worries go down better with soup

A recent statement by Infosys founder Mr. N.R Narayana Murthy on the quality of students entering IIT has stirred a hornets’ nest. He said that the quality of students entering Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has deteriorated over the years due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.
Student-friendly education, teachers who are facilitators, schools that help develop creativity, radical exam reform: students seem to have it all going their way.
But then Mr Murthy doesn’t seem to be benefitting from this and the industry bigwigs support him in this.
Why is it that we are no longer able to create the geniuses that we strive to with all the modern theories of education put into practice? Why is it that the rigorous, old and out-dated means to education that were in place earlier seemed to create more hardworking and sincere individuals?
Mr Murthy is rightly concerned about the deteriorating quality of students entering the IIT. While this requires academicians and policy makers to seriously contemplate and design courses and policies accordingly, they should simultaneously spare a thought to tune one discordant note in this cacophony : FOOD.
Children often value taste and variety over health and nutrition when it comes to food. Demand supply patterns followed by organisations lead students into typical Catch 22 situations .Canteens are usually market driven while choosing the food they stock while the student bodies excuse themselves from healthy eating options .
Surveys show that the educated middle and upper classes are churning out an equal number of malnutritioned kids as the poverty stricken strata of the society. Cities like Mumbai start school as early as seven in the morning. Children leave home in the wee hours of the morning, sometimes as early as six, with only a glass of milk for breakfast. The first breaks in schools are as late as 10 a.m.This means that the student learns on an empty stomach for as long as three hours. As a teacher I have been witness to a number of growing kids who frequent the canteen and purchase samosas or vada pavs for breakfast. The most frequent excuse would be: Mom came home late last night or nobody was awake when I left home. They leave school at 1 PM and reach home by 3 in the afternoon. Lunch happens only by 4 PM.often, comprising a Frankie purchased from the canteen. Latch key kids have now evolved to become canteen-fed kids. Not many schools are actually worried about what is sold in their canteens.
Interestingly many pre-schools do have a lunch time curriculum. Food timetables are given. Care is taken to ensure that kids avoid junk food and birthdays are planned to ensure that cakes are homemade and no junk food is distributed in class. But this stays as a USP of pre-schools.

The most vulnerable age group is the age group of 15 to 18. Peer pressure is at its maximum. Competitive exams are of high priority. Moreover, young students don’t want to be seen with a lunch box from home. It’s cool to eat from the canteen .One is part of the ‘in crowd’ depending on how much money one can blow up in the canteen.
Yoga classifies food into Satvik, Rajsvic and Tamasik food. The Upanishads say ‘Yatha khadyatennam, tatha nigadyate manaha’, which means the type of food eaten decides the type of mind one develops. Any good food guide, eastern or western, talks about eating wholesome food, free of oil, fats and sugars. Satvik food enhances memory and helps develop a healthy mind and body. It is composed of fresh fruits and vegetables. Rajasvic food has spices and helps build energy while Tamsik food is heavy and causes lethargy. The yogis categorised oily food, potatoes and starch-heavy food to be Tamasik . Research has shown that what the yogis said ages ago holds water even today.

In the mad rush to cope with the innumerable board and entrance exams, projects submissions, lectures et al., where does a student have the time or inclination to figure out what he is eating or should be eating? In a recent interview to the Times of India, the director of IIT, Guwahati, Gautam Barua says, “On entering the IITs after undergoing excessive coaching, the students are almost burnt-out and mentally fatigued.” Students preparing for the multitude of competitive exams shuttle form home to school to classes. They do not care about what, when and how they eat. Food, at this stage, is just anything that can keep the hunger pangs away. Most college-going students survive on a diet of fizzy drinks, pizzas, pasta, noodles, bread, tea and coffee. The brain does need glucose to work and think but a bottle of cola has enough sugar to nourish 15 brains at the same time. Food products that claim they are easy to prepare and still healthy to use are usually devoid of any nutrition. . We are developing a generation of unhealthy kids: kids who eat food but do not benefit from it, physically or mentally.
Research in food and nutrition shows that in order to sustain a healthy mind in a healthy body one needs to eat nutritious food every two hours. It is scientifically proven that a healthy kid learns better than a hungry one. So Mr.Murthy, I think we need to look beyond coaching classes and the bureaucratic mess that this country is in. You have given us food for thought. Let us give thought to food.
Worries go down better with soup: A Jewish proverb

This article was first published here :
http://www.sparkthemagazine.com/?p=2682