A year ago my neighbours moved to London filled to the brim with excitement. A week ago they returned, not very excited but a little glum. The lure of money aside, they were not very happy with the quality of education England had to offer for their son. I was a bit surprised since he was all of twelve years old. They complained that the books were wafer thin and as beauty is always skin deep they felt thin books and extracurricular activities would be a hindrance to their son slogging for CET/AIEEE/blah blah blah and become a “software engineer”. Having fallen into the same trap myself I feel a brotherly sympathy towards the kid. There seems to be a disease spreading thick and fast. Every teenager in middle class India has it drilled into him to take up PCMB/C/again blah blah in 12th and thereafter become an engineer preferably with the prefix “software”, or a doctor. Commerce and humanities are for dull kids. That’s the message given by nosy aunties and uncle’s who haven’t the vaguest idea about what they’re talking about.

Let me deviate from the point a little bit. Every individual is born with a certain something called intelligence. It’s our ability to make decisions other than “What am I going to eat for dinner?” that makes us superior to pond life and apes. And this “intelligence” when measured follows the law of averages quite neatly. There are those who are exceptionally bright and there are those who are like Paris Hilton. A majority of us humans fall somewhere in between. There is a serious snag in the “measurement” of intelligence. The standard IQ tests (and most of our examinations,/entrance tests) only measure the individuals’ logical and mathematical skills. There are a whole lot of factors which aren’t taken into account in measuring it thus. For example you can have a guy who’s dazzling at math but when you give him a map and let him loose in downtown Mumbai he might come a cropper as the task demands something called spatial intelligence. Then there’s linguistic intelligence, musical intelligence and a whole bunch of other “intelligences” which aren’t tested in the regular IQ tests. Muhammad Ali had an IQ of 75 (tested by the U.S. army) which is as dull as anyone can get without being retarded according to the traditional notion of “intelligence” but he possessed , in abundance, something called body kinaesthetic intelligence which determines how well you can co-ordinate your skeletal system to excel as an athlete.

Now think about the situation in India. From about the time a toddler begins to walk, it is drilled into him that engineering and medicine are the only holy paths to a successful career. I’m talking typical middle class India here. No consideration is given to a fact that an individual and therefore his inteligence, is what the word means in itself. Unique. One of a kind . Individual A might be a great musician but he’s compelled to sit for JEE, an exam that is demanding on one’s logical and mathematical skills, only to be disappointed by not qualifying. Aren’t his parents satisfied with this? No. He sits for CET in every state till he gets ECE or Computer Science. So he does a course, which he has no aptitude for whatsoever, and struggles through college only to be placed as a “software engineer” which is a dream come true for a parent. Music be damned!

If you ask me this neighbour of mine would have been better off in England. An essential catalyst for happiness is an environment in which an individual can assess his capabilities and choose a path which is suited to his mental makeup. Everyone can’t be an engineer or a doctor. When will this seep into heads of our aunties and uncles?