Today, I was just recalling my childhood. We had very limited resources. Good books were rare. We had to visit the bookshops in different corners of the small town on our bicycles just to get a hand on a good book. Sometimes, we used to come to Daryaganj's old book market to get our hands on some good books. It will be a day tour for which we will take a train from home town and after around 3 hours, we will reach Daryaganj. After spending a whole day long, somehow, we may be able to get our hands on some good books at a cheap price. There were very few teachers and in fact, the teachers also had a monopoly on the subject. There was no internet at that time and there were hardly any libraries in small towns. Despite all these limitations, parent's motivation was always available. Expectations were not so high.
Today, with the invention of the internet, almost every information is available on the screen. mobile apps and coaching institutes have mushroomed. Students can get online and offline coaching for any subject. A number of colleges and universities have grown beyond imagination. There are so many options available to the students and almost all the schools are making the information available to the kids. There are career counseling sessions and interactions with the alumni almost in each school.
It's strange to see the confusion among kids in spite of the availability of so many options. Probably everyone wants the best. IIT and AIIMS are the dreams of everybody in the field. Even in IITs, they want the one with the best ranking. Kids are under tremendous pressure. Due to the availability of the information, almost all the parents are aware of the rankings of the institutes and they are also fighting the battles for their ego and respect. Kids getting selected to IITs and government medical colleges are like trophies to them. It's a high adrenaline completion to get a dose of dopamine.
I really feel sorry for the kids and their parents. It seems we are the slaves of our own choices. In our race to be number one, probably we forget to live life. There is no doubt that we need to earn a livelihood to live. It is also true that in a country like India, there is a lot of competition and therefore the kids have to make that extra effort to get selected into good colleges. It is also true that average packages are better for the kids passing out of reputed colleges.
However, probably, we are missing one very crucial aspect and that is the meaning of life. Probably, we are not introspecting enough on the question as to what is the meaning of life and how are good packages going to make life meaningful. If we do not contemplate the meaning of life and start running after money and power since our childhood, it is quite difficult to understand the meaning of life at a later stage. It is because there would be two possibilities when we run after money and power. First, even if we get what we desire, our expectations also rise as we grow, and we keep shifting the targets as we get money and power. Thus, we would never be able to get time to contemplate the real purpose of our lives and we are most likely to remain engaged for one after the other target. Second, there would be a significantly higher probability that we are not going to get what we aimed at, and in that case, anyhow, our life would be full of frustration, jealousy, and frustration.
I feel that just a simple observation of the people in history and mythology is sufficient to make us understand that there is a definite difference between richness and fulfillment. Ravana, Kansa, Duryodhana, Dritrashtra, Hitler, etc. were all rich and powerful but they did not have a fulfilled life. They always remained dissatisfied till their death. On the other hand, Rama, Krishna, Arjuna, Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharishi, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, etc had either limited resources or had a difficult life for a significant time. Still, all of these had a very fulfilling life. Of course, there are many such as King Janaka, who were rich and powerful and had a fulfilling life. We need to therefore ask two questions to ourselves. Firstly, whether we want a fulfilling life or a rich and powerful life. Second, if we want a fulfilling life, whether there is any correlation between money and fulfillment.
I feel that the parents must ask these two questions to the kids and help them think about these two questions rather than imposing their presumptions on the kids. We may buy the best of the laptops from the market and get the best of the software and anti-virus installed therein and may feel happy about the same. However, happiness lies in the use of the laptop. It's the best utilization of the laptop that makes it meaningful otherwise, it will die its natural death and will get outdated. Similarly, it is the use of the human body and mind that makes human life meaningful and not the comforts and pleasures. There is a definite role of education in our lives. It is like downloading and installing useful software like MS Office on the laptop that makes the laptop even more useful. However, as a laptop becomes meaningful only when we use it to the best of our capacity, life too becomes meaningful only when we use our body and mind to the best of our capacity. Will Einstien be happy giving away the joy of his scientific inventions for billions of dollars? Would Michael Phelps stop swimming if you offered him a billion dollars? I feel that all of us need to ask questions about the meaning of life with the kids and try to find our own answers…
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