Parents spend most of
their hard earned money on the education of their children. The education ,
most part of which is going to be same for everyone whether one wants to be an
engineer, a doctor, a manager, a clerk,
a soldier or anyone for that matter. You
will find your parents or teachers voicing the quotes of many famous
personalities.
I remember my father narrating
me a story of a US president to whom his father once said;
“I don’t mind if you want to become a grass cutter but you have to be the best grass cutter in the world”
and that child went on to become US president.
Inspired by this when
I thought of commencing a business of a barber and shared my business plan, I
was ridiculed by everyone in the family and my mother said to me
“Beta, ab tujhe Naai banane ke liye itna- pada likha rahe hain ?” (are we spending so much on your education to see you as a barber?)
And I had to let
go of my first business plan.
As my family was not very well off on economic grounds,
there was no way I could have started any business which could have accepted in
my family as a good business, besides that, my family wanted me to study more
and more. I went on with my study and my family had to spend a huge amount of
money on my education and most of which was borrowed by relatives and family
friends. I am on the verge of completing
but nowhere near a well paying and satisfying job. It’s not just with me,
everyone in my class. If in any way you happen to wonder whether I deserve the
job or not let me tell you that there are more than 10 persons with
extraordinary talent. One is a college topper from a well known university and
they are also in same conditions. The
offers which we are getting are either very low paid or not satisfactory in
terms of work or working conditions. Now how do you suppose me to live up to my
parents expectations??
The fault does not
lie with just one thing; there are many things which are wrong. Let me share
one more thing which would make it clearer to you. I am pursuing my MBA and
living with my uncle. We are living in government quarter and there was some
place around the quarter which was empty so he thought he can make a small
garden there. He started growing vegetables there. I also help him in
gardening. We grow enough vegetables
that sometimes we don’t buy any vegetable from market for six months long. The
total garden area is hardly more than 3000 square feet.
 |
| This is the banana tree in the backyard which has this record number of bananas. |
Some two years ago he planted a banana tree in backyard. Now
they have scattered all around and we every time get to eat lot of bananas and
we never had to buy. One bunch has grown so big that I think if it will grow a
little bit more it will break the world record of largest number of bananas in
one tree and that too without any use of pesticides and fertilizers. Now my
heart desires to be in a business of organic farming (keeping in mind the land
which I have inherited and which is left uncultivated back in my ancestral
village. However, it still lacks basic infrastructural facilities like roads
which is 4 Kilometers far from my home there).
Gardening was my hobby ever since I was just 12 years old. Not just
economic advantages but it has many environmental benefits too.
The thought of being ridiculed again makes me reticent for
now and besides that I don’t want to hear
“Beta, agar kisaan hi banna tha to itne padne likhne ki zarurat kya thi” ( If you wanted to be a farmer then what was the need of this much education)
but one day I want to
prove everyone around that the aim of education is not just getting employed in
a firm or government job but its objective is to inspire us to do what we love
and apply all our knowledge and education to it so that we can be best at it.
Presently, I won't rebel against them. I will just wait for the right moment to commit myself fully to it, for the moment when I will be self sufficient to do what I want to do and change the mindset of my generation by inspiring them to do what they want to do. This way the youngsters would not be forced to be an engineer or a doctor or anything for that matter which they don’t want to and it will certainly be a better tomorrow for them.
