Option three----knowledge is power and power corrupts. Study hard and be evil.
Let's see-----which is the bigger evil? An educated, topper-of-his-school bureaucrat that is corrupt, oily and snakes up to greasy politicos for perks and an extra Merc, or a petty down-the-road -side pickpocket that dropped outta school because his father was an alcoholic and his mother's income alone was not enough for the humble Chawl existence that housed them?Most would rate the former higher on the "Denounce" scale, I'd guess, and rightly so.
However, it's not the education, but the misuse and rather the lack of the absorption of the educative principles that figures here. It might sound like a song line from 3 Idiots when I say, "rishvat dena to khud baaap ne sikhaya". True, bribing the principal/headmaster often marks the start of a lot of tiny tots' journey from kindergarten. After the admission, the greasing continues in the form of little "gifts" handed over to the students by parents and instructed to present to the teacher.
Then the drill starts..and what I said was just THE start. Follows the adrenaline-and-existence pumping Rat Race, (First to ana hi hai tujhe, minimum 90% nahi mili to life bekaar, munne). Admonitions, suicides etc. etc. etc. start to follow...and, as we move years, the subconscious message is drilled firmly and decisively in the wet clay of the subconscious mind of pupils..."Get, set, go...who runs fastest wins...who loses dies". Jo haar gaya, so marr gaya. Classes 10-12, no less than a MTV Roadies Challenge, haan, bubba.
And then you grow up...become a big doctor/engineer/architect/CEO/Bureaucrat. Prescribe high-flying drugs for mild stuff, or build constructions with doctored cement (remember the Sack ka Saamna ad?), or get in someone "favoured" to fill he post of a junior employee.
Ah, fear not. Not being cynical, nor nutty. I'm not saying that every fellow we got in these good ol' pricey jobs is bad, God help us! But surely, in the light of some of the "exceptional", or, in today's context, "not-so-exceptional" examples in these lines, we can...err...safely argue that "Knowledge is power and power corrupts". Knowledge is gained for money. Money corrupts. Aur kitna clearly bolun? 😆
Yes, knowledge can corrupt. Study hard, bachhu and be...? Okay, you decide.
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