I say....(Post 6)

Sometime in the last week I had this problem, my laptop (deciding that it had worked well enough since the past couple of month) refused vehemently to connect to the internet through wi-fi. The signal was clear, it had excellent strength, the IP address was in its rightful position and yet no internet. Which crime am I being punished for now? I thought as I stared in oblivion at the Internet explorer’s error message (I had a project deadline to meet the next day). It took me several calls to my service provider for them to realize that the internet was not at fault, apparently me drivers had gone kaput and that I had to call a hardware specialist to reconfigure them. Two hardware engineers and three days later my net still wasn’t working. This time they blamed it on my service provider.Another software engineer (courtesy my service provider) I realized, my router wasn’t working. Ok, I am not just ranting about my net woes, thats just a part of a bigger picture. The whole net fiasco got me thinking, me being a final year above average technical graduate from a decent college, having studied subjects like Computer Networks and the like, was not able to figure out that, my router, how do I put it, was screwed up. Shame
Well I realized that it was not only me, but a whole lot of my other peers who had little or no gyaan on why we were studying what we were studying. Why does IT have “Principles Of Communication” as a subject? I’m as clueless as the next person is. Well, that’s that, but I’ll admit, leaving all my pride aside, I do not know how to repair my own computer. I know I’m not lying when I say 75% of engineering graduates don’t.
Lets just take into account the principle all engineering students follow as a decree “One day batting”. Study the day before and pass with flying colors. What would be our state if we went to a doctor who got his degree doing one day batting? I’m too terrified to even imagine. Ok, I’m not being the Buddha preaching the “Circle of Life” saying all of this. I’m just saying this is going on because the system is allowing it. No, I’m not saying JNTU, but the education system in general. Introspecting a bit, I have no idea why I’m doing engineering, leave alone IT. Do most of us know why? I think the most plausible answer you would get would be “Because I didn’t want to be a doctor”. Indians value education. That’s a good thing, definitely. But, you see, as someone pointed out to me once, it was only because of that attitude our parents pushed us, sometimes cajoling us, sometimes reprimanding us, maybe even bribing us or just plain blackmail, made us believe, no brainwashed us into believing, that the world revolved around studies.
Your neighbors kid scores more than you, there is instant comparison spiraling you into a world of jealousy, hatred and what not. Not that what they are making you do is bad, its only for your bright future. That’s true. But, what happens when someone wants to genuinely learn something and is denied the knowledge?
You would be amazed to know how often that happens. Call it the lack of resources,infrastructure or even qualified enough teachers, well you are eschewed of your right to know. If your curious you are labeled naïve or laughed at for not knowing. That is the sad state of affairs, because we are taught not to question! Like a line out of a cheesy gangster movie “You ask too many questions”! And that’s just primary education. When we have great educationalists and reformists, what’s the intention behind removing the 10th class board exams? “We don’t care for languages and social studies?” What about technical education? Is there even a slight possibility that a civil engineering student would have at least built a thermacol model of a bridge? Maybe all of this is a consequence of commercializing education. I mean, think about it, private colleges charging exorbitant prices, so that you lose your life in the process of getting into a "good" college. Maybe not your life, just your sleep and precious brain cells in mugging up what? What temperature oxygen is in liquid state. Then, after you've been exhausted enough, your fifteen years of education is put to test on ONE exam, which decides how your life goes on after that. Talk about fair. Overcoming that Herculean task are a select few, the coveted cream of the society, the mediocre ones like myself, who would be self-detested graduates and the lower rung who are well according to the society , losers? If that isn't iniquitous enough, reservations and management seats come into the picture. The meaning of education, has made its transition from "amassing knowledge" to a "social status" to a "business". Well, whatever said and done, are you ready to face the world with the knowledge you have? Thats for you to introspect. As for my part, I'd say, a famous line from a famous movie. The system is not perfect, you can either live with it or fight against it. Think about it!