With today’s SSC results in Maharashtra, all the exam results are in, seems like, and the admission process will now begin in real earnest.

I overhear these kids in various places talking about their marks and future, and wonder, why do parents drive them so? Can’t they be allowed to have a normal childhood? Study, by all means study, but don’t ruin your childhood while doing it.

I guess I was lucky to have a revolutionary set of parents. They explained the situation to me and left it to me. It was my life, after all, and while they were concerned about it, they can’t study for me. Or do other things.

This was the attitude they brought to other facets of my adolescent life as well. The first experience one has across the spectrum, they knew about it all, but not once did they rebuke or condemn or act outraged. I am sure they must have been upset deep within, but they had the decency to point out that it was my life. If I wanted to spend the rest of it smoking pot and going generally astray, it was up to me. But I will have only one life to eff up, and they can’t be blamed for it later.

Words that sobered me up at the right time and make the correct choices. If there’s anything I’d like to pass on, it is this legacy.