Inhe Chhapne ka Shauq Hai: The Copy-Paste Curriculum

There's a special kind of irony in watching a teacher write "Be Creative" on the board while students dutifully copy it word-for-word into their notebooks. Welcome to the great Indian education paradox, where we preach innovation while practicing imitation.

The title is inspired by Raftaar and Brodha V's track "Naachne Ka Shauq" - except instead of a passion for dancing, we've given our students Chhapne ka Shauq - a passion for copying. And we've institutionalized it.

(Side note: I love Desi hip hop. Yes, hip hop came from the West, but artists like Raftaar and Brodha V took that "copied" format and made it uniquely Indian. They proved you can take inspiration without losing originality. If only our education system understood this difference.)

The Practical File Fiction

Remember practical files? Those beautifully crafted works of fiction where everyone miraculously got the exact same readings for their physics experiments. Where the ink color was more important than the actual learning.

I once watched an entire class copy a chemistry practical they'd never performed. The experiment required chemicals the school didn't even have. But everyone submitted pristine files with perfect observations and flawless calculations. The teacher gave full marks to the neatest handwriting.

We're not teaching science. We're teaching creative writing, but calling it plagiarism when students apply the same skills to essays.

The Dictation Nation

"Open page 47, start writing what I say..."

This is how we create notes. Not by understanding and summarizing. Not by connecting concepts. Not by creating personal learning aids. Just mindless dictation, like we're training court stenographers from the 1800s.

Students spend hours copying notes they'll never read, creating documents that are identical across 60 notebooks. It's not learning - it's a very inefficient photocopying service.

The real kicker? Students who try to write their own understanding get marked down for "incomplete notes." We've literally created a system where thinking is punished and copying is rewarded.

The Creativity Crematorium

"Sir, what if we tried a different method?" "Is it in the textbook?" "No, but—" "Then it's wrong."

This conversation happens thousands of times daily across classrooms. We've built crematoriums for creativity and we're surprised when students can't innovate.

Original thought is actively discouraged. Different approaches are "not in the syllabus." Creative solutions are "too risky for exams." We want innovation but teach imitation. We demand critical thinking but reward rote learning.

It's like training someone for a marathon by making them sit still for hours.

The Plagiarism Paradox

Here's where it gets beautifully absurd: we teach students to copy for 15 years, then act shocked when they plagiarize in college.

• Copy the board? Good student.
• Copy the textbook? Excellent notes.
• Copy the answer key? Full marks.
• Copy from the internet? ACADEMIC DISHONESTY!

The line is arbitrary and confusing. We've trained expert copiers and then blame them for copying.

The Model Answer Madness

"Write exactly as given in the guide book for maximum marks."

We don't want your thoughts on Shakespeare. We want the examiner's thoughts, filtered through a guidebook, regurgitated perfectly. One comma out of place? Marks deducted.

I knew a student who understood calculus deeply but kept failing because she explained concepts in her own words. Another who memorized without understanding scored perfectly. Guess which one is doing research now and which one is still memorizing.

The systemic Ctrl+C Culture

This isn't about lazy students or bad teachers. It's about a system designed for mass production, not education. When you have:

• One teacher for 60+ students
• Standardized tests that reward memorization
• Guidebooks that provide "perfect" answers
• Time pressure that makes thinking a luxury

What do you expect?

We've optimized for the wrong metrics. Neat handwriting over clear thinking. Identical answers over individual understanding. Compliance over creativity.

The Real Cost

We're not just killing creativity - we're manufacturing obsolescence. In an age where Google exists, we're training human photocopiers. When AI can reproduce any text, we're rewarding reproduction over reasoning.

The real tragedy? Brilliant minds reduced to copy machines. Students who could solve problems creating prettier practical files instead. Future innovators learning that the safe path is copying what came before.

Breaking the Copy Chain

Want to fix this? Start small:

• Let students create their own notes
• Grade understanding, not reproduction
• Reward different approaches
• Make practical files actually practical
• Celebrate original errors over copied correctness

Stop asking "Did you write everything?" Start asking "What did you understand?"

The Uncomfortable Mirror

We love mocking the copy-paste culture while perpetuating it. We share LinkedIn posts about innovation while teaching our kids to copy "neatly." We demand creativity in the workplace from people we trained to never color outside the lines.

Maybe it's time to admit: Inhe chhapne ka shauq nahi hai - they don't have a passion for copying. We just made it the only dance they know.

Raftaar and Brodha V made art about dancing. We made a system about copying. They took inspiration and created culture. We take creativity and create copies.

The solution isn't complex. Stop rewarding Ctrl+C. Start celebrating Ctrl+N - something new, something original, something theirs.

But that would require us to think originally too. And we all know what happened to the last teacher who tried that.

They probably got asked to submit their lesson plan in the prescribed format. In triplicate. With perfect handwriting.