DailyPost 873
PRESCRIBED LIFE
Exploration, discovery, hitting the untrodden path and later out of box thinking, audacious goals, disruptive thought / actions have been the celebrated methods of living life but for a few exceptions, the desired path has been to live a prescribed life. The prescription has been given by somebody else. And we end up following it. While certain elements of this prescription may be of some use, the vast majority of it can be dispensed with for our own betterment and for our satisfaction.
This prescribed life extends across professional and personal life, equally intensively. The prescription is unwritten but has slowly become a part of our lives to the extent that nobody even thinks of dispensing it. Education is brilliant case study. Competitive exams have not been twins of coaching. First all and at a later stage vast majority could do without coaching. The story is exactly the opposite now. Yet, today also we have students scoring 100% without coaching. This has become the prescribed mode of taking competitive exams today.
The economy or country was not doing worse when liberal arts had a fair share of educational seats and courses. The connect to a cushy job for a few at the end of engineering education, that too only few branches was extrapolated to become the popular thought. With the sentimental India tilting very heavily in it’s favour, it became the prescribed life, post school. Techies should be bereft of any non-techie knowledge or skill is another element of this prescribed life. Iconic as it may be, education and learning should end as you take up a job. Education was supposed to serve a purpose and once it’s done, it’s the end game.
Self study should be abhored is another well accepted part of the prescribed life. Cost benefit analysis should be the final arbiter. Any certification, training or study should deliver a clear cut benefit and that too immediately, is the idea of professional study and growth, is what the prescription says. Professional relationship devoid of interpersonal relationship with heavy dose of empathy is the real clincher. Paradoxical or doable?
THE STANDARD RULES OF LIFE DON’T CHANGE, LIFE PRESCRIPTIONS DO.
Sanjay Sahay