Kasthuri - the forgotten Math Genius

Today i read an article in a newspaper that says " Good looks can kill chance of landing 'macho' job. The mind is a wonderful thing. How a mere 'page-filling' article can evoke a seemingly forgotten memory. Here goes the story........

I studied in a modest tamil medium co-ed school but nonetheless the campus was spectacular with a huge play-ground in the middle and the teachers were very sincere. It got only NSC and scouts. And its not compulsory. u can volunteer and admission to it was also limited. They'll get only few volunteers and they dont even accomodate all the volunteers and select only very few from them. I never knew why until later.

Me and Kasthuri once applied to participate in NSC. Kasthuri, my friend(were i a good friend of her?), was from a very poor family with little beauty but a beautiful brain. She barely able to pass all the subjects except maths, in which she always scored centum. Sometimes she misses the centum because my teacher didnt want to correct her out of the box thinking solving-methods. unlike me, queen in memorizing word for word, she cant even re-create a single word from the book. But she got full of own ideas and She cant take her mind off from maths. Her entire living is around maths only. But that time none of us or our teachers cudnt nurture her talent. Teachers praised her and gave difficult sums exclusively for her but cant guide her for a solid future or career.

we both applied for NSC. We both called for a sort-of interview and i was pretty confident of getting into it. But to my dismay i was not included in their final list and kasthuri got selected. The interviews were eye-wash and they got their finalists much before fixing the interviews, later i gathered. Then i once encountered my tamil sir, who is in-charge of NSC and who interviewed me, with questions like how could u do this to me, what make u reject me, etc. He gave me some lame excuses, 'it will affect ur study. We r all hoping to get a state first from u.'. But it was just twice a year field trip. and cudnt possibly have any impact on my studies and we both knew it.

Later kasthuri told me she overheard my tamil sir talking with some other teacher during one of the field trips. I was rejected because i was a beautiful girl and this field trip had couple of night stays and would be in some of the slummiest of the area and he didnt want me as a distraction either to the volunteers or to that area ppl. So, i last my chance because of my look.

After recalling this incident my mind remembered Kasthuri and her tragedy. We entered into Xstd. For few days kasthuri didnt turn up, which is not at all a concern, it so usual with those (read, poor) girls, they used to get umpteen number of reasons for not attending the schools. But one day she came with her father and mother and was crying in front of HM's(head Master) room. None of us (We, the elite middle class, who vanishes at the slightest glimpse of trouble) dared not to approach her. We couldnt comprehend anything. Then one nosy girl approached her, and between her sobs gathered the required information and relayed to the entire school. She phoo-phooed her plight saying whats there in it, next year the same plight was waiting for all of us(poor girls) and wondered why she was making unnecessary fuss.

Kasthuri's parents fixed her alliance with her uncle(mama) and the marriage was within a week. She didnt like both, the alliance and quitting school. She came there to get TC and also to desperately try thro' our HM to convince her parents against this. Our HM also tried to convince them but in vain. She was standing there entire day crying for her life, crying for our help. But there wasnt a single voice raised for her. It happened around '90. 2 decades back. Before the ages of satelite tv and 24 hr news channel. so, there was no awareness, i can say. But that ugly face with tears running all over her and the beautiful brain still haunts me.

I am sure after 2 decades, these incidents not yet cease to happen. May god bless India.