Killer Kota

The place is dark and empty. There is no one else in the room without me and X. X starts running but I have to catch it. We have played the game of Tom and Jerry enough. But it is too fast. It is bouncing, jumping, rolling, hoping. I am trying to run but I can’t. I’m stuck. Electromagnetic waves have gripped my legs. What am I going to do? But wait! What? Electromagnetic waves‼‼‼ They can’t hold you, right? Well, they sure can’t hurt you in reality. But dreams are meant to be pointless. I opened my eyes. The room was again dark and empty but this time there was no X. It was my phone ringing. My alarm was buzzing like crazy. I might have put it on snooze while chasing X. Who is X? Well, X is a variable of an equation of the physics problem that I have been solving since morning.

Occasional hallucinations are an integral part of life in Kota. The place is no less than a pressure cooker. There was a time when Kota used to be the distinguished educational hub of the country. The coaching institutes of Kota rose to prominent success in that period but it did not take them long to turn an educational center into suicide capital. A deep-rooted bias for Engineering and medical fields in the mind of parents has forced them to send their children to the city where the coaching institutes only try to churn out the students already having the good potential while they ruthlessly neglect others.

As per National Crime Records Bureau report of 2014, 45 suicide cases of students were reported in the city. In the year 2015, 17 such cases were found. The numbers of suicides that take place due to stress and depression have been rising ever since.

A 15-year-old from Nalanda in Bihar hanged himself in his hostel room in Kota. The deceased left behind a suicide note which said he took this step owing to low marks in the internal tests. Coaching institutes to remain in the insane competition of providing the highest number of selections prepare their test papers exceptionally tough which leads to a very low score of a lot of students. These students, mostly teenagers who have hardly been away from their home for more than a week, lying in an 8x8 room, away from their parents, away from their emotional support and guidance are forced to take this horrific step.

It is sad to see how the breeding ground for excellence is besieging young lives. It is time to do proper counseling and much-needed orientation to make the students realize that nothing is unreachable if you Believe In Yourself.