I still remember the day,when one of our teachers asked each one of
us, what u want to be in your life. I was in 5th standard. Everyone
was coming up with 'Doctor' or 'Engineer'.I wanted to say something different. At first, I thought pilot, but just then somebody else said,
'Pilot mam'.' damn it!, I said to myself. Recently, I had watched a
program on Discovery about some scientific discovery and then
came the idea to my mind. It was my turn. " I want to be a
scientist mam," I said. " Why do you want to be a scientist?"
she asked ,surprisingly. Wait a second, can I have one more
chance, I asked myself.
Well, it is hard for a 11 year old child to figure out what he or
she wants to be in life. But , that is the age when the important
path of your life is decided upon. Unfortunately, our education
system is not designed for such a decision making. I am a victim
of CBSE or NCERT, whatever you say, they are both sisters.
The exams are based on 'What' and 'How.' And the guy who
crams the last night, is the first in the class(It is the case
most of the time, I am not talking about you). The general
pattern is like the more you eat , the more you vomit the
next day and the more marks you get.
If I get 65% , I am an average guy. But if you get 95% ,
you are an intelligent. So, the very definition of intelligence
in based on how many marks you get or I should say cram.
The recent report of the Kendriya vidhayala (KVs) education
system has shown that when it comes to application questions,
you see a waterfall curve.
Lets take my example, the marks obtained by me (average guy ,70%)
in class 10 ,helped me to get into 11th with science(Non-medical) ,
after that nobody asked,how well I did in my last class. Then
came the semifinal, I mean,12th , again the poor guy scored
an average 70%. But I was happy this time,at least they(JEE/IIT/AIEEE)were treating me in the same manner as the guy with 95%,hurray!!. However,I got into a REC,doing things which
I didn't have any interest. But I had to do for a blue-collar job.
After four years of intense Engineering, I made it into an IT
company ,where they had an entrance exam based on 10th
level Maths and general English. No differential equations,
integrals, chemical compounds, Newton's Laws, nothing that
I had been reading for the whole of my life, is asked, other
than one alphabet of English language,'C.' If you know it ,
you are in.
Anyways,it sounds good getting 20K/month, sitting on a
bench(no work) and getting promotion ,sitting on a bench
again. Suddenly, the global market goes down.Guess what?
I got an email from the company" You are laid off." My first
reaction, 'WTF.' After taking some time to digest things,
I wondered, if I had found the answer to my teacher's
question(Why), I would have been doing something ,
which I would be interested in. I studied all the 'Whats'
and 'Hows' but forgot to study 'Whys', Which could have
decided my future, my career. The career , I could say,
yes, this is what I am and I always wanted to be.
us, what u want to be in your life. I was in 5th standard. Everyone
was coming up with 'Doctor' or 'Engineer'.I wanted to say something different. At first, I thought pilot, but just then somebody else said,
'Pilot mam'.' damn it!, I said to myself. Recently, I had watched a
program on Discovery about some scientific discovery and then
came the idea to my mind. It was my turn. " I want to be a
scientist mam," I said. " Why do you want to be a scientist?"
she asked ,surprisingly. Wait a second, can I have one more
chance, I asked myself.
Well, it is hard for a 11 year old child to figure out what he or
she wants to be in life. But , that is the age when the important
path of your life is decided upon. Unfortunately, our education
system is not designed for such a decision making. I am a victim
of CBSE or NCERT, whatever you say, they are both sisters.
The exams are based on 'What' and 'How.' And the guy who
crams the last night, is the first in the class(It is the case
most of the time, I am not talking about you). The general
pattern is like the more you eat , the more you vomit the
next day and the more marks you get.
If I get 65% , I am an average guy. But if you get 95% ,
you are an intelligent. So, the very definition of intelligence
in based on how many marks you get or I should say cram.
The recent report of the Kendriya vidhayala (KVs) education
system has shown that when it comes to application questions,
you see a waterfall curve.
Lets take my example, the marks obtained by me (average guy ,70%)
in class 10 ,helped me to get into 11th with science(Non-medical) ,
after that nobody asked,how well I did in my last class. Then
came the semifinal, I mean,12th , again the poor guy scored
an average 70%. But I was happy this time,at least they(JEE/IIT/AIEEE)were treating me in the same manner as the guy with 95%,hurray!!. However,I got into a REC,doing things which
I didn't have any interest. But I had to do for a blue-collar job.
After four years of intense Engineering, I made it into an IT
company ,where they had an entrance exam based on 10th
level Maths and general English. No differential equations,
integrals, chemical compounds, Newton's Laws, nothing that
I had been reading for the whole of my life, is asked, other
than one alphabet of English language,'C.' If you know it ,
you are in.
Anyways,it sounds good getting 20K/month, sitting on a
bench(no work) and getting promotion ,sitting on a bench
again. Suddenly, the global market goes down.Guess what?
I got an email from the company" You are laid off." My first
reaction, 'WTF.' After taking some time to digest things,
I wondered, if I had found the answer to my teacher's
question(Why), I would have been doing something ,
which I would be interested in. I studied all the 'Whats'
and 'Hows' but forgot to study 'Whys', Which could have
decided my future, my career. The career , I could say,
yes, this is what I am and I always wanted to be.
It was intense , beautifully worded and worth a read.Now, let me remind you, while climbing those stairs and sliding the railing of those stairs a lot of our teachers held us and guided us with "Why's" too. It is good that you are working on it, but beleive me "How", "What" and "Why" have to be always answered as life is a beautiful desert, where we fall in small ditches, and learn to answer new "what", in a "how" fashion, and this is where we answer our "Why".
ReplyDeletesukhmeetkaur@gmail.com