Engineering: An Obsession

It isn’t an uncommon occurrence to see an entire generation share an obsession. The one preceding us, for example, had a major fascination for trouser bottoms wide enough to sweep streets. The one before them had felt the same way about round watches on silly chains. Till the dawn of the new millennium, our generation’s holy grail had been video games and net-surfing. But all of those seem to have met their ends with the advent of the new kid in the block… “Engineering”.

It’s unlikely that so many people from different age, ethnic and cultural groups have ever shared a longing for the same thing in the past. But nonetheless, this feeling of common desire is a stark reality of today. While the majority of the high school pass-outs want the degree for themselves, their parents want it for their children… boiling it down to the same thing. Although this system helps in avoiding a whole lot of career-choice arguments at home, it ceases to be an entirely good thing if we ponder the whys and wherefores of the reasons for which the exhibits desire the tag of an engineer.

With the explosion of the engineering industry, and by that I mean the sudden demand for people who want to do the same job as approximately ten million replicas of themselves for a moderate amount of money, the number of takers for this “Career” has soared too. If considered from a different angle, the success of the engineering business in India has probably snagged more clients than say… the propaganda to recruit soldiers during the Second World War. But be that as it may, it’s the accomplishment of the scheme that counts.

The truly disturbing aspect of the illusionary triumph of this particular branch of higher education becomes apparent when one dares to take a peek into the classrooms of the numerous hallowed institutes, riding the crest of the business’s glory.

If asked the simple question of, why a student decided on studying engineering, the most common answer (provided the subject were being honest, that is) would be, “To get a job that pays well”.

If you think that is petty, then you will be astonished by the reasons that the parents of these kids have for pushing their wards towards the noble study of things that earn money… they do it so that the children may start supporting the family sooner.

For the thousand cases for whom this need is real, there are at least ten times the number of families who are affluent enough to have allowed their children to pick a discipline as per their aptitudes… but who are we to interfere in what a father makes his son do.

The immediate consequence of children taking up a course for the wrong reasons is the flooding of the ever-increasing engineering institutions with students who lack the required temperament to become engineers. And even though this particular crisis is swept under the rug with the help of steroids that appear in the form of suggestion papers and lax paper-setting, the end result is unaltered.

What graduates every year from the engineering colleges around the nation, is a motley collection of students, most of who have majored in the art of mugging up equations and staying up till 4:00 A.M on the nights before assignment deadlines. Not exactly a prime recruit for a multinational agency if common sense speaks sooth.

And yet, in spite of the rising number of rejects from companies, the engineering apple continues to seduce the decisions of the masses. Comprehending why this is the case, is easier than one might think.

In addition to being a course that indeed holds a lot of promise, engineering has become a status symbol for every student approaching the end of his schooling. And since nothing in the world is disjointed, it has become a matter of pride or shame to the child’s guardians and mentors.

Engineering has become the choicest, most preferred and sought-after career for any student hailing from a science background (except for a few aspiring brain surgeons) simply because it is the hardest to get into. And using their trademark Neanderthal-like reasoning ability the mob has come to the conclusion that it is the choice of champions… as it were.

This feeling of considering engineering to be a superior branch of study has come to a point where students pursuing honors courses are considered to belong to a second, lower level in terms of merit. Neighbors and family friends, of whom India (unfortunately) has no lack, are there every step of the way to egg things on. So, when a parent has to declare that his kid will be studying English Honors (god forbid) he knows that all the folks he is announcing this to are wondering if this decision is a result of failing to crack the various entrance exams to the engineering institutes.

The glamour of an engineering degree is such that every student is advised to try and sit for the competitive exams no matter how much he may desire to be a historian or a journalist instead. But of course, let us ignore society’s possible loss of a gifted columnist, as long as that one lad will have a future that is marginally more assured. While we are at it, let us also be oblivious to the fact that this assurance is a sentence to a lifetime of mediocrity and job dissatisfaction.

The classes of engineering colleges thrive with people with low to average GPAs, who nonetheless hold people spellbound with the things they paint or sketch. There is no scope of questioning, if in an attempt to make a sure pot of money, the undiscovered artist has in fact sentenced himself to a lifetime of doing things he has no passion for. There is no sure way of even knowing if the decision was in fact made by him in the first place.

Ok, granted, the world we live in is dominated by technology. But that doesn’t mean that everyone among us is a budding Edison. Our present generation also holds its fair share of Nerudas and Miltons, who if given their chance to bloom, might inspire awe in us all. If in this age of reasoning and logic we still choose to ignore facts and desires and turn instead to the words of advice of others, how do the kids have the freedom to determine what it is that they are best suited for?

How is this act of making a decision out of fear, supposed to bring a man to success? How is a parent making his child’s decision for him, any different from a man belonging to the age where a father’s occupation would always be inherited by his son?

There seems to be only a single thread of thought in this mindless rush. Since, this era of ours thrives on engineering, therefore becoming an engineer would provide more scope of success than anything else. And it would be true too… for all those with the slightest aptitude for the course.

But most of our young generation are well endowed with talents that are far from the solemn field that deals with logic above all else. A fact their decision-making is a testament to. What, if one is a gifted writer, would one want to study engineering for? Everyone has his or her own sets of skills and special attributes, so why doesn’t everyone play by them?

Since we are all made in the likeness of the Lord, surely none of us is so woefully shortchanged in the talent division that we have to take up careers enthralled by the mere prospect of an average life?

Engineering should not be taken up by anyone, save those who have demonstrated a keen sense of logic and a questioning mind… ironically, the same two things that are hardest to find in a typical engineering college. Therefore, the classes get filled with people who study by rote and find it difficult to answer questions that deal with anything outside what they have been taught.

It should be obvious to the meanest intelligence that there is no shame in taking a course that plays to your strengths. It should be a matter of pride to be studying a subject that isn’t part of a hype… to go against the flow and fight the peer pressure. We Indians are among the first in the world to boast of our heritage… then why is it, that most of us are afraid to try something that may not take us abroad.

Effectively, that is what it has come down to… people do engineering because they view it as a chance to escape. And in the process they deviate from the things that they really had a flair for… the things that would have taken them out of the ignoble mediocrity that they surrender on account of a wrong choice.

It really is high time for impressionable students to stop being taken in by the fair sounding advice about careers and job prospects, and start thinking for themselves. If every Indian were to start playing to his strengths instead of immersing himself in the flow of society, perhaps we may at last begin to achieve what we claim to have the potential for.

It is quite likely, that the constant pressure to succeed, that we and our peers go through, is the most instrumental factor that holds us back and pushes us towards the wrong choices we make.

Let us hope that this cycle will be broken sometime soon, when parents and pupils alike will start following their dreams and not the concept of affluence, or how to achieve it.

Above all else, every single student should start learning to choose what he really wants to become… and the answer to that should not be “rich… and quickly!”