Rat race is a phrase that normally means 'exhausting routine that leaves no time for relaxation.'
It is also something we put our children through every day of their lives!
The race begins early as parents and tots prepare for KG 'interviews'!
Nursery school admissions are created by draw of lots.
From then on, a decade or more of lugging heavy school bags... shunting between school, tuitions and homework.
Is there release for kids from the vicious circle of peer/parental pressure, tuitions and unimaginative education policies? Solutions abound in theory.
One particularly interesting one, by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration in New Delhi proposed a solution. Children must not be failed in any class up to and inclusive of Standard 10.
Do you think the aforementioned idea is a way out?
Maybe you support the current system as a necessary evil to get your kid that coveted IIT seat you once missed?
Or do you have any choice at all to stand up and say 'the rat race is for rats, not my kids.'
Photograph: PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images