“These are the forms for JEE(mains), VIT, SRMJEE and WBJEE, fill them and submit it by Sunday. Ahh…and do make sure that you clear them as well.“ said Dad giving that I don’t care’ type look at me.
“But dad I want to be a scientist, I want to go for research and not engineering“, that was my reply for the 73rd time in this 7 day episode.
Dad: “eehhh sciiieeenntist…what bullshit…stop that non-sense. I have struggled for 17 years to give you all a good life, sacrificed my wishes to keep you all happy, tried my best to give a good education, and in return I expected you to fulfill my only wish, to see you as an engineer. and today u tell me u want to become one of those bald headed psychos with a 12.5 power spectacles shabbily placed over their nose. Never….“
Thus the flood of emotions and sentiments carried away all my desire to become a scientist. In India, people tend to work towards their parent’s aspirations rather than their own.
In fact, you can include relatives and neighbors as well. Or rather, these aspirations end up becoming their own aspirations over time. I wonder why do so many parents aspire for their sons and daughters to be engineers?? Why do we still reside in a society where we just have 2 options given to us, either a Doctor or an eEngineer?? Why our career options are predominantly centered on either the PCB or PCM combination from +2?
At the time of British rule the most sought after services were of engineers and doctors. Engineers were required for the development of infrastructure in a large country like India while doctors were required to provide health services to the population.
Hence any person in these fields could easily get the much coveted “Government job” which secured a constant source of income and prestige in the society.
This led to the development of deep rooted respect and awe for the doctors and engineers (and IAS officers by the same logic) in Indian society which has lingered on even after Britishers left India. Post independence govt. could not create the required number of jobs in other sectors leading to the dominance of service sector in high paying jobs and most well paid were doctors and engineers. Every parent wants a great future for their children, therefore, it is natural for any Indian parent to want their children to become doctors and engineers since these fields are considered the most secure and stable. Thus in no time, it became “ THE GREAT INDIAN OBSESSION”.
India is one of the largest producers of engineers in the world. Yet the quality of engineers is quite poor and by some estimates only 7-8% of engineering graduates are employable. According to the survey, 97% of graduating engineers want jobs either in software engineering or core engineering. However, only 3 percent have suitable skills to be employed in software or product market, and only 7 percent can handle core engineering tasks. Though the number of universities, colleges and programs are going on increasing in the country, the lack of quality education persists. Resplendent corruption, focus on “rattafication” or the mugging up techniques, and a shortage of faculties (both in quantity and quality) are the major issues plaguing higher education. Graduates are collecting their degrees despite not being skilled enough to contribute to the Indian economic growth.
Another probable reason that comes to light is that some of the best-known colleges/universities in India at undergraduate level primarily teach engineering and are mostly residential programs. Most of these follow a student driven extra-curricular culture which results in an overall grooming of the students in general, and they come to be in demand. For example, One cannot overstate the importance of the role played by IITs in the engineering aspiration. The success of IITians made them and their alma mater famous throughout the country, and correspondingly, getting into IITs became more and more competitive. This gave rise to more and more engineering colleges both public and private to address the growing demand of students who were equally skilled but unfortunately couldn’t make into IIT’s.
Once an engineer, nobody really questions how smart you are! Being an engineer is more of a “Prestige” issue than anything else. A majority of us still haven’t understood that what we do for a better part of our lives is defined by our degree. We don’t analyze what we love. We really don’t retrospect as in, think of what we want to become and then choose a degree. We are taught that the brightest minds go for engineering degrees.
On a lighter note, I would like to put in that it rightly said that there are 3 types of students:
Some who make wonders happen
Some who watch wonders happen
And some who wonder, what happen??
It’s a suggestion from me, as a student to another of my fellow, it’s high time that you decide which category you belong to….
Life is short, if you really wish to follow your passion, well that moment is now. I believe one should pursue engineering because he is passionate about it. Then it helps them to achieve results that justify both the nation and the profession. No doubt, parents will argue and give you many reasons to pursue engineering, but we need to make them understand that engineering need not always be the right choice. Do what you love.