With regards to the importance in choosing a career that one has some level of passion for, rather than simply considering money as a motivational factor has become very common. Many parents, especially, in Indian subcontinents have their way in deciding the careers for their children without looking at the aptitude and abilities. Until recently, if you asked parents from a middle class background in India about the career prospects of their children, invariably the answer would revolve around a medical degree or engineering. The middle class family is typically characterised with a rigid world view and with little regards to the broader picture of what life is all about, and how it becomes meaningful through the pursuit of doing something that you love to do.
Thus, we have doctors who have no empathy for their patients but are simply greedy for more money. Similarly, we have engineers, who are corrup rather than creative. Also, we have people with artistic and musical flare who are forced to lead lives doing the opposite of what they are passionate about.
However, today, many professions that were traditionally considered as low in status have now become evolved into lucrative fields for students with right aptitude. Another irony is the fact that most of the professional doctors and engineers, who are working in India have failed to contribute to research and development as seen in the West, where sufficient funds are usually deployed for research programmes and innovations. What drives the professionals in the Western world is their passion to engage in advancing their knowledge and come out with groundbreaking inventions and a reason for India lagging behind in scientific breakthrough is attributed to the lack of funds for research.
It is time that we give students the freedom to choose their own careers based on their own interests and abilities. Similarly, parents should stop trying to realise their own personal unfulfilled dreams by forcing their children to opt for something that they have no passion for because that is not going to benefit anyone in the end.
— The reader is an Indian business development coordinator based in Dubai.
