Concluding the farzigiri at IIT

Its been half a decade at IIT. Such a crucial phase of life was spent here that when you entered, you were controlled and now people seek your control. Just out of home and now into the dreams of making a home! There were you being escorted for every journey of yours and now, the whole globe appears neighbourhood!Its not been just a transformation, in certain aspects, it was almost a rebirth! My fate that i got into IIT, but my bad luck that it was an institute of engineering! I 'm just trying to expose the falsity(read farzigiri) that envelopes Indian life, through my days at IIT and its conclusions.

Graveyard of dreams

India is a country where dreams are imposed on its children, essentially the failed dreams of their parents. And yes, India is a country of dreams. A large part of the population still sleeps every night expecting god to appear and tell the shortcut to success and glory, e.g. swarna-mudraon ka ghada or some yagna. Few days back i found an interesting piece in TOI Kolkata- a man, in his late forties, was caught forcing a young girl to marry him as she was the first girl he saw that morning, Kali maa having instructed him to marry the first girl he finds in the morning and that act was slated to swing his fortune. Even the act of loving is done mostly in dreams as god is expected to convey the message of love to the girl next door! One nice morning Mr X wakes up to be surprised that his love of years is going to be married the next month. I 'm not surprised when in a time-pass gossip with a rikshawwalla, i'm told that he had a dream of becoming a billionaire. India has been living on a graveyard of dreams! The younger generation carrying generations of dreams and in due course dumping its own dreams! If India's dreams have not been fulfilled in these sixty years, as a nation, its mainly because almost every Indian's dreams remained unaccomplished. May be because he was living someone else's dreams and when he realized what his dream was, it was too late. Instead of helping the adolescents realize their dreams and their fields of interest, its a pity that they 're handed over readymade dreams.


Its a question of insecurity

IIT is such a dream that it has all the quotients to capture the imagination of every schoolgoing kid in India. Being economically backward for decades, our first priority, above everything, remains money. For a nation to survive, money is the driving force. But for a nation to excel, passion should take the priority. Its just because of this disorder that talents are strewn in various fields in an unsorted manner. This sorting refers to the potential talents of one field being in that field. If IT sector is excelling in India, it at the cost of many other fields. If companies are doubling their net profits every successive quarter, its just because a potential sportsman, an excellent writer, a topper of science, a theatre champ is giving his best to the industry. All the passions were consumed by economic security. A sorting of the talents is a must for building an India which excels everywhere and which doesnt feel India shining looking upto a few fields and turning a blind eye to the rest. Its not that there's any dearth of talents in India to become the Olympics champ or world leader in research. Its not that to enliven our sports spirits, we'll have to stick to watching cricket for decades to come. Its not that generations will have to read about one Asiad medallist PT Usha in the textbooks, for feeling inspired. I sometimes feel that we are probably the most insecure race of the world and that's our problem. Even if the family earnings are above the well-to-do mark, a graduate is made to feel insecure without a job. He is not given a chance to try his interests.

Duty and dissatisfaction

At this stage of my life, i feel that at the point where i had to decide where should i go, someone told me you go this way- you 'll find everything that you wish. I walked a few miles and found that i'm on the wrong path and i cant turn back and take another road. I feel happy that at least i've achieved the rights to change the path on the next crossroad! My idea is that there must be a proper counselling at that age and parents should help in churning dreams and nourishing them. India has come to the stage where concepts of economic security and accumulating wealth should give way to passions and personal satisfaction. While talking to kgp alumni i've found that most of them are not satisfied with their job. I 'd like to quote a professor who taught Sandipan Deb at IIM C, that its just because of jobs being taken as duty and money mattering more than interest and personal satisfaction that Babas and Sadhus still make billions in India. All these jobwallas turn to one or the other guru in search of pleasure and peace, in their fourties. Its not surprising that IT sector has added to their dhandha!In my years of struggle, i opted for a six-pointer who 's leading a happy life and excelling in other fields where he can, rather than a struggling six-pointer who might have been a killing spree in Counter-Strike! Its a fact that an average IITian feels it better to taapo assignments than solve it himself. He never strives to doing things on his own till things can be managed. However proud an IITian might feel when being called so, in his personal life, he carries a high level of dissatisfaction. And thank god! India doesnt have that reluctant gun-laws. Otherwise, I'm sure IITs would have been leading the campus shoot-outs list!


The bright future of India banks on the brightness of its cream spreading equally over all fields. Be it politics, journalism, music, bollywood or sports, they desperately need not one, not two but many leaders to lead them to an era of glory where we dont have such a dearth of faces that we have to look upto the bunch of chokers called Team India, Rahul Gandhi or Karan Johar as our heroes!