Inquisitive

Kids question. As a part of their development from infants, they'll always be inquisitive. Starting from touching, feeling, smelling and seeing everything they get hold of from their infancy, their questioning starts. Out of love or care, we keep them away from these dangers. That's a way of suppressing their questions. By not letting them know what to ask about.

As the kid grows, we teach him words and manners to ask for what he wants. It's a different thing to answer affirmative or not, but soon we will be suppressing their questioning. When the kids enter their intelligent learning phase, where in they need not feel by the senses, we, as parents tend to become impatient. Yes, their questions are irritating, you might not know the answers for many. But, instead of answering if we know and saying "I don't know" if we don't know, we'd do everything else to suppress the question.

Only a few survive the tough times. Fast forward through their childhood where we have always been teaching kids to learn things without questioning, we end up with kids who would let go without learning rather than ask questions in the subjects. And we, as Indians ask our early teenage children to learn science, the art of observing, questioning, reasoning and verifying whatever we see.

If anyone happens to survive this roller coaster ride of having to choose between questioning or not by questioning, we would call them rebels. And if these rebels happen to be good students too, (most good students happen to be rebels) they end up in good colleges in their late teenages where they'd meet more of their kind, realize that they're not alone or unique, unite and empower themselves being characters in the true sense.

These rebels finally move out, we isolate them, pinpoint them, and try to dissolve them into our own stupidity. They, being the minority, often succumb to the societal pressures and become one of us. And then, we keep crying about brain drain and lack of scientific insight and all other similar consequences because we can.

Wait, why am I saying we? Am I not on the other side? Did I already convert? Paavam me.