Jul 26, 2005

the indian mass production factory

With the kinda fits of frenziness, its not very unnatural for me to remain quiet for prolonged periods or just to lie down on the bed with lights off n think abt all the things that I never seem to understand, smoking one after the another, filling my ashtray aka 'CUP of LIFE'***.

Indian life has been so simple for me and ye so chaotic that I don't even know which direction to take. Spending time with myslef I even tend to forget at times that there is a dimension called time and money which most of the times decide the fate of us all especially people in third world countires. Where by there are so high stakes to settle ourselves down that we tend to become lost in the rat race. Starting from school we try really hard to beat the hit out of others. Professional degrees seem to be the most logical way to head for as they appear to be the paths to success and comfort and are rated high in out little midclass society. Education and degrees are portrayed as the easy way to success, no not success but gurantees sucess.

Look at me today, not one of those exceptional few, but still I have two professional degrees, bachelor's in engineering from a government college which was okay i accept not IIT (ones faour for their 1% success rates in entrance exams) and one post graduate degree from the same dreaded IIT. Shall not get into the IIT debate, lets chuck it off sometimes later I will take it up. And in India its not like that am the only one, I know atleast 50 of my batchmates who did the same....and after all these degrees what are we all doing and how much are we being compensated for our work. and what have we really got out of the years we spent preaparing ourselves for the career.

The fate that India is suffering today, all engineering and realted degrees have merged into one sector called services. Imagine a plight of a country where only one state called TamilNadu produces 70,000 engineers alone. And we have some 10 states doing the same thing on the same scale. Where are we all heading for. A mechnical engineer is doing the same thing what a civil enginner does and what an MSc or MCA in computers does.
Oh for the people who still don't know in our land the more difficult an exam is to crack more people appear for it. This is a national craze and employers are looking for people in the same way, prioritizing them on the basis of their educational institiutes. And in that roll there is an unsaid rule of thumb, I call it unsaid coz its so obvious that people know it all, they don't talk about it but everybody knows.

Bachelor degree holders from IIT's are considered to be the best in India (though rating amongst IIT's is itself another issue, have to postpone this one till next time as well...btw last year it was IIT K which was on top), followed by Master's from the same institutes, followed by students from NIT's and then regional colleges compete with MCA(Master's In Computer Applications) over supremacy. Its not like that there is a major difference in all the students who get their degrees from these colleges, eventually they all do the same work...IT.

Our society n system still can't appreciate the fact that one can take an year off college just to travel around the world. Or let go around the world to tour his own country. Stakes are so high that we keep streching ourselves until one day we realise that its all so fake n when we see that what we really appreciate as life ain't life really. We are like those small mosquitoes flying in our houses....in fact not even that.

We Indian's might have the brains to solve the most complicated of problems and I take proud to say that we are the ones who have a natural knack for solving problems and only people I consider really worth competing with us are the russians. We all can speak english fluently than most others, we can talk in any accent be it american or british or singaporean (OK lah), we earn money abroad but we still are the same. We still don't know how to enjoy life.

In my life time I have found only few people who have followed their dreams on themselves, dreams which were really dreams not imitation of other people's dreams. And I think the primar reason is that when we are racing for survival, there is little room for chaisng dreams coz u know the moment u slip, there ain't no one to support and desi's aka fellow country men would be the first to make sure that u fell hard enuf not to rise again.

But this doesn't mean that these problems are Indian, I can talk about these coz am an Indian, I have felt this, seen this.

Sometimes it's really hard to say AM PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN

***CUP of LIFE not coz it's someway related to life, it is because it fills itself with ash and butts and takes out the life off you

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