We are today , at that stage in our lives where the frequency of that question has reached a maximum. In retrospect, that question was temporarily suspended from conversation when I joined college in 2006, and I anticipate (in hope) that ten years down the line people wont embarrass by asking it again.
[By the way -> that Question : beta/bhaiya/dude/!@#!$!/(several other possible honorifics) , aage ke kya plans hain ?].
At any rate, Rolles Theorem guaranteed the existence of a maximum, and so it has been delivered. I might add that admitting this fact doesnt even come close to assisting us in answering the question.
The whole idea of writing this down, takes me back to a train journey earlier this year (Delhi to Lucknow Shatabdi - that part of the coach where we have two rows of seats facing each other over a small table). A slightly bored, cold and sick 'me' was accompanied by an engineer at Microsoft, some administrator in Seimens, a lady at Reliance and a Doctor who was giving post-graduate exams. (There was also this one other guy, who didn't utter a word, and was staring at everyone else with murderous intent .. but we'll let him be). The lady started the conversation by saying that money is not important, we have plenty of time to earn sufficiently later and that this is the time to follow your heart. She added that youngsters today realize this (at this point, i couldn't hold myself any longer and laughed out loud). I added after such an interruption that I hardly observe such a trend, and that from what I see in and around, money is the 'heart' today (or at least in aimless engineering graduates!) and I gave certain examples.Perhaps it was too cold, or they were too tired - but one thing lead to another and I wasn't thrown off the train for being rude. But i do believe that this whole notion of following your heart, searching for what you want is all very new. In the previous generation, I get the impression that the idea was to achieve a financial and societal steady state. A desire to establish oneself as early as possible with a greater stress on family, settling location etc. (with attraction to government jobs to boot). It is only recently that this idea has evolved to a newer definition of success where people are more open to having an opinion on what they really want. It has perhaps something to do with an increased influence of western culture, and an associated incapability to adjust or make sacrifices in this regard. Of course all this is simply a perception, and is only as true as the environment I have learnt from.
At any rate, we slowly converged to career options with several animated discussions on hypothetical scenarios, and how everyone is both satisfied and dissatisfied with what they have [ the Doctor said, "yaar engineering kari hoti to naukri to lag hi gayi hoti, MBBS is a waste"]- the discussion became philosophical : I recalled the whole incident by watching this epitomizing ad (and i love the jingle !!) on television yesterday --
After this ridiculously pointless digression, I would like to classify the range of careers I observe in people around me (in the finite interaction space that I enjoy). Perhaps this would be a logical way of going about the options that we have/have not, and attempt to make a possible decision. Civil services, generic jobs (software), specific jobs (still more software), other jobs (core sector, finance?, consulting ...), higher studies - CAT,GMAT,GRE.... yeah thats about it. So I was wondering whether it is possible to classify ones ambition (as a function of 'interests' and 'capabilities') into one of those spheres, and to decide in this current state of mental and physical existence .. which one to choose ?. The sad answer is no, and I should at this point apologize to the reader who expected anything sensible from this post. But what I do believe all of us require to get into the idea of deciding where we are and where are heading (if anywhere at all), is an amount of introspection. And this has been one of my agendas for the vacations, to think about stuff and gain a larger perspective of things such as these. But that was before I started watching Naruto, and yet another set of consecutive days with nothing to do passed away. Maybe next time...
Joy
11 months ago
13 comments:
The video is very interesting. I loved it.
I read this speech a little while ago. It was by Steve Jobs at the graduation ceremony at Stanford I guess. Somebody emailed me a text of the speech and titled in 'You've got to find what you love'.
I think, and I may perhaps be wrong, that this idea of finding what you exactly love doing is again a facet of perfectionism. My recent post ( http://praveshkothari.blogspot.com/2008/12/one.html ) is quite on the same lines. It actually is related to getting the perfection.
When you say do what you want, there is a belief involved that your wants are stable enough to not to change. What gives us the guarantee that they won't change once we chose what we love right now? I don't know. I am one of those persons who is obsessed with choosing exactly what I want. To the point that sometimes I spend a lot of time to think what I want exactly. But some other times ( like the one I wrote that blog post in :P ) I think there is a terrible fallacy somewhere in believing in the existence of 'exactly what I want'.
Sorry for taking your discussion into the periphery of philosophical realms. :)
And just like you, I leave the above comment with no particular conclusion except the chaos multiplied ;)
:D
ill take that as a compliment......
yeah, that particular speech is awesome :
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
i read ur post, its incredible that we independently came up with these similar idea based posts this week, ill comment on urs at its rightful location :)
I typed half of this and realized I was at another blog/post...
"beta/bhaiya/DUDE/!@#!$!/(several other possible honorifics) , aage ke kya plans hain ?"--Haha too good! :-D
Very well written Kartik. I am amused but not surprised by what the doctor said to you. Quite a few doctors have said this to me, all of them belonging to different age groups.
Some may disagree, but you can only wonder how much respect some of these people have for their OWN jobs. If you have this feeling of professional discontentment at the back of your mind, I can't see how it won't hinder your judgement in the long run. At one level, it is quite appalling to hear someone say that about his profession because its almost as if its a matter of which flavour of pizza to choose from and whether he likes jalapeño more or mushroom.
Then there are just these people who become 'career counsellors' in our country..people dissatisfied with their own jobs but very eager to share their cynicism and "experience" with youngsters. How can you blame people who don't 'follow their heart' because of monetary considerations when the only "advice" they find around themselves is full of crap (it is also amusing that 'following your heart' could mean a lot of OTHER things, if you know what I mean :-P). Believe me, someone who has no respect or passion for his job isn't someone you're going to get a useful or bright idea out of. I'm scared by what young MBBS graduates in the next few years are going to do, given that their average stamina is lower than the Gaussian after 90% decay from maximum, and that they are not eager to spend the amount of time it takes to finish medical education, but the fact that they have no other obvious choice forces them to. Of course I am not generalizing, and in the spirit of humanity I would like to believe that there are still people who genuinely want to become doctors, engineers or whatever for the sake of becoming doctors, engineers or whatever.
At another level, the economic setup of our country is absolutely not conducive to 'following your heart' insofar as career decisions are concerned. People are scared about this and curb their natural instincts to do something that is more mob-friendly as I would like to call it. You have enough examples to support this claim.
It is easy enough to dismiss these issues as being deeply rooted in socio-economic expectations and societal confusions, but in doing so we risk being part of the problem. The most common definition of success post graduation is too heavily ingrained in the minds of people to allow them a certain freedom to think about the wonderful things they could do by not sticking to the norms laid out by existential mechanics of society :-)
But then, as Pravesh points out, the idea of finding exactly what you love is related to achieving perfection. In fact, no damn bloke can really tell you what YOU can do...its just that feeling inside your head (or heart, whatever it is for different people) when you're doing THAT thing, that tells you "yeah!". Everything else is secondary, optional and irrelevant. So with due respect, this whole debate with a clan of youngsters being advised by older more experienced people (quite a few of whom seem to be pissed off with their chosen professions) is quite decremental imho. (And since everyone seems to be advertising ;-), I will like to bring your attention to an earlier blog post that I wrote which hurriedly touches upon some of these aspects: http://darkmav.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-some-things-are-in-mess.html)
I think its necessary to be holistic and mature to understand that the world needs different people with diverse skill sets, all contributing in their own little ways. It is certainly important for everyone to do what they like, and the next time someone asks you what you've planned....I guess you could point them to our blog posts :-D
(I guess its an easier way to silence them than telling them something like "I don't plan to do nothing with my life!")
:-D
Btw, it seems that the Microsoft guy had no role to play in your story....typical...these people...oh well. :-D
".people dissatisfied with their own jobs but very eager to share their cynicism and "experience" with youngsters." ----- awesome ! couldn't have put it better myself !
"the next time someone asks you what you've planned....I guess you could point them to our blog posts :-D"
have already done that to more than one person !!
this is great !!
and you know what, that Microsoft 'guy' wasnt a 'guy' after all .....
PS : your comments have forced me to put greater thought into these things :)
yaar i have come to a decision. I am going to be a uthor, and i will write exactly 3 books -
1) Nine Point Someone
2) X Nights@ Call Center
3) N Mistakes of My Life (N >> x > 1)
Vivek will be the editor
Pravesh will write the *foreword, afterword and review*
Magar will 'start-up' a publishing house for 3rd rate stuff like this
Robo and the man shall be ... charachters
what say !
Accha idea hai. Meri aukaat bas inside front cover me ek fine print ki kar di hai, lekin theek hai...appropriate hi hai :-P
You forgot the "n letter words beginning with x" which must be an important element of your books Kartik. They will ensure instant fame and eventual Bookers/Pulitzers/(Bhatnagars?).
Well I completely concur with u people that one should follow one's heart or to put it in different words 'what one actually wants in life'. Nevertheless, is it not slightly a difficult task? I have been pondering over this thing for quite a long time now and I still see myself standing on the same position where I was a couple of years back. Therefore, does that mean that I lack the power to conclude or may be do not possess the required skills to introspect myself properly?
What I feel, that u guys have ushered people to think in this particular direction (which I appreciate to the fullest) but none of u have come up with a solution. It is very easy to talk on such vital and hypothetical issues but when it comes to the ways and means to resolve them, we find ourselves stranded on an isolated shore.
Therefore, I think that the only way we can do this, is by keep on experimenting with the things that come on our way. Until and unless we get into a work and get a feeling of being satisfied or dissatisfied, how on earth will we get to know that whether we want to continue ‘it’ any further or is ‘it’ the same thing which we have been longing for so long???
A number of people continue to chase their dreams even if they step on the threshold of adulthood (and sometimes senility too) . However, that does not mean that they do not do anything simultaneously. They maintain a social security as well. Such rational people follow the path of pragmatism. Take for instance, Dr Palash Sen. He is a renowned doctor but has carved a niche for himself in the field of music as well(the lead singer of the band Euphoria). Another example could be of Nikhil Chinappa, the famous VJ and a DJ, who after completing his bachelors in Architecture, went in for pursuance of his dreams. I know I am not quoting ideal examples out here but all I want to convey is that, after getting into the domain of their respective fields these mortals must have realized that this is probably not “that thing” which would give them the utmost pleasure and satisfaction and hence they again went in for different things. Therefore, here comes the use of the word “experiment.” The more we experiment the more quickly we know and this would bring us a one-step closer to our dreams.
I am not here to guide anyone like someone in this post said "people dissatisfied with their own jobs but very eager to share their cynicism and "experience" with youngsters."
This is solely my perception gathered from what I have learnt from life so far. Thus, I presume that my views do not reek of being offensive at all. Though I apologize for intruding but the thought in itself was so mind boggling that I couldn’t refrain myself from being a part of this discussion.
(jk)
No.Unfortunately i am not the same swati from your class (x). But it was indeed good going through your post. Keep on writing stuff like that because it certainly helps in opening the horizon of the people with parochial thinking.:)
And i am doing good.
Thanks. :)
Post a Comment