Meaningless degrees

So I am back guys, may be no one really missed me. If anyone ever did, it would be the guys who put fake ads in my space. So I sit here in the morning, thinking of a better way to utilize time. I did miss my gym, thanks to laziness.

The last time I had gone to see off my friend. It seems like yesterday that he had got admission for medicine. How cruel time is. It shows no mercy to the one who wants it to stay on. The years of youth just rolled by, we both graduated and understood the realities of life is so very bad.

For me it was the fight to come into terms with the fact that world is nothing but a huge market where straight men have no place. I got sick of full sleeves and ties, then I got sick of selling obsolete machines. Falsehood given an icing of ethics is the right dose for organizational success.

Forhim it might be the realization that medicine is meant for reaping money and reaping money is no longer a matter of choice. So he had to hunt for college to make his masters. With a lots of uncertainity in front of him, he decides to fly away to USA to get his masters.

The world has no place for the talented as long as you’re not good enough to market it. Tharun was an amazingly talented doctor. He was made to be a good doctor from day 1. I have noticed people opening up to him so easily about their pains, shame etc. I guess he exuded a feeling that he would solve out their problems.  I thought he would go off to community service. Sadly that didn’t happen.

In between that so many ‘brilliant’ guys who got admission to government colleges for medicine simply threw off their degrees and went into the glorious world of beauracracy. I guess they might have been seduced by the tiny tri colour flag, red beacons and men in uniform saluting them. Sad is the plight of the common man who burnt up his savings for the studies of these blue eyed doctors. Now they move into a place where more of tax payer’s money is burnt. Now what’s the criteria of these intelligentsia choosing civil servants ??

Saraswathi molested

A couple of years ago I was on a train to Pune. The era saw the world slipping into an economic recession and the markets growing increasingly volatile. The ‘economists’ and the media pacified the public that all will be over in a couple of years. The MBA colleges saw a great opportunity amidst the doom. The PR teams went around convincing the confused young graduates to drop in whatever they had been doing now and jump into the bandwagon. By the time the dark clouds pass over in two years, there would be huge MNCs waiting to whisk them off. As if the marketing wasn’t enough, the course fee was hiked and so were the application fee, which was nearly doubled.

The confused and the idiots like me were not bothered by the four digit application fee and the seven digit tuition fee. We were blinded by the huge pay packet we would be earning before the end of two years.

So here was a mad group of young people applying for any exam they could find, going for the applications and waiting for the results. The extent to which these scrupulous elements would go was obvious by the fact that the last date for application was even before the announcement of results of written examination. Even the second graded colleges made a cool 50 crores before the students were even selected for admission.

One fine day I get a mail from Symbiosis institute for Management (SIM). They were planning to collaborate with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) into churning out successful financial experts. The best part was the selected would be absorbed into SCB at the end of the course. Still the fees weren’t monstrous too. I fell into the trap and frantically prepared for the trip.

It was the peak of the season and the tickets weren’t easy to get. I managed to find for myself a train no one would dare travel. The reason being it crossed through five states in India before reaching Pune, that too at the peak of the summer. I was assembled with a curious group of travellers. A fat lady who threatened to give me wet dreams with her huge cleavage, a spiritualist who had some strange kind of theories and a benevolent old couple. I alighted into the station suffering from a bug, thanks to the ‘train food’.

After some difficulty I managed to find the campus. Exhausted, I waited in the lobby for my turn. There was a constant stream of hot girls and cool boys walking past. I dreamed of roaming around here soon, spotting a beard and looking hot.

It was a pleasant surprise to know during the interview about the ‘contents of the course’ . I was expected to do a theory class for the first four months followed by the practicals. The practical consisted of selling off SCB products to the people of Pune. I pictured myself roaming around the hot ans\d dusty Pune trying to sell products of an unknown bank to strangers, meanwhile living on a meager stipend. I walked out of the room fuming.

The last week I came across a guy in Kurtha asking my help to draw a DD worth lakhs. I was intrigued and asked him the reason.

‘IIM Rohthak’

I haven’t heard of the place and there was an IIM in it.

The guy told me there were about 10 IIMs now with a couple about to begin. Our government is hell bent on educational inclusion and is starting up IIMs even in the unheard of places. But there is no question of inclusion when it comes to fees. The fees are on par with the costliest ones. The government has gone a step ahead and doubled the available seats.

