What did you get for acing an exam? A pat on the back, a certificate, maybe some ice-cream while your parents pulled out bragging rights in front of relatives?
If you were Tanmay Shekhawat, you would’ve got a shiny red BMW. The director of Samarpan coaching institute in Sikar, near Jaipur has gifted its topper his personal bimmer.
While coaching institutes in Kota spend crores on hoardings and full page newspaper ads, this upcoming coaching institute in Sikar is getting the same kind of publicity by spending just Rs 12 lakh on a a second-hand BMW that’s run about 15,000 km.
But there is a more nuanced point to be made here.
Samarpan Coaching Institute has every right to reward his students, but the question is how much is too much?
It’s no secret that Sikar is trying hard to become a coaching hub just like Kota, where poaching and luring students away from rival coaching institutes with money, flats, and scooties is a common phenomenon.
In the process, isn’t Sikar also breeding the unhealthy competition that has led to 26 student suicides in Kota in the last year-and-a-half? Also, by throwing cars and flats at a few successful kids, aren’t we forcing thousands of other students to feel inadequate or inferior?
Incidentally, Tanmay did not have money to even rent a room while he was studying in Sikar. He was living in the kitchen of a household. His family has never owned a car before. The BMW is their first.
So, just what are we copying? Kota’s success or it’s tragedy?
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