LIVE YOUR PASSION !!
It’s heartening to see that youngsters today, are happily and willingly quitting their conventional professions and choosing to do things they are passionate about !(The Romantics-They have a Dream !INDIA TODAY, July 30,20120) For choosing the professions today, sky is the limit, and the most common is entrepreneurship ! The youngsters today pursue a branch of education of their choice and subsequently the job they enjoy!
Romantics existed in the past too and there were many who wanted to pursue education and off beat careers of their choice but there were many limitations, and main being a sense of insecurity and family pressures and commitment. Three decades ago, medicine, law, engineering ,teaching, civil services and government and bank jobs were the only branches available to choose from. These were followed by Chartered accountancy and later by MBA & MCA. The choice of stream was the prerogative of the parents and not the child’s liking or interest. Following family profession was in vogue too. Financial restraints forced a child to choose a professional line or get into job early. There were very few avenues to earn adequate while studying or of scholarships and education loans. Family commitments of old parents, pension less job of father, construction of house, marriage and education of siblings were quite prevalent. Settling early in life with marriage and kids was a prevalent custom and women doing jobs was not very common while a salaried, specially government job for the man, was almost mandatory in the marriage market. Pursuing professions and earning money from branches related to hobbies and likings, like dance, music, crafts, stage, sports were not only discouraged but were ridiculed, mostly due to their doubtful potential for a livelihood and insecurity of lack of professional or educational backup for future. In this scenario many thus, often landed with jobs or professions that they never wanted to join or even hated.
But things have changed today. Firstly there are umpteen streams to choose from, for education and job and newer are surfacing every day. The parents decide the stream keeping in mind the interest and capability of the child in his or her consultation .Most parents are financially stable and hence the individual does not have any family liabilities. Due to absence of financial restrains, there is no urgency to complete studies and pick up a profession. Readily available education loans with easy repayment schemes and scholarships for deserving students make things easy. While many leave the main stream jobs to choose avenues which are related to their education, many prefer to take totally deviant paths.
Besides this, the mindset of the present generation has changed too. Not all are in a hurry to earn and to earn a lot. Marriage is low on the list of priorities and there is no insecurity about the future. But the two main changes in the youngsters today is that they want to live their passions, they want to live for self and not for the world or society and above all they want not just a living, but a living which can contribute to growth of their profession or branch or benefit the society and the underprivileged. There is a desire to do something new, something good, something off beat and above all something which will benefit others too besides the individual him or herself and the immediate family. The youth today is passionate about their profession and want to make their passion as their profession. The encouragement from parents, acceptance from society and the support of spouse are the other additional factors that assist these bubbling entrepreneurs to romance with their dreams !
Long back I read in Readers Digest,”if you don’t want to work for the rest of your life, choose a profession you like!” and today I see it happen. All the best to these brave experimenters to romance with their dreams!
Dr Sanjay Kolkata