Writing a blog such as this requires a lot of brainstorming. Neither is this content social thass( for the un-inititaed, thass refers to verbal farts, doing which, knowingly or unknowingly , i have loitered four prestigious years of my college life) , nor something you and me haven't experienced. The irony remains what is most difficult to express is that which we experience each second of our lives.
Writing a blog requires one to be at the cynosure of an emotional maelstorm, for what we write is often best expressed when we feel it strongly,otherwise the content remains hollow.It's about half hour past midnight of the 16th of April 2006, and I have just returned from a hospital inaugration dinner party, which an influential doctor friend and collegue of dad acquired.Quite naturally, the party was flocked by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit(I saw her giving 'pravachan' this morning live on astha channel), who more than talking was alluding to opposition's ineffectiveness,some journalists,top medics and Nafisa Ali, a very sweet looking lady and former Miss India. But most important were the doctors along with their wives and children who constituted the chaff amongst the grain...i.e. the audience, struggling hard to get themselves a piece of chicken and kabab in the cramped space full of a thousand souls.
Most of these docs were 45-50 year olds with their children in the 18-23 bracket.My dad and I were standing among a group of his doc friends and the story begins.All we could hear was the IIT Entrance toughness level or difficult coaching for the AIIMS paper.Someone in our group happened to start yelling about the salary which his friend's cousin (god knows) earned after an IIT degree. God knows why is it that everyone in Delhi has a friend's cousin studying in or passed out of an IIT ? What began was a discussion of salaries and as a result comparision of colleges based on the salaries their alumni minted, quite comfortably munching springrolls and chicken tikkas.
This hurt me...and at a time when I am about to passout from a top engineering college(of course,, not an IIT)..and have been through the placement season...a rare phenomena in which everyone decides the dinner by looking at the most expensive item on its right column. Why do we gauge everything in terms of it's monetary value ? Has man degraded to such an extent that his thoughts, actions, motives, emotions, values are all money-centered ? I don't intend to say that money is not important...hell it is and lots of it...while we talk of an 8% GDP growth,booming markets, international lifestyle , malls , shopping, I still believe people sometime..say 20 years back used to be a much happier lot.Today what we do is often a result of what we feel other's will say. My aim will be to earn a little more than my neighbour, for it is not my happiness that satisfies me, but his suffering.Beating "him", him who we don't know, him who is our own weakness, him who we still envy ,him...who creates a feeling of competition... is our aim. So today I am unhappy taking home 50,000 if my best friend takes 50,100.
These are my final college days, let me go back a little....say a year .My percentage was just a percentage point below the college "Motorola" cutoff...hence I was deemed ineligible to apply to this company.Does a 69% holder imply mediocracy vis-a-vis a 70% guy? It was for this day that my best friend Ankit used to say.."Sahni padh le...varna placement nahi hogi"...and Sahni never listened. I used to fight for every mark and bargain as much as possible...though i never liked doing that.
Four years of a BE or a BTech degree can be daunting( rather BORing) if you like your graduation subjects as much as I did or you spent helluva time preparing for IIM's because your senior got a 10 lakh pa salary from there.The result!--> Pathetic academic performance and not made it to any business school !!
Coming back to this evening, as the discussion came to an end, I realized that it is not the salary that I take home or the car that I drive makes a difference, but what difference does my existence makes to the lives of those around me.Everyone earns a living , but if I can do something for those who don't, I'll find my self greatful to the almighty. I have seen and met IIMA passouts who left their topjobs , just to teach village children in bharuch(A small town in Gujarat) or to teach a bunch of farmers in Vidarbha how to save water for irrigation.
Today, when we talk about numbers and make comparisions, we must try to remember the face of the poorest and the most helpless person we have ever seen and now try to think how can my life make a difference to his? and the day we will be able to do that, the numbers will not matter any more.
I believe I have bored you enough ...and you are most welcome to pen your comments
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4 comments:
ur article is gud but it doesnt hold true every where so,look around
sheryl
appreciate ur view at life from this angle..not that noone ever thought abt it b4..its just gud to know even engineers from famous colls think this way..
I agree with you, that somewhere down the line, we get caught in this mad race. We dont know how we got sucked in and sure as hell are clueless about how to get out.. or if we even can.
ur article was interesting could manage to hiold my diverting attention for a few minutes but the latter half was reduced to a guidance which somehow doesent seem very practical in the current senario.
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