The plague of modern productive life. Disagreeing with Ms. Shobha De.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/politically-incorrect/dying-at-22-is-too-steep-a-price-for-being-the-best/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOI
Right now, hundreds of over-wrought parents are undertaking pricey campus tours of various universities abroad. They believe this is their ‘duty’ since they want their kids to ‘get the best’. Is this what they mean by ‘the best’ ? We have equally good universities in India. What sort of absurd pressure is this that forces parents and students to go overseas in the hope of ‘bettering prospects’? Why not have confidence in your child’s ability to shine in India, without going through the sort of trauma Sarvshreshth suffered? Yes, we have ragging in our colleges, and no, some of our academic laurels are not as prestigious in global job markets as Ivy League degrees. So what? If you’ve got it, you will make it. Anywhere!(SHOBHA DE)
Shobha De is politically correct. Agreed. But is she correct? We better use our own head just to answer that.
The phrase she has used "equally good universities"--does it really hold true? In what manner?
Do our Indian colleges offer the quality of education one gets abroad? And the quality of education that otherwise is available for plenty out side the colleges, whether in India or abroad is highly debatable. Education is not just learning facts n figures from highly mechanised and mechanical teachers. Education is open-mindedness, adaptability, flexibility and making the best out of all available resources. If Indians think they can provide all these aspects of learning and learning well, then sending kids abroad for studies is not such a bad thing after all. Students, much younger, commit suicide in so called premier institutions of our country--not necessarily because their parents force them to study but because they are not open minded, adaptable, flexible and ready to make best out of their available resources. They simply are not allowed to do so and thereby not capable of thinking for themselves. Yes, parents may take the blame but for Sarvashreshtha, the bloke mentioned here, who allowed stress to get to him the blame is perhaps a reflection of the fact that he was not brought up to live mindfully instead of getting into an automaton--whether in India or America.
Just a short while before Sarvshreshth’s body was found (cause of death not officially declared so far), his father had told him to take 15 days’ leave and come home. The fatigued son’s forlorn response was, “They will not allow”. Hours later, he was dead. This sad story should act as a wake-up call for both over-ambitious parents and over-achieving children. Not everybody can take the almost inhuman pressure of the rat race. This young man was missing home-cooked food, the comfort of family and an emotionally reassuring environment. If only he’d had the courage to say, ‘To hell with it…’ and come home, his devastated father would not be writing that pathos-filled essay today.(SHOBHA DE)
Please Ms. Shobha De, your words reek of the very closed mindedness and lack of chutzpah to learn outiside of a college campus that some Indians may be guilty of. The father offered him a sentimental solution--Come home. The son replied very much like his Indian parents had brought him up to feel and believe--'they will not allow'. The young man, if he was missing home cooked food, comfort of family and an emotionally re-assuring environment it is quite obvious that he had been brought up to believe that the world is out to get you and one has to fight back with vengeance of hard work in order to excel in it, in which case it was a wrong choice to stray out of his family business into the big bad world of America. To be honest, "they will not allow" speaks a lot as to how much he was willing to bend his back to accommodate. In order to thrive in a place outside of our comfort zone, possibly we need to grow out of our sentimentality and look at things pragmatically and base our decisions entirely on our selfish survival-fitness probability. I think the guy essentially ignored his survival fitness warnings by giving in to accomodate wishes of people he didn't want to say no to w.r.t his need to excel in his area of expertise--his work. It is exactly that sort of mentality we in India breed--karm karo phal ko mat dekho. Right but karm utna hi karo jisme phal pakte pakte tum na pak jao or else it will take a toll on your health and peace of mind.
The unreasonable pressure of a system that expects young people to sweat blood so as to make other people rich, finally got to the analyst — perhaps, had he listened to his father and walked out of his job a few hours earlier, he would have been alive. Fired, perhaps. But alive.(Shobha De)
In these few lines you almost got it right, Ms. Shobha De, but only because you do not mention America or those americans. Of course the system is in place, everywhere and we may have to be free-minded enough to walk out of our job and join up as a waiter for a few days before landing the next job but no, we Indians are so straight-jacketed and closed minded that we will not allow ourselves to loosen up and heed to our stress signals and take a break. After all, in India it would mean career suicide. Look at how many brilliant minds in India run away to become sadhus n monks to escape the rat-race! I guess, that is fine with us Indian parents because it is only a holy deed. We can simply put it aside as the need for spiritual enlightenment.
No, this case of Sarvashreshtha doesn't boil down to the fact that we Indians are America crazy. It simply means we have not learned how to live our lives. And our country is sadly no place for any open-minded, relaxed, laid-back person either--it is a cut-throat competitive society that always tries to keep you mediocre and dim-wit until one settles for that as his or her fate. His death serves only to highlight the fact that whether America or India, we are a fucked up lot--rats milling inside our homes and around the globe as the labour( physical and mental) force that keeps the economy booming! Ghar ka khaana is no solution to this madness;wherever we may be, we must change and become adaptable, flexible, open-minded and pragmatic and take a chill-pill.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/politically-incorrect/dying-at-22-is-too-steep-a-price-for-being-the-best/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOI
Right now, hundreds of over-wrought parents are undertaking pricey campus tours of various universities abroad. They believe this is their ‘duty’ since they want their kids to ‘get the best’. Is this what they mean by ‘the best’ ? We have equally good universities in India. What sort of absurd pressure is this that forces parents and students to go overseas in the hope of ‘bettering prospects’? Why not have confidence in your child’s ability to shine in India, without going through the sort of trauma Sarvshreshth suffered? Yes, we have ragging in our colleges, and no, some of our academic laurels are not as prestigious in global job markets as Ivy League degrees. So what? If you’ve got it, you will make it. Anywhere!(SHOBHA DE)
Shobha De is politically correct. Agreed. But is she correct? We better use our own head just to answer that.
The phrase she has used "equally good universities"--does it really hold true? In what manner?
Do our Indian colleges offer the quality of education one gets abroad? And the quality of education that otherwise is available for plenty out side the colleges, whether in India or abroad is highly debatable. Education is not just learning facts n figures from highly mechanised and mechanical teachers. Education is open-mindedness, adaptability, flexibility and making the best out of all available resources. If Indians think they can provide all these aspects of learning and learning well, then sending kids abroad for studies is not such a bad thing after all. Students, much younger, commit suicide in so called premier institutions of our country--not necessarily because their parents force them to study but because they are not open minded, adaptable, flexible and ready to make best out of their available resources. They simply are not allowed to do so and thereby not capable of thinking for themselves. Yes, parents may take the blame but for Sarvashreshtha, the bloke mentioned here, who allowed stress to get to him the blame is perhaps a reflection of the fact that he was not brought up to live mindfully instead of getting into an automaton--whether in India or America.
Just a short while before Sarvshreshth’s body was found (cause of death not officially declared so far), his father had told him to take 15 days’ leave and come home. The fatigued son’s forlorn response was, “They will not allow”. Hours later, he was dead. This sad story should act as a wake-up call for both over-ambitious parents and over-achieving children. Not everybody can take the almost inhuman pressure of the rat race. This young man was missing home-cooked food, the comfort of family and an emotionally reassuring environment. If only he’d had the courage to say, ‘To hell with it…’ and come home, his devastated father would not be writing that pathos-filled essay today.(SHOBHA DE)
Please Ms. Shobha De, your words reek of the very closed mindedness and lack of chutzpah to learn outiside of a college campus that some Indians may be guilty of. The father offered him a sentimental solution--Come home. The son replied very much like his Indian parents had brought him up to feel and believe--'they will not allow'. The young man, if he was missing home cooked food, comfort of family and an emotionally re-assuring environment it is quite obvious that he had been brought up to believe that the world is out to get you and one has to fight back with vengeance of hard work in order to excel in it, in which case it was a wrong choice to stray out of his family business into the big bad world of America. To be honest, "they will not allow" speaks a lot as to how much he was willing to bend his back to accommodate. In order to thrive in a place outside of our comfort zone, possibly we need to grow out of our sentimentality and look at things pragmatically and base our decisions entirely on our selfish survival-fitness probability. I think the guy essentially ignored his survival fitness warnings by giving in to accomodate wishes of people he didn't want to say no to w.r.t his need to excel in his area of expertise--his work. It is exactly that sort of mentality we in India breed--karm karo phal ko mat dekho. Right but karm utna hi karo jisme phal pakte pakte tum na pak jao or else it will take a toll on your health and peace of mind.
The unreasonable pressure of a system that expects young people to sweat blood so as to make other people rich, finally got to the analyst — perhaps, had he listened to his father and walked out of his job a few hours earlier, he would have been alive. Fired, perhaps. But alive.(Shobha De)
In these few lines you almost got it right, Ms. Shobha De, but only because you do not mention America or those americans. Of course the system is in place, everywhere and we may have to be free-minded enough to walk out of our job and join up as a waiter for a few days before landing the next job but no, we Indians are so straight-jacketed and closed minded that we will not allow ourselves to loosen up and heed to our stress signals and take a break. After all, in India it would mean career suicide. Look at how many brilliant minds in India run away to become sadhus n monks to escape the rat-race! I guess, that is fine with us Indian parents because it is only a holy deed. We can simply put it aside as the need for spiritual enlightenment.
No, this case of Sarvashreshtha doesn't boil down to the fact that we Indians are America crazy. It simply means we have not learned how to live our lives. And our country is sadly no place for any open-minded, relaxed, laid-back person either--it is a cut-throat competitive society that always tries to keep you mediocre and dim-wit until one settles for that as his or her fate. His death serves only to highlight the fact that whether America or India, we are a fucked up lot--rats milling inside our homes and around the globe as the labour( physical and mental) force that keeps the economy booming! Ghar ka khaana is no solution to this madness;wherever we may be, we must change and become adaptable, flexible, open-minded and pragmatic and take a chill-pill.
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