The Indian educational system has come under attack for being tedious, promoting learning by rote and ensuring that the inherent creativity of individuals is stifled while making education regimented and immune to change. Though successive governments have made moderate changes, the system continues to draw flak. The education system is the thread that runs along Aabhas K. Maldahiyar’s second novel, Crossing The Line . Aabhas says, “I wanted to write a book that talked about the issues that plague the education system.”
He adds, “The protagonist in my book is a person who goes from becoming an architect to a journalist, gets selected to the civil services and eventually makes his mark as a politician. The book is semi biographical and I made the protagonist an architect as I have a better idea of the manner in which architecture training is carried out in India. This helped me write the novel from an insider’s perspective.”
The book also talks about the various methods to ensure that the system does not facilitate the creation of students specialising in the learning-by-rote method. The entire system needs to be reconfigured and innovation and creativity must be seen as a fundamental parameter to acquire knowledge.”
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Following the mass movement against corruption in 2011, Aabhas decided to focus on the issues of corruption, the lack of governance and the multitude of issues that ails the education system. “My publishers wanted me to write a romantic tale. They wanted a romantic angle in this book also. I decided against it as I felt that it will ruin the message.”
When did he get the idea of writing this book?. “I was in school when I figured out the education system is not ideal for the changing times and seems to be stuck in a time wrap. After college and becoming an architect, I felt the system must be changed. My book is just an attempt to alter the existing structure.
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