This was the second time i saw it. The machine operator at my office who looks after our photocopying requirements, was drawing something with his pen on a rough printed sheet... and believe you me, he was good at it! Although i thought of going to him to appreciate his skill and may be encourage him to further pursue his interest rather than churning out copies of useless reports and documents that nobody will ever benefit from, i didn't do it.
Why? Because the simple fact came upon me that he might pose to me a question i would not be able to answer and take the discussion further. The simple question that how pursuing this hobby of his will ensure his two square meals and sustain his family!
This small incident made me think about the broader picture. Why is it that most of the people in India do not pursue their interest as their career. Why is that a kid who dreams of becoming a cricketer kills his dreams somewhere in his adolescence and goes on to become a CA or a Doctor or worst of all an Engineer (Every 2nd person who pursues Science these days becomes an engineer. Pure demand-supply mismatch with engineering seats going vacant. More on that in the future blogs).
And i am not saying that these people who do not pursue their dreams become bad professionals out of lack of interest. Almost all turn out to be pretty decent in whatever they do. And most do not regret their choice citing reasons like- 'oh i was a kid at that time/i didn't knew about the world/I am a happy man/woman today!'
This primarily can be attributed to our habit of keeping everything 'safe'. We tend to be a very non risk-taking nation. And I could think of a very strange reason behind this non-risk taking culture that we Indians seem to have believed in (Engineering is evergreen/ Doctors will never be out of work, blah, blah, blah)
The reason i have in mind is believe it or not- 'the British rule in India'! Even though i am not a historian (not even distantly related), i could see some trend that suggest to this reason. India was a great source of knowledge and enlightenment prior to the foreign invasions (i am talking somewhere about the Dravidian civilisation). Even during the Mughal period, we had notable scholars, musicians, artists and architects. It was only after the Europeans started coming to India, it became tricky!
In order to rule India, 'free thinking' had to be curtailed. And the right kind of education leads to 'free thinking'. The agenda of the British raj was to propagate an education culture which would effectively churn out not anything more than 'Babus' and 'Clerks' for the British Raj, so that these could be used by the white folks. I suppose that was the time, rote learning became the base of education. So, memorise hard, pass some exams and you are in line to become a babu for a Gora Sahib. Logic and analytical thinking which form the basis of any learning and development were taken 'out-of syllabus'. And most importantly 'risk- taking' as a process had to be brutally killed. And the result is the present education system that we see in India. 'Herd-mentality', 'knowledge free, 'exam oriented', 'logic-less', are some keywords that define the education system now. The result is fairly well-known, most Indian graduates and MBAs today are non-employable, have poor communication skills, can't reason and think analytically, and so their career and growth has a upper-limit.
The way forward is not to wage a war against UK, neither will cursing the system make any sense. The only way forward is that the government takes gigantic steps towards ensuring a paradigm shift in the present education system, rather than concentrating on 'enrollment figures' and number of graduates/MBA/Engineers India churns out. And we as parents or guardians or influencers need to encourage kids to pursue their dreams. To make sure that they fail and learn and are not afraid to fail again.
To end, a quote i had learnt a long time back-
"A ship is safe in a harbour, but that's not what ships are for" (William Shedd)
