Talking of how the youth decide their career preferences in India, a point often made is that due to our insecurities and middle class approach, we are never able to look at the bigger picture, hence all of us go heads up against one another for some select professions. I do not agree when it's said that all of us want to become Doctors and Engineers because it talks of a specific part of population, majority nonetheless, whose aim is to land up in services sector with a good income and a modern life. There are similar groups who strive to become bureaucrats through the different Service Commissions. The aim there is to hold power.
Often parents are blamed for pushing their young wards towards a particular goal before they realize the gravity of the decision to invest two+ years in preparing for examinations and then getting out of a college with a degree and a job (The situation is not as rosy as mentioned above though: a fraction of us get to be a part of the "reputed" institutions and a fraction of that number are managing to make jobs as of now). As you'd have guessed by the tone of this piece so far, I do not hold anyone responsible in particular.
And then there are those innumerable comparisons with the education system in the US of A, where students have so much more awareness and they are able to decide on what they want to pursue all by themselves, and hence they do excellent at whatever they choose apparently.
I have got a few points to make with regards to these things:
- For starters I do not understand the fascination with US. As the almighty Russell Peters said "All they show in the US of Arabs are the Rednecks". Similarly, all we see of the US are primarily the rich people and the young achievers. The Americans for example know about Rahman but not me for obvious reasons.
- Like any huge nation, the US has a sizable chunk of middle-class population. It's true that a gardener from the land of opportunities can enjoy a relaxed vacation in Goa, but that is just because we are a less expensive place. He can afford to do so much more in India with the money he has. So, the comparison generally made by looking at the sheer earnings is far from justified. A more critical index would be the study of cost of services with both earning and spending patterns. For a normal family in US, a $7K waiver in tuition (out of $50K) is significant. Significant enough to decide between two colleges of different brand values sometimes. So, the whole hoopla about economic well being directly leading to very informed choices does not stand. (Another case in question: Saudi Arabia)
- This brings us to the point of freedom of choice in the US; the stability and the lack of pressure on the populace, and the political will. Regards to that, I believe that our nation just grew so majestically, if I may say so, in human count post independence that about 30 years into our independent existence, we had laid the foundation for a very challenging future. We got so hung up on being independent that we forgot it also meant we could not blame someone else for the mess. 1947 marked the coming of the independent Indian who refused to work because he was the proud owner of his new world.
So I come to this. A major reason I believe almost all of us make a dash for a minimum risk future is not because that is what our parents push us towards, or that is what the society demands from us by considering that as the only representation of success. Rather, it is exactly what we want to do. Having seen the struggles growing up, the resource crunch in our households, parents losing cool when constantly bickered at with demands, and if you had siblings, the shared room, the idols of gods and goddesses in the store room, water entering the house dead at night during rains, having to walk with trousers drawn up to knees and even above half the time, the year long wait for the cycle; having felt all that, it hardens up the kids somewhere inside, maturity you might call it, but it's really a determination to take the first safe route out. And the only way to do it for a normal teenager in the India of today is to study, get into a good college (hopefully cheap) and get out with a job that will pay him for his hard work with enough money to buy a house in a apartment, pref. not in a low lying area, get a good partner and help his parents lead a better life.
I do not hold ourselves guilty for thinking this way, because when talking about a limited-resources-situation, failure is not just the absence of success, it also means that a chunk of resources have been utilized and no one has enough stock to keep making mistakes only to learn from them. So, how does that set in with our future? Will we never be able to match the US and company, the likes of Germany and Japan who rebuilt their nation at an astonishing pace?
I understand that it is an asymptotic possibility. The more interesting (and optimistic) fact to look at now is the rate of change in the last two decades. The way some of our cities can now hobnob with those abroad, the facilities and choices that seem to be many and better. The more pressing questions remain nonetheless: the basic issues of corruption inherent in our personalities, the leftout farmers and the lack of trust.
The people who hold the answers to the problems is, what I'd like to call, the
nu-generation: those born without handcuffed hands, the ones who don't have to wait for long to get their cycles. With increasing prosperity in the cities at least, it would really matter if the
nu-generation decides to be either a voracious consumer of goods and services (because there will always be new ones coming) or a force which would look at solving the problems their nation suffers from.
Back to you Tom.
All references made about the situation around independence follow from discussions with a few people who have seen it. If you'd have time on your side sometime, do have a chat with your grandparents about the India they knew. After the comparisons between then and now and innumerable references to
do-aana, you might get to know about Civil Disobedience, jails, 1947, mass riots, earthquakes, rise in corruption, collaborations for setting up steel plants where the Russians did all the work while we snored, 71 war, food shortage in Poland, the troubles for a vegetarian guy outside India and the pathetic state of the nation now. The list is far from exhaustive.
Sometimes, they also help you realize why you are the way you are, besides giving realistic suggestions that you might not be too keen to follow on, because they might sound odd/ illogical/ discriminatory, and come for free.
From Pearls Before Swine
