Tenpacks and ten hours of school

It’s a dark alley. The five main characters of the newest Bollywood movie “Happy New Year” are fit to fight the small army of black hooded bodyguards. They are surrounded as the men are getting closer and closer. Suddenly steam start blowing out of Jack’s (one of the five) ear and his shirt rips off to reveal his fit stomach. 

Happy New Year

“Happy New Year” is a typical Bollywood movie production. It contains a love story between a beautiful heroine and a badass hero, in this case the “King” of Bollywood Shahrukh Kahn and his famous tenpack. Apart form the love story there are catchy songs, colourful costumes, corny jokes and lots of clichés.

Four hours earlier two thousand Indian students were standing in straight military-like lines. They were all wearing identical uniforms – the boys in white shirts and white trousers, the girls in similar white shirts and dark blue plaid skirt covering their knees. They were singing the national anthem with hands on their chest and serious expressions.

St Xavier's

The students at Saint Xavier’s St. Sec. School in Jaipur are amongst the best in Rajasthan. They have regular classes every day from 8.00 am to 2.00 pm and afterwards many of them will receive private tutoring sessions. When they get back home they will do their homework and study for the following day. Therefore, the students can easily have a ten hours school day. This is necessary to keep up with the very competitive and ambitious Indian youth. The best universities of India require a final exam score of 95%. Our friends from Saint Xavier’s all said that without a degree from one of the best universities you wouldn’t be qualified for a proper and well-paid job.

Escape?

As Danish students we find it difficult to relate to their everyday life. They spend their whole youth studying, leading them to a job devoted to their whole adulthood. For us, this seems like an unbearable way to spend our youth. We think that the occasional visits to the colourful and surreal Bollywood world is a way if escaping an otherwise harsh reality.