Momentarily, the bygone decade screened before my eyes in a flashback. My first days in Mumbai.... I was just yet another import from the interiors of India... one amongst the swarm of country boys that enter this city every day with a baggage of hopes and dreams. Like everyone else, my family had consented to my migration solely depending on a couple of close relatives that had already settled base in Mumbai. And the relatives made sure I understood I was unwelcome as soon as I set my foot in their home. This is a city where strangers befriend you like family and where the family betrays like no bond lost. As a teenager, I was in Mumbai to pursue higher studies in Art... and Art was considered a loser's choice back then, although it was the only one I ever had in life. My relatives perhaps did not imagine a day when I would ever bring them a fat paycheque. After all, I was not set to be a doctor, engineer or accountant. With no scope to return to Bhusawal, I picked my yet packed bags and settled to live in a slum thereafter throughout my college days. My parents did not know about this until long.
15 years later... suddenly I received an email from the same relative's daughter yesterday. She has now completed her MBA in Human Resources and sought my "blessings" in tracking career opportunities for her. I know how awful it feels to return empty handed from a place you have attached so many hopes to....
I told her she is welcome.
It used to be such an advantage a few decades back to have an "MBA" attached to ones portfolio, I wondered. That certificate itself carried a job guarantee. Today every doctor, engineer or accountant has mastered a management degree and are yet scorching to find a job... And artists like me have turned entrepreneurs and have our rightful place under the sun! I wonder what the situation will be like until my (yet-to-be-born) children complete their studies! Times are changing fast....
There was a time when applicants would find employment based on their good handwriting... Today almost all correspondence and documentation is typed with ready neat fonts. Remember those childhood days? How we lost a mark in examinations every time we misspelled a word? Today school children do not drop grades for vain reasons like these... because they have Spell-check applications to correct errors as they 'type'... The human brain is used for better purposes than to memorize stupid spellings. And it has become perfectly acceptable to write an academic essay in SMS slang and secure 10/10 marks for it. Purists may go, take a nap. Language focuses on Communication today and Application is better valued than bookish knowledge... the way I would have loved to have it in my own academic years.
The current Indian education system bars from failing any student until the eighth grade, no matter how well or how badly the child may have understood their lessons. The skill to COMPETE - which is so necessary for survival in the real world - is no more taught at school. We send our children to athlete clubs to learn sportsmanship .....and We send them to our native place in summer vacations to see what a family is supposed to be. This is what I meant when I said, times are changing. In today's world, professionally qualified parents are equipped better than school teachers to impart knowledge and education to their own kids. Today we send children to school only to have them learn to socialize.
Nd f ur chld stl seems lik a loser 2u, thnk again! Appreci8 it 4 wht it is.... Focus on enhancng its +ves and mk it a strong CTzn of d world.... Nvr taunt! Nvr mk it feel Unwelcm.... 4 u nvr knw wht directn d wind may blow in tmrw.....
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