What is Learning?

I bunked college today, missed my presentations and assignment submissions, and went on a road trip with my friends from Mumbai to Fort Tikona near Lonavala, Maharashtra. 

I kept thinking of my classmates sitting inside four walls, learning, growing and educating themselves for a professional life ahead. But as I drove towards Lonavala, sitting amongst three Indian Naval officers, listening to their conversations about India, China and US defence forces, I wondered if this isn’t learning as well.

Does education mean attending classes for attendance and feeling pressurised about beating your fellow classmates for a better placement to start a never-ending journey of surviving capitalism?

The fear of low attendance in a diploma course filled me up. Looking out of the window at the infinite greenery, as if right out of my favourite novel Jane Eyre, I tried to put that fear out of my mind and just live that moment. The words of my undergraduate professor, Dr. Colaco, echoed in my head, “Stop existing ladies, and start living.”

The green life all around the four of us took us away to a world where money, career and the world outside couldn’t bother us. We were too immersed in capturing the beauty through our eyes, taking a mental picture of the natural beauty that our country has to offer, exploring hidden architectural gems and trekking our way to the top of Fort Tikona.

On reaching the Fort, the moment we saw the scenic view of Pawna village and Pawna Lake, nothing that our lives were made of, mattered. The connection with Nature and Planet Earth, as the Lord made it, the closeness of four friends panting and laughing, made me forget all my fears and mutter to myself, “It was all worth it, Hina.”

Standing atop Fort Tikona, looking at the lake cutting between two mountains of nothing but green, I realised that whether learning from the words of an experienced professor or learning from your own experiences, learning happens everywhere, every time and every place. However, I know I will not be graded for collecting my own experiences. I will be marked absent for not sitting inside four walls and listening to the experiences of my professors and words on papers, but at least I was present for my present and I have no regrets. 

‘What is learning?’ will remain a question for each individual to answer for themselves. If we seek validation and an answer to this exclusively from others, then we'll never be learners, we'll merely be passers of information.

I will be looked down upon, by my parents and teachers for not doing the minimum that is required of a student: attending classes. I will feel ashamed for extending my long weekend to another weekend and travelling, but will these questions matter a few years from now when I will look back at my trek to Fort Tikona and understand how Shivaji laid his Fort defences? 

No they won’t, because who hasn’t bunked college and missed assignments? 

I’m glad I bunked one form of learning, only for another.

My friends at Fort Tikona, who I will forever be grateful to, for taking me along on a beautiful learning experience.