Finding Your Calling

What is education coming to these days? I just happened to look at the cut offs for admissions to my Alma mater this year, and I realised that I would not have been admitted to any of the honours courses other than Sanskrit and Philosophy, with the percentage that I had in my class twelve board exams. And this is just the qualifying cut off for the interview. There is an ever-growing number of students vying for a relatively constant number of seats in the better known educational institutions. Life is becoming tougher and tougher for an average student. There is no time and opportunity to stop and think that not all of us are meant to secure high percentages and walk the halls of an academic institution. Some of us are supposed to find our calling elsewhere, maybe in painting, dance, music, or doing something for the environment. Parents tend to discourage their children from entering certain fields because of social stigmas associated with them, or the fact that one has to struggle a lot to find their footing as, say, a photographer. It takes longer to establish yourself in an off beat career. But you know, there comes a time, when you have seen the world that you tried to fit into, when you realise that the road oft taken was not for you. Sometimes it happens at a slightly later stage in life, when you have family commitments and are hence afraid to venture into a less stable career. I think we all need to introspect deeply into our souls, discover our own desires, and figure out where we really want to take our lives before life takes us in a direction we don't really know we don't want to travel in. Once you know your calling, once you really know what you really want to do, it's relatively easy to find some time on the side to pursue it on a smaller scale, and gradually work your way up. I think that life should be about living the way you are happy, the way your family is happy, and the way you are able to spend more time with them. I think the world can do with fewer software engineers and fewer software products (or less fancy features, which a lot of people other than the ones who make them can't really understand anyway), but we need more art, more focus on the environment, more work on roads and flyovers, more things that make life more peaceful and beautiful.