This coaching institute believes it has the apt solution for students who lack that spark required to take the IIT Joint Entrance exam: just walk on a bed of hot coals.
On Sunday, Delhi-based Quest Tutorials gave a motivational seminar for 50 Class XI/XII students from its three centres — Vigyan Vihar, Mayur Vihar and Rohini— at the Tyagi Public School in Keshavpuram. Its climax, a mandatory walk over a six-feet wide firebed of coal heated to 1,100 degrees fahrenheit, ostensibly to remove their inhibitions and fears about writing the exam.
‘‘The students were motivated for four hours in advance and they managed wonderfully. The aim was to make them believe they can walk even on burning coal and need not fear it; similarly, they can crack the IIT-JEE ,’’ said Praveen Tyagi, Director, Quest Tutorials.
‘‘The exercise has a scientific explanation. It is not at all dangerous,’’ claimed Tyagi, who organised the event in the school after giving assurances to its authorities that it would be safe.
But a student, on condition of anonymity, said there were some minor burns, though on the whole, ‘‘the exercise was interesting and fun’’. Moreover, many of the students — who were made to sign a disclaimer absolving the institute of responsibility in case of injuries — did not inform their parents about the firewalk. Tyagi said he had asked students to tell their guardians a week in advance.
Aasha Khandelwal, the mother of a student who attended the seminar, said she had no information of the ‘firewalk’. ‘‘My son only told me after he had done the ‘firewalk’. I suppose they wanted our children to feel stronger or something,’’ said Khandelwal.
The exercise was conducted by IIT-alumni Anuj Khare of Appin Empowerment Solutions. While it conducts similar sessions with corporate groups, this was the first time they were holding a firewalk for students.
He said that firewalking — which he learnt in the US — was a ‘‘perfectly safe method to break down all inhibitions.’’
‘‘We have a team of 20, including a doctor on call, equipped with fire extinguishers to tackle all situations,’’ said Khare.
But experts, while raising concerns about the safety factor, question whether firewalking has the beneficial effects touted by the organisers. ‘‘Fire-walking is a highly debatable strategy for motivation and it is strange that students were put through it. Safety parameters aside, motivational strategies cannot be generalised for a group of people,’’ Dr.Samir Parikh, chief of Max Healthcare’s behavioural sciences wing.
Added Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Consulting Psychiatrist at VIMHANS, ‘‘This is absolutely unscientific and should be discouraged. There are far better and healthy alternatives like yoga, meditation than such archaic systems that we have been fighting for ages now’’.