Last week I had a nice little chat with one of my friends who has just completed twelfth standard and was getting completely frazzled over a bunch of exams that have scary abbreviations like the AIEEE, the CET and COMED-K. Deja Vu - I had witnessed a lot of my friends go the same way last year, totally freaking out over these entrance exams and wondering where they'll end up doing engineering.
Oh, it's always engineering. Never fear, engineering's here and it looks like its going to stay for quite some time in the minds of Indian students across the subcontinent. What's the big deal with engineering anyway? Why is there this constant obsession with the applied sciences? I have no idea if its an India-specific thing or not, but heck, its engineering, engineering, engineering every where you look. This career has an omnipresent quality in India that can rival Himesh Reshammiyya's sonnets of suroor.
Its tough being an arts student in this country. You are in the unfortunate position of shocking everyone by telling them that you're NOT doing engineering. Here's the typical conversation that takes place between me and some person who's never met me before:
SOME PERSON (SP): Oh, you're a student (pronounced stoo-daay-nn-ttuh)? Where are you doing your engineering?
ME (Blushing): Uh...I'm not...
AWKWARD SILENCE
ME: ...I'm doing BA...
And then SP will avoid me for the rest of the day. All the SPs of this world seem to believe that no matter what, Arts (and to some extent even commerce) students are failures who could not pass those abbreviated engineering exams and are forced to take up arts as a last resort. Weird. At least, Im studying in a reputed college like St. Xavier's. I can always get away with saying something like:
"Im an economics student at St. Xavier's..." those two italicized words can earn me some respect. Even if Im a failure, Im atleast a good failure. I not a failed failure.
Its not just arts students. Until some examiner working for the CBSE decided that my Class 10 maths paper deserved only an embarrassing 54%, I did have a tiny plan to take up pure sciences and go into astronomy. For two whole years, I had to put up with my aunt (who ironically is an astronomer) trying to push me into aerospace engineering and my mother constantly remarking on how bad the pure sciences field was. To top it all, some people decided that I wasnt even worth engineering (a remark that is normally considered extremely humiliating but then Im not normal). True, both my aunt and mother just didnt want me to take pure sciences and didnt care whether I got into engineering at all, but those other people felt otherwise. Bitter memories.
Anyway, the truth is that this nation cant think of anything but engineering. And of course management afterwards. The ultimate dream of every family is to boast of an IIT-IIM alumnus. Schools across the country go wild if one of their students get into the IITs and proudly display it on their websites. Sure, getting into the IITs is no small deal and the JEE topper has a right to be proud of what he or she achieved but man, its just as difficult to get into some place like, say, St. Stephen's (with a 97% cut-off rate for commerce students, beat that) or the Indian Institute of Science and very few schools seem to celebrate that. Economics anyone? Or perhaps a little bit of Astrophysics? I think not.
Oh, it's always engineering. Never fear, engineering's here and it looks like its going to stay for quite some time in the minds of Indian students across the subcontinent. What's the big deal with engineering anyway? Why is there this constant obsession with the applied sciences? I have no idea if its an India-specific thing or not, but heck, its engineering, engineering, engineering every where you look. This career has an omnipresent quality in India that can rival Himesh Reshammiyya's sonnets of suroor.
Its tough being an arts student in this country. You are in the unfortunate position of shocking everyone by telling them that you're NOT doing engineering. Here's the typical conversation that takes place between me and some person who's never met me before:
SOME PERSON (SP): Oh, you're a student (pronounced stoo-daay-nn-ttuh)? Where are you doing your engineering?
ME (Blushing): Uh...I'm not...
AWKWARD SILENCE
ME: ...I'm doing BA...
And then SP will avoid me for the rest of the day. All the SPs of this world seem to believe that no matter what, Arts (and to some extent even commerce) students are failures who could not pass those abbreviated engineering exams and are forced to take up arts as a last resort. Weird. At least, Im studying in a reputed college like St. Xavier's. I can always get away with saying something like:
"Im an economics student at St. Xavier's..." those two italicized words can earn me some respect. Even if Im a failure, Im atleast a good failure. I not a failed failure.
Its not just arts students. Until some examiner working for the CBSE decided that my Class 10 maths paper deserved only an embarrassing 54%, I did have a tiny plan to take up pure sciences and go into astronomy. For two whole years, I had to put up with my aunt (who ironically is an astronomer) trying to push me into aerospace engineering and my mother constantly remarking on how bad the pure sciences field was. To top it all, some people decided that I wasnt even worth engineering (a remark that is normally considered extremely humiliating but then Im not normal). True, both my aunt and mother just didnt want me to take pure sciences and didnt care whether I got into engineering at all, but those other people felt otherwise. Bitter memories.
Anyway, the truth is that this nation cant think of anything but engineering. And of course management afterwards. The ultimate dream of every family is to boast of an IIT-IIM alumnus. Schools across the country go wild if one of their students get into the IITs and proudly display it on their websites. Sure, getting into the IITs is no small deal and the JEE topper has a right to be proud of what he or she achieved but man, its just as difficult to get into some place like, say, St. Stephen's (with a 97% cut-off rate for commerce students, beat that) or the Indian Institute of Science and very few schools seem to celebrate that. Economics anyone? Or perhaps a little bit of Astrophysics? I think not.
2 comments:
My mom went to St. Xaviers in Bombay! She majored in biology, and it was a nice surprise for her to learn that you too are studying there.
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