Popping The Ladoo!! Urgh!

Meritnation.com. A new course for 'topping the scores' apparently. As if parents these days are not crazy enough about pushing their kids, as if they are not capable enough of undermining every achievement their children have, as if the race for the topper is not il enough already.

'Top the score, pop the ladoo' they say. But why? Why can't a 87% be celebrated? Or for that matter, even a 67%. Isn't it good enough if a child does their best, anymore? Or is it just about 'topping the score'?

Whatever happened to passion and zest for life and  the 'if your work is what you love then you never work a day' concept? Why is it always 'engineering' or 'medicine' and 'get an MBA and get into an IT/TATA/Aditya Birla company' now-a-days?

Why does India not have more of the obscure careers, you know, the photographers, artists, musicians, athletes... Is it any wonder we keep suffering at the Olympics every four years?

I was never a pro at studying. I hated the concept of cramming stuff in my mind for the sole sake of exams. It used to drive my mum mad, having my grades suffer because i preferred to use my own examples instead of textbook answers in examinations.

But I couldn't stand any of it. Not the cramming, not the boring textbooks and definitely not any of those professors who favored the crammers!!!

I loved to write. I loved grammar, vocabulary, spelling... I loved solving puzzles and the math questions. I loved derivative associations, and the mystery of physics and the intricacies in biology.

I particularly loved using my mind. And I hated it if I came home with a score of 90 on my card and my mum asked me how last year's topper had done.

But look at what happened to me. I got a Biotechnology degree, got an MBA and am now stuck at an IT firm myself. And am I happy? No!

Obviously not! I look forward to that day when I can be a writer full-time! When writing won't be something I have to 'make time for'. When I will be able to work on what I love so that I neevr have to work another day..!

If I had had the guts to go for a literature course instead of Biotechnology, or if I had had the guts to go for an MSc in Biotechnology instead of the much hyped about MBA, I would have had a much different life...

And that's what parents today need to realize. That it's about popping the ladoo, but about not popping their child's future happiness...