The idiots at their best

‘Strive for excellence, not success; Success is just another milestone on the road to excellence’- the movie ‘3 idiots’ convey this message to the student community in a rhetoric way. The perfectionist Amir Khan playing the lead role in the movie shows different aspects of a student’s life. The prima facie is the career dilemma influenced by the parental desires, the personal desires and the family economic background. The typical Indian mentality is rightly presented here in a lucid way. India has a majority of middle class families – both upper and lower. So the major factor which comes into play while deciding upon career goal is the financial security which in turn results in ‘job-oriented study’. Our education system is also modelled and implemented conforming to this aspect. R&D institutions are still at a nascent stage if we compare with other nations.



This is clear from the above statistics by World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) latest data. What is significant about India, however, is not just its overall ranking, but also the fact that a majority of patents filed and granted by it was to non-residents (whether companies or individuals). Thus, of the 28,940 patents filed in the country, as many as 23,626 (82 per cent) were by non-residents. This was unlike China, where 1,53,060 out of the total 2,45,161 (62 per cent) patents filed originated from resident applicants. This is really heart-rending for a country like India, which has always been viewed as the Intellectual Capital of the world civilization for ages.

A critical and careful analysis of the root cause of this, will point to the structure of education system, albeit, a part of the blame will also be shared by people’s mindset and the economic condition of the country. We proudly claim ‘India is shining’ on the basis of GDP growth, reduction in fiscal deficits, infrastructure improvement, low inflation rate, Sensex trend and other economic indicators. But we have to realize that the service industry which we boast of as the enzyme in economic growth is comprise of mainly the low end jobs which the developed nations find it cheaper to be carried out in India. The service industry is burgeoning in the country and now is the viable and lucrative job option for any knowledgeable and ‘industry-fit’ student. The education system is transforming to a machine generating some guinea pigs which are adaptable to any industry interface, driven by own interest or mostly from moral career dilemma amidst family desire and background. The ones with own interest ends up doing the best of the low end jobs and the leftovers are with the monotonous routine works which hardly require any in-depth knowledge of the subject. The end result is nothing but the wastage of knowledge capital. This is rife in India and particularly with engineers. The majority middle-class Indian families want their child to be engineer or doctor. The child’s abilities and special interests are overlooked in most cases and when the child, if ever, feels his/her own interest and thinks of pursuing it becomes too late or family bindings deter him/her to do so.

This is nicely put forward in