Author: Dr. Merry Baruah, Assoc Prof, Cotton University, Guwahati and Chief Editor, Life Etcetera
The other day while chatting with a group of undergraduate students on career and life goals, I came across a piece of information that was quite a revelation! These students – all of them in their early twenties seemed quite confused regarding courses of study, career choices, and their prospective goals that await them in the long run. Robert Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ came to my mind as I was in the discussion – while Frost was trying to deal with the ‘two roads that diverged in the yellow woods’ – here was God’s plenty and the poor things were utterly confused.
I remember the days – when I was their age. Academic choices most of the time culminated in certain predetermined careers then – making things rather easy. Not that everyone was able to make a choice and end up with a stable career but more or less such was the practice. Thus students with good scores in the science stream would opt for either medical or engineering degrees, eventually becoming doctors and engineers respectively. And the rest like us, who chose humanities and social sciences would go for higher studies and take up teaching or civil services, a few would diverge into other professions such as legal practice or journalism and a few more would prefer to be their bosses choosing to be entrepreneurs and the likes. So then it seemed that it was a peaceful, sorted-out terrain and people went about doing whatever they ‘chose’ in terms of career or profession backed by an academic background suitable for the same. This was the scene in Assam and perhaps across India till the latter decades of the 20th century.
As one looks around the contemporary scene, it becomes rather pertinent that academics, generally speaking, tends to move along one direction resulting in the unfulfillment of the expectations of the learners – once again, it ought to be made clear that academics by itself is not to blame but when the question of career and livelihood is associated with education it appears to be rather problematic. Besides, every moment there is a surge of information on every aspect of life including academics and careers. To add to this, there are institutions that ‘guarantee’ a placement apparently with the world’s best employers in the respective categories. Every day the newspapers, social media, and all other sources of information are flooded with academic and career opportunities which torments the poor learners who get carried away by the deluge of information, and in the absence of Noah’s Ark, there seems to be no respite in the vicinity. Information has acquired epidemic proportions now and maybe rightly termed as an infodemic that is acutely contagious as not all information serves the receivers genuinely, all information is not solicited, and there’s seldom the element of integrity regarding the matters of ‘guaranteed’ results and placements that those information claims to provide – yet like the flu, it catches you unawares and then takes a toll on your health – in this case, such volley of information creates almost a ‘brain fog’ with the slush of confusion leading nowhere. Barring a few exceptional ones, most often in professional courses such as medicine and especially engineering, and when for the latter one is pursuing a course from institutions other than the IITs, NITs or maybe the government-run engineering colleges, it is generally in trend now to have the student acquire a degree in engineering and then go for MBA eventually ending in an MNC job where less engineering and more management skills will compel one to go amnesiac about the former! In the case of general degrees the scene is more challenging with the steep rise in unemployment and the ever-increasing chasm between what is required and what has been acquired in terms of academic performance and skill building. Thus, there are instances now of a postgraduate student applying for a multi-tasking job – this is not to undermine the value of a multi-tasker, however, what emerges out of such a situation is that the person with a high degree eventually seems to have been engaged in a futile exercise of acquiring the degree as his current employment doesn’t befit the high academic qualifications he had acquired.
And then going back to my discussion with this group of students who expressed their anxiety regarding most of these aspects, I as a teacher could only tell them about focus. What the infodemic entails is an intensely distractive ambiance given the young with their immaturity and vulnerability. To avoid being lost in the maze of information, one needs to go through a deep analysis of one’s abilities and strengths and then work on it – it need not always be a profession/career that is labeled a ‘white-collar’ job! After all, livelihood is to sustain one through the ups and downs, to provide small outlets for leisure and quality time with friends and family and a sense of security, and what can be better if someone earns well enough following one’s passion while acquiring skills to enhance the same – for instance, to opt for becoming as a restaurateur following one’s passion for cooking or the sheer love of food and feeding others! And then, in the essay ‘Life and Learning’, Bernard Shaw, the rationalist that he was, discussed among others, the gap in the education system and that the world is a ‘bigger school’ and that it has its ways of teaching – it is this bigger school which, reveals the lapses in our learning despite exceptional scorecards, and eventually each one of us shall be able to find our way to move ahead with life! At the same time, it may be reiterated that one’s focus blended with a rational and practical approach to life might equip one to face the onslaught of information and emerge a winner through the decisive paths that one chooses in the end. Like the Pandava prince Arjuna, amidst all distractions, one should never lose focus on the ‘eye of the bird’ – much like the prince who eventually attained unparalleled excellence owing to his undivided attention and focus. This shall, in a way, make one immune to the infodemic that inflicts one and all in the age of the media revolution, thereby creating a life of clarity and contentment in the most fulfilling manner.
