I am disturbed after meeting a guy who has been completely trapped by the societal pressure – to do something as a job. No doubt that Job Satisfaction is a mirage, that one chases to realise that it’s time to be practical right now, and lets be reasonable and do what people ‘generally’ do, however there are exceptions and they not only satisfied with their job, but create a landmark in their vocation may that be a Chemist in Lubrizol India Pvt. Ltd., Turbhe (my first organisation) or Vikas, waiter from Mohan Dhaba, Padhar. They are clear of their existence – what they ought to do and they just deliver it full-heartedly.
It’s a typical story – name is immaterial. S/he could be your sibling, neighbour, and friend. This scribbling is not faceless –just that put your known face onto it and read ahead. He chased to clear a prestigious entrance exam, took break for it. Not clearing it through amidst tough competition, unhappily opted for typical course and then passion of youth lost its way amidst ‘dreary desert sand of dead habits’.. He is one among million of students coming out of colleges, trying to find his groove. I can sense he has come out of closed structure of college and even tougher middle-class home – where parents have unloaded all their unfulfilled wishes onto him to complete it in the best possible way – by going through IIT, IIM, IAS, going to USA.. as if the initial years are spent in chasing these taglines, not realising what gives me adrenaline rush.. is it too much that expecting Ranchos to come out of our colleges is a myth – where one has to strive for excellence, so that success comes automatically. Living a healthy life with all aspects is a course not taught in any of these institutes. If one is lucky enough to come across one such teacher, elder person in life who leaves such ever-lasting touch of the subject with no defined syllabus – one course where everything happening around becomes a syllabus in itself, I decide my syllabus, exam, tutor and result as well!
At such extreme times, I become cynical and start blaming ‘system’. Everything that is undesirable and can’t be corrected by me directly, I tend to put all that shit on this hidden dragon called as system! But let me be a bit generalist and ask – how long such confused lots be coming out of universities, where on the other hand college dropouts Bill Gates and Marc Zuckerberg are founding the world class organisations in early twenties. We are happy to be IIT-IIM/Harvard/MIT educated and serving them till we retire! I get agitated by extra importance we have been giving to various taglines-starting from our surnames which depicts our feudal mindset, school, college, company, children’s degrees, their colleges, their jobs etc. my agitation is not out of anger and incapability of not having attended any of these institutes – which I might not have but how can that make me unfit to meaningfully live my part of life. If at all education from these elite institutes should have to make them nokardaar of best of the organisations or inculcate ability to make basic questions to the prevailing social norms, break them, and rebuild them again. By working in any MNC, my responsibility of building the larger challenges of society ends? Even if I forget these stupid fundoo questions, I again go back to emerging life of a 22 year old guy who has just passed out and put his first step out in this jaalim duniya. More than what he is sure, there are long list of things he is absolutely not sure of. This age has its own demands; he’s simultaneously looking forward for a partner to share all this chaos. Even having gone through best of the institutes, still the protagonist of this story is not equipped with raw material to deal with this dynamic situation. More so when most of his batchmates are succumbing to usual pressures and getting ‘settled’ in their life.. I don’t expect everything to be ideal, as I am becoming ‘old’ and pragmatic. (Slowly the ‘system’ takes over you ;)) that this is how it would go and I have to be prepared to face this. I have begun to understand how these forces play and make me to lose myself. I can maybe share these experiences with as many of them as possible and togetherly carry out this liberation.
Rabindranath Tagore’s poem is truly inspirational especially written for youths who are stepping into duniyadari after protected years in family and college:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of the truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arm towards perfection;
Where clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action..
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