The flooding of IIMs have totally devalued the value of the MBA course and warns us the prospective downfall. These guys today vie for jobs with which they cannot even repay the loan!

The faculty position has become the ideal hunting ground for the ego bloated, useless professors. They get in through some backdoor and then take it as a part of job to teach the outdated stuff. My bro once eagerly downloaded a virtual lecture of a famed professor. Ten minutes into it he learnt with horror that the Professor was merely narrating some passages from a text book.

When we threw out MF Hussain alleging he insulted the Godesses through our painting we had been literally doing it.

History Text Book

For a school student ‘History’ will be a subject he yearns to get over with. He has to gulp down indigestible names and forgettable dates to spit in to his exam papers. Years down the line there will be shivers down the spine when he is asked to recollect the rebellions, revolutions and wars.

Examine our History and we will see the cycle of incidents turning up again and again. The only hope for humankind to survive is study the history and make sure the mistakes do not repeat by themselves. But is our educational system capable in EDUCATING our kids on history?

I turned a fan of the ‘dirty old man’ reading his novel, ‘Delhi’. It’s a historical fiction which depicts the glory and fall of the city. The book quickly rolls on from the times of Indian Kings, Mughals and finally to the British. The Indians have been eagerly taught to put the entire blame for the ills in the country on the White Man. They divided the otherwise unified country on ‘religion’. But Kushwant argues it was the Mughals, namely emperor Aurangazeb, who discriminated people on religion. And he ratifies it with the divided response from the Indians during the First war of Independence.

Read the biographies or autobiographies of a Maoist or Marxist. He will argue that China is not a bad neighbor. They will claim the India China war was due to the brashness and idiocy of V K Krishna Menon. Our text books say he is a great personality. I have read more than one writer (not leftists) who do not have a great opinion on V K. There is also arguments and counter arguments on who violated the ‘Panchsheel’ agreement first.

Patrick French would argue the ‘Mahathma’ status of Gandhiji. He points out the curious and unnatural methods and beliefs of Gandhi. We have rarely come across them in any depiction on Gandhi. May be we are afraid to humanize the father of our nation. And he also contests the widely held belief of attributing the independence to Gandhi. We have ignored many other factors and have sidelined the contributions of Bose, Bagath Singh as failed attempts. Recently I watched the movie ‘Kheilenge Hum…’. Did we ignore or we chose to ignore the many who sacrificed the prime of their youth for Independence so that the Congress party can claim the sole legacy?

There are many facets to history. Programming the students to think through a limited framework wouldn’t do good to the nation building and world harmony. They must be given the freedom to choose their beliefs.

Taking a look back

Religion and region seems to be a hot topic for the blogging world. For a single problem 1000 people arrive with some 10,000 solutions.

For some years I have been getting a chance to read some history. Are the issues we see today exclusive for 21^st century? No, the conflicts and strifes had an incarnation in every generation. Sadly we tend to close our eyes and minds to history and simply refuse to learn from it.

There was a time in India when Hindus went to Dargahs and Muslims to Sadhus. They celebrated each other’s festivals with an open heart. Why did we end up where we are today?

The solution for the present may lie in our history. Hence it’s important to go back and rethink. But sadly our history text books are grossly inadequate for it. The academicians have used the text books for vested manifestos. We are taught of blood sucking rulers, war lords, etc. For us the leaders just remain a picture on the wall or an antique.

I happen to read about a man, Mustafa Kemal. He was the founder of modern Turkey. He banned religious schools, religious dresses and even the Arabic script. He knew the future lies in education and spent heavily on it. Thanks to his measures, Turkey is one of the most progressive Islamic country today. Why haven’t I heard about him in my school?

This Thursday the whole of India waited for the ’Ayodhya’ verdict. It’s a controversial piece of land in India which the Hindus claim to be theirs and Muslims as theirs. It’s an 18 year old issue which resulted in much bad blood, rioting, shifting of ideologies and allegiances. As the minutes ticked by, I was chatting with my friend on what is to be made out of the site.

He said a free hospital has to be constructed, where there are no religious divisions and where the poor are treated for free. I said it’s quite impractical.

‘Why not a bar? There we find no religion or caste or creed. Just plain boozing and everyone stays happy!’

‘Even a strip club would do. We never ask a stripper or prostitute her religion!’

Let’s take a walk back. The history waits with open arms, to beg us not to repeat the mistakes of our fathers.

I will close with a few words on a WW-II memorial ’How many died? Who knows the number?’