I am an Indian. From a middle-class family. And, I am an engineer; a pseudo one at that. Enough said!

Some time in the past

Out of nowhere, I have this strange epiphany. If I look around myself, I realize that half of my school friends are engineers and the other half are doctors. I don't see any other breed; which is weird and sad in equal parts. Some of us will, certainly, have better career graphs than others but our career paths at the moment, are just the same. It makes me wonder if that happened by design or destiny. Was it a co-incidence or were we all Siamese twins, at some level? Do I blame my parents for making me an average Joe, as is always the case, or should I hold a gun against my school teachers?

It is two in the am. I have to attend a class at 8:40 am tomorrow in the extremely cold winters of Ithaca; but the sleep is eluding me. I have to find an answer to this quandary. And, the impatient person that I am, I have to find an answer NOW!

I get up from my bed, open my computer, log-in into Orkut and chat with a few of my friends. I ask them about their motivation to choose their career paths (read engineering/medicine) and get varying answers, all of which converge to the same thing - "for lack of better options". I am not satisfied with any of the answers, park this question somewhere in my head and all groggy-eyed, I go to college the next morning.

March 2013

I happen to visit one of the high schools in the neighbourhood and get a chance to interact with some of the brightest minds of the country. They have so much energy, passion and a truly refreshing outlook towards life. They are extremely polished, their taste in music and literature is eclectic. And, their slangs are so different from mine.

But, guess what! These kids also want to either become engineers or doctors. Much to my dismay, things haven't changed from "some time in my past" till 2013.

All of a sudden, I have a moment of lucidity wherein everything is crystal clear to me. The decision of my generation was not driven by options or lack thereof. It was purely perception based. We thought there were fewer options which guaranteed success. It was indeed the sum total of peer pressure, the way our parents thought and the way our society functioned. And, it was our answer to manage the huge expectations of everyone - choose the chosen path and be good at that.

I disembark the question from my past and decide to do something about it. My bit, if you may!

Now

If I were a foodie, I would have opened a restaurant. If I loved fashion, I would have been a model. Sadly, I was a nerdy kid which is why I run a start-up in the education space. I won't divulge the details of the same here, because that would be construed as shameless marketing. I would just discuss my ideology.

At the risk of sounding pompous, we are trying to create a world where there ain't any pre-decided paths for every youngster. No body "arranges" the career path of the impressionable teens. I strongly believe that the teenagers should be allowed to experiment and explore various career options. And, they should keep exploring until they fall in love with a particular stream. Absolute love! After all, they have to spend the rest of their professional lives with that choice.

Mind you, it may not be love at first sight. They may have to cheat on "Engineering" in order to be a professional writer par excellence. Or they may have to separate ways with medicine, just so they can spend their energies in learning Journalism! But, we should just let them pursue where their hearts reside.

It would then be a beautiful world- call it utopian if you want to.

Disclaimer: Shikha Chaudhry is the co-founder of CourseGarage.