Now tell me honestly... i wont ask if anyone has ever felt this.. coz i know everyone of us have... n i wanna know how many times one has felt that he/she has got lost in the crowd.. ask any child wat he/she aspires to become in future.. u'll get a variety of answers like.. Scientist, Astronaut, Actor, Musician, Doctor, Singer, Pilot, Architect, Soldier, Commando, Journalist.. n a lot more.. i always thought i cud b one of these when i was young (damn, i still am young) n i dunno why these things get faded away for a lot of us... i still remember me n a few classmates wanted to join the NDA while we were in our tenth... but none of us ever did... n all of us r doin the same thing now... its really sad to think how many of us have lost track of wat we wanted to be durin our childhood..
More importantly, speakin in general, i'm damn sure none of us ever wanted to be software engineers.. infact, there was nothin like that while we were still in school.. ppl used to ask "software who...?" but the fact is : 3 out of 5 engineers passin out in this country became software engineers in the past 5-6 years.. i accept that there still r ppl who follow their dreams.. but the majority...?? lookin at the ppl join IT companies n earnin good n "easy" money has made lot of ppl look upto this profession like anythin.. resultin in the younger ones feelin they wanna do that too... now.. why did this happen.. jus that they too r "gettin lost in the crowd"...!! and wats happenin now.. zero recruitments at colleges, no job opportunities, firings n wat not.. its kinda a situation where almost a generation of young guys having "no job" starin at their faces after completin their degrees.. the main reason i believe is the feeling that one gets - "i can also do that..." damn.. its not about whether u can or u cant.. its about whether u want to or not...!! why the hell have we forgotten this.. n why the hell does this thought occur to our minds only after 2-3 yrs of work...!!?? isnt there anythin that one can do now...?? n wat if one gets married...?? havent these questions crossed ur mind ever...?? y do ppl make u feel that its too late by the time u think abt this...??
Comin to the most important factor (atleast for we Indians).. the Society.. this is the only factor that has been affectin the careers of hell a lot of ppl here.. "IT job is the in thing now.. wat will the society feel if i dont get one like that.. wat will the society say if i do somethin different.." i'm not sayin that we should not care about society n go ahead do wat we wanna do.. but when will the so-called society change...?? thats basically how our parents were brought up.. n how we were brought up... in quite a few cases, its the parents who r against their children's dreams.. reason - who will marry you if u do that...!?? and how will you settle down..!!?? duh.. is marriage important than career aspirations or job-satisfaction...?? why do parents have to do this...?? r they doin this jus because they have the highest care for us.. yes accepted.. but y dont they let their children learn frm their own mistakes... instead, they say.. "everyone's doin it.. why cant u...??" right on the mark.. this is wat i'm talkin abt.. its not abt wat one can or cant do.. its abt wat one wants to do...!!
Finally, our teachers n professors.. damn.. if u ask me, they have an impact on the students as much as the parents do.. u can even count the guys who say their profs r their greatest inspiration coz of the thoughts they share, the experience they share, the suggestions/advices they give.. but u can never count the guys who say their profs r useless... this is exactly where students have been losing their confidence.. everytime i watch movies like October Sky, Good Will Hunting, Lions for Lambs.. i always feel why the hell didnt i ever had a prof like this...!! all these 3 movies r based on real life stories.. such amazin stories they r... inspirin movies like these r a rarity in our country.. n the majority of movies r idiotically romance-based...
Whooo... a lot of these things have been crossin my mind in the past week.. jus have a feelin that this mite lead to somethin.. i really hope it will.. feelin happy that i've let these feelings out of my mind... kinda happy that i've created a blog to let out my feelings...
good one machan..!! getting lost in the crowd is something which has crossed my mind innumerable times..!! but i wud like to disagree the parents putting pressure part, i believe if thr's a good enough way of talking with them, they would be our gr8est supporters..!! its more about believing in ourselves and not choosing the easy way. Face it, y did v go for software jobs, campus recruitment (easy recruitment, compared to other job fields) and those huge cash infatuations. Most important thing, knowing what you want to do, believe me, i still dunno that, am still trying to figure out. Most of us, just choose the easier option coz its so straight fwd and visible while the other one, one doesnt know how one might end up rejecting the easier option. And ofcourse society does play a big role, but i guess oflate things in tht point are changing and have changed a lot..!!
ReplyDeletei never said parental pressure is "the" reason da... jus sayin that kids r jus endin up saying ok.. n tell me one thing.. how many parents r really encouragin their kids to takeup somethin different huh..?? i can give u a lot of clear examples of them not doin that.. y isnt India producin gold medals at Olympics..?? y isnt R&D not yet "the" thing here...?? y is it still a Consumers' market...?? y isnt there as much innovation as the US or China...?? more importantly, y r people still doin coding n offshore stuff...!!??? i thought ppl r jus crazy wen they used to say this.. but this is the truth.. accept it...
ReplyDeletei accept that the parents r not the only reason.. for sure, its the individual responsibility of anyone to b brave n take decisions.. but i was only sayin that parents do play a part here.. n wat other better source of encouragement than parents...!!?? n as u said, healthy discussions with them can bring out the best.. but who's doin it...!!?
n trust me.. even i dont kno wat i wanna do.. thats y i'm still here bloggin... but the thing is.. i've been safe till now only coz i've been good at wat i've been doin.. but u tend to get bored of wat u're doin wen time goes by.. n these things come to ur mind wen u realise that wat u're doin is crap.. so its better to look for alternate options rather than continuin with the same crap...
n yes.. this is coz i got lost in the crowd too.. n yes.. this was an easier option.. thats y i'm here talkin abt my mistake.. n i'm tryin to do somethin which will make me feel better...
people have been busy in lovin wat they do.. but i say doing wat u love gives u more satisfaction even if u're not earnin as much as in the former case...
true thing..!! u talk about all the stuffs on first paragraph, parents dont encourage, reasons are they ve been brought up in a different society and v r different, they dont know atleast 60% of the time whts going thru in our minds, so its upto us to talk to them and then they will encourage, but for tht we need to knw wht v want, kinda conflicting things and thts the place where we loose our argument. and the other stuffs r purely the society. more gold at olympics needs more recognition, hw many ppl know that our Women's cricket team came third in the recently held women's world cup or hw many ppl knw that recently thr was a Women's world cup..!! we came third, not astonishing but we beat a very competitive australian team, 3 time World Champs..!! and other than IITs / IISs, no one even talks about R&D stuffs. y so far, if anyone is doctorate here, v ask which IIT institute r u from..?? thr isnt enough recognition in those areas..!! doing what u want gives satisfaction, but tht is comprimised if its not recognised. our society and ppl r not brave enough to face it yet. but still i feel the next decade will b different..!! v cud only wait and direct the next gen is follow-ur-dreams-way. i hope i walk the talk..!!
ReplyDeletevery true.. but by the time u realise wat u want, ppl will discourage u sayin its already too late.. n wat do u do.. nothin but continue doin wat u were doin... n the argument part, wat u said is true.. but the kids r convinced that their parents r right.. even they r nt takin risks.. jus hopin that it'll all change one day.. n hell yea.. i wanna walk the talk too...!!
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