with foreign governments to not hinder immigration so that these fellows can go and set up those people’s systems. When I wanted to check the Internet for information on cell phones, I saw how much knowledge is out there, how many YouTube videos are out there, describing cell phone use, which cell phones to buy, why etc.

Obviously, even with the wow factor our teenagers display, there’s a bigger wow factor out there. But what about these kids? What will their paths and futures look like? When you talk about nation building and development, don’t you want the brightest on and at your side? The situation today is that if bright kids don’t go abroad, their friends and the neighbours and family all want to know why they are wasting their time here. When bright young people come back, many Indians ask them in puzzlement why they came back. What a sad situation! How can we expect people to dedicate themselves to this country when they can see the incestuous politics, hypocrisy and greater attention to sycophancy than to merit?

As I watch the buses that ply the kids to different schools in my neighbourhood, I see that there are Matriculation(state), ICSE and CBSE boards. All have different syllabi, different ways of teaching and the kids are exposed to different levels of training and facilities in all these systems. A friend tells me that the chances that the typical CBSE or ICSE graduate will clear a national eligibility/entrance test and/or international entrance examination are much higher than those of the average matriculation graduate. I don’t know how much to believe this. But if this is true, then the odds are being stacked against these kids much earlier in life.

What about the rural teenagers? How do they manage in their schools? Do teachers show up to teach them? Do they get laboratory facilities? When we were students, we used to watch the merit list toppers coming from these small towns or villages, where their hardworking parents pushed their children to achieve what they themselves could not. Good, old-fashioned values. Of course, we used to hear about many of these kids entering the IITs and then struggling to catch up in a system that was sometimes elitist and sometimes oblivious to the problems of these semi-urban and rural teenagers.

Everything ultimately comes down to individual differences—some people are driven to succeed and achieve goals that their parents could never dream of, others are happy to coast along tracks laid down by their parents. A few dive deeper into things and ask more questions and take more initiative to clear their own doubts, others ask that they be accepted for what they can do without putting too much effort into anything. History repeats itself, the previous generations are not that much different. Teenagers all over the country are taking or finished taking their tenth and twelfth standard exams. Here’s hoping that they are successful in getting what they want and that they can bear the burden of the regrets that come with getting what they want and don’t want.