General Knowledge

He noticed the child working on his homework. He walked by and asked the child "What are you working on?" The child, without stopping work, responded "maths". He asked the child "so who is the President of India?" The child lifted his head and looked at him. His expression had a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. The child went back to his to work without responding. Offended, he persisted "come on! Tell me! Who is the President of India?" The child looked up. He responded in a tone dripping with sarcasm "I have no idea who the President of India is. I know that Trump is the President of US and Obama was the previous one." He went back to his work and ignored the existence of the smart aleck.

I don't understand the Indian obsession with those two letters G and K, which together is considered acronym for General Knowledge. Through my growing years I witnessed the demand to remember the capitals of countries, its currencies and presidents and/or prime ministers. Remember who was awarded when with what, who took birth or died when, who invented this or that. I don't get it! What is the point of remembering all this. Did the fools not know that Google and Wikipedia were round the corner? I remember that annoying book "Wisdom" that children had to go through periodically to improve GK and hence become intelligent. Why!

I remember all the controversy surrounding the election of the current President but don't remember his name. Recently, someone reminded me of his name but in a matter of days the name has walked out of my head. So what! I have not become dumber than I was earlier.

I wish I was not born a human. We waste a lot of time remembering irrelevant information. Time that we could have put to use by staring at that ant scampering around in search of food for the winter.