I am also an IDIOT

I have not seen the movie 3 idiots yet. But I am also an engineer and I would like to share something...

Today, when I was having horlicks in the cafeteria sitting all alone by myself, I had an epiphany- "A moment of total clarity" that I am a total IDIOT. I really am and that is why I am an engineer like million others who did not choose to become an 'Engineer'. Actually we do not know what to become. No one gave us a proper counseling when we were young and the only counseling we received was from our parents - "be an engineer , now the market is hot for Engineering + MBA and later you can do MBA".

I am not blaming parents for imposing/proposing this on/to their children because they want the best for their children and they only propose what they think is the best. In fact my father supported me and found out, on everything that I wanted to be, I wanted to be either an astronaut, an architect, an archeologist or an interior designer but it’s my stupidity, ignorance, lack of knowledge and may be lack of resources in my country, that I am an engineer today.

Do I regret it ? Almost every day!!! I could have saved a lot of money and time if I carried on my B.Sc Phy Hons course which I got enrolled in and which I was enjoying a lot... But I was also preparing for the famous IITs , and my coaching teachers said, i would have to stop going to college, if I am serious about IIT... They were right... But Even after studying for 10-14 hours a day, clearing the screening as well, I could not get into an IIT. I am actually thankful to god for that... Because I learned so much more in VIT.

Now, let’s go back to the cafeteria, where I had an epiphany – I was thinking about my brother, he is in 11^th standard and everyone keeps pushing him to study including me. I was thinking did I use my science/history/geography that I studied in school, anywhere after school? Or do I remember that now? Or will I ever use it again?

My father always says “Knowledge never goes waste”, I believe that but when I think about my knowledge that went to waste, I could not help but think what went wrong? Although, my faith still remains high on this beautiful phrase, the thought did really shake me.

Did my knowledge really go to waste?

It took three to four sips of horlicks to light up my bulb but I got an answer finally. The fact is that we are very hard working people, it’s in our genes, Indians were slaves for a long time and anything that any species does for a long time, gets embedded in our genes (there are some genes that get affected by environment- so my biotech-engineering was not a waste after all). But now the environment is changing again and along with it those genes are getting affected too and over the years we will change and do more smart work rather than hard work.

Then it took two more sips of horlicks and the light bulb was burning ever so brightly over my head. The answer to whether my knowledge went to waste came to me now. My knowledge did go to waste but it’s not the mistake of the phrase-“Knowledge never goes to waste”, the phrase was right when it was first spoken and it still holds true.

According to me the phrase must have been spoken in the Vedic times, when people used to preach whatever they knew to their students, when the guru-shishya kind of learning was prevailing. In those times, this kind of learning was the only way knowledge could be transferred and spread across, so no knowledge was ever wasted, as it was always transferred, passed on to the next city or next generation and it was used, and the purpose of learning was served.

In the modern times, since we have a thousand ways of learning just about everything, we don’t need to learn everything as we do not need to pass it on.
And as Einstein says : "“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”"
We should do smart learning. This is the need of the hour. And use the free time for enjoying our hobbies, or exercising- keeping ourselves happy and healthy. I really feel that I would have been much healthier if I had done smart work instead of hard work-(People who saw me studying would agree).

So, we should learn what is useful and use it and should not waste time on learning those things that we would not be using because anyways you will forget them without regular usage or practice.

So what went wrong from my end as an idiotic engineer? I did do my hard work but even on areas that were not connected to my heart, on the subjects that I never wanted to learn and on the subjects which I knew I would not carry them forward in my journey.

I should have attainted knowledge in those fields which I knew would help me in future and should not have diverted my attention to other fields.

I really feel that everyone needs to change, I was dependent on my father to provide me the information of current working scenarios and he was giving me information from all possible sources but his belief was and still is hard work.

We all need to change, today kids are much smarter than they should be, and parents can use this to their advantage. Parents should ask their kids what they want to be but should also ask them- how do you propose we do that? What are the various options of pursuing the course and what is the cost involved and let them do the research on this subject. Once they have done that, it will be much easier for parents to see what the child should be focusing on instead of pushing the kid for studying everything.

Also parents should not encourage their child to rely on them for any help other than financial.
But that too should be made clear in the beginning by the parents, "that we can spend only this much or that much, choose a course accordingly or propose a solution to raise money for your course".

Instead of hiding the amount they intent to spend on their kid’s studies and saying we will handle everything, parents should declare what they can spend otherwise it gives the child a kind of safety that they can rely on their parents and they do not work hard on achieving their own dreams and they do not push themselves to their limits.

Readers must be thinking that all this is fine, but we still live in the same society, with the same schooling methods and standards. So if we don’t push our kids they will fail and be disappointed in themselves. But think again, don’t you think the kids are smarter than this, they never fail, it’s just they never meet the expectations you have set in your mind for them.

And for getting a respectable job anywhere your kid needs only 60% in tenth and 12^th. No one even sees the certificates when the interviews are conducted, so it does not matter if you scored 70% or 90% in your 10^th and 12^th. And if they want to study English(Hons) in St. Stephans, they know which subjects they need to work on. This has become clear to them in their research which you encouraged them to do.


So why not let the kid enjoy what he studies and why not let him focus on what he wishes to, keeping in his/her mind and ours that he should at least read(not study) the other subjects and get more than 60% in each of them. Which most of the students do, as far as 10^th and 12^th is concerned.

Well, as far as the horlicks is concerned, it was over by the time I came to this conclusion and then I called my brother and asked him to enjoy his eleventh standard.

I also request all parents to consider the health of the child as a priority over his/her studies too. I have seen kids carrying very heavy bags and thinking too much about a test that they get fever. Life is too big for matters like this. Kids should be able to enjoy their childhoods. Today kids are maturing faster than ever before and there is nothing wrong in that but some part of me feels that its affecting their childhood.

So, let’s all take a moment here to think about this and think whether your child is enjoying his childhood? and I don’t mean financially, I mean mentally, physically.

There is always more to what you can see and comprehend!

Love all, Bless All. Idiot signing off…

Anupriya Srivastava

A Clueless Engineer

Dated: 11-Jan-2010