Great expectations

Every year, lakhs of students in our country toil hard to get into the two Meccas of education, the IITs and the IIMs. Many young people are left shattered if they are unable to emerge victorious in the battle. Many students give it a shot to fulfil the wishes of their parents. The mindset in our nation is such that you are considered worthless by many if you do not take up sciences as your stream in the +2 level. But why is it so? Was each and every nobel laureate economists and author a fool to have taken up humanities for their higher education? What is the harm if a child wants to be a creative artist, an author, a sportsperson or take up any unconventional field as a career? Haven’t the sportspersons, M.F. Husseins, Vikram Seths etc. made our country proud? As soon as a baby boy is named Sachin, his parents are unable to decide whether to make him Sachin Tendulkar, Sachin Dev Burman, Sachin Khedekar or Sachin Pilot. Why should he try and become like them? Can’t he simply be Sachin XYZ and create a niche for himself?
I myself have been one of those 2 lakh aspirants running the rat’s race to get into the Meccas as mentioned above. I was amongst the losers on the first occasion but somehow managed to be on the successful side on the second one. Ever since I was a ten year old child, it was ingrained in be that I had to become an engineer because my father happened to be an alumnus of the prestigious IIT. I tried hard but knew very well that I was not one of them who could emerge victorious at the IIT JEE. Luckily my parents also knew that. In fact they were happy that their son could somehow manage to get into a good engineering college. But that was the beginning of an arduous journey for me. For four years, I struggled hard to somehow pass in all my engineering exams. I always had the feeling that I’ll never be able to become an engineer but I somehow surprised myself when I officially became on 29 June 2007. That was indeed an achievement for me.
Thanks to my engineering experience, I realized that I had to run as far away from it as possible. My parents were pleasantly surprised when I got a final call from IIM Indore, but I was happy for another reason. I thanked god for saving many a lives which would have been lost had my mechanical designs been actually fabricated and implemented in the industry. I thanked god for not letting me become a mass killer!
Everyone wants to be successful in today’s world; everyone wants to be rich. People, especially young people feel that they’ll be successful if they make millions. But to what use will they put these millions if it all gets burnt in a freak fire? What difference will they make if they keep those millions with themselves? They might be remembered as the richest men the world has seen but they’ll also be seen as selfish men who lived a selfish life on this earth. Well my suggestion to all these future millionaires is that go ahead and make millions but try and bring smiles on the faces of underprivileged people on this earth using these millions. Remember, a fire can take away all the wealth away from you but no fire can take away your good deeds from the society. Try and introspect to find the deeper cause of your existence on the face of this earth. So my friends, let us all pledge to make a beginning in this regard and through our small contributions towards the society, let us raise the level of the ocean of humanity. So chase your dreams and become what you want to, but do fulfil the expectations that god has from you.