Yesterday, I was
standing at the zebra crossing waiting for the light to turn red, so that I could
cross and I heard someone behind me say, “My sister had a girl yesterday. She
will surely be a doctor. My sister was also a doctor, no!! “
Let’s see where it begins from!! From the time a child is
born, his future career is by this time decided and 90% of the time is a
Doctor, an Engineer or maybe an MBA. The poor chap, who has just been in this realm
for the least amount of time of his life, doesn't even know or understand the
amount of expectations already placed on him and also the fact that he has
already been included in the rat-race of this country by none other than the people, who are supposed to
understand him.
From Standard 6 or in some places, even earlier, children
are given ranks on their academical performance. So what does a person have to
do to be in the top 5% of his or her batch? Just be a computer. Essentially,
just learn every topic by heart and vomit the same in the exam. Thus, YOU ARE A
GOOD STUDENT. Rote learning is now becoming a regular part of children’s
curriculum it seems. Is this what we want to teach the younger generations of
our country? If you can’t fit into a system, you are not “good enough.”
A very small portion of the parents who actually encourage
their children to be whatever they want to, to pursue their passions and to
love what you do. People are forced into jobs they don’t like or is way off
tangent from their likes and interests. Just Google the phrase “unhappy
professionals” and see for yourself
first-hand almost all the professions that I mentioned are dissatisfied with their
current job profiles and wish they could do something better with their life.
Another interesting fact, you won’t find any painters,
writers, artists or any other field which includes passion as its main
component as unhappy. It is not that being a doctor does not include passion.
It does. But how many passionate people really make it to the top colleges in
our country where medical seats are sold to the highest “donator”?
The creative, enthusiastic side of adolescent minds are
trodden upon by this system of learning. Question is how long do we let this continue?
After 67 years of Independence, the youth of this country is
finally breaking free from the stereotypes and pursuing their varied interests.
Need proof? The emergence of designer boutiques, t-shirt companies, bloggers,
professional photographers, mountain climbers, chefs, travel writers, painters,
golfers and many more professions in the past few years is signalling to the
entire world that the youngest superpower of the world is finally stoking their
inner fires.
The thing is hopefully, this generation does repeat this
same with their kids. Whatever might their passion be, just let them discover
it themselves.
Very insightful
ReplyDelete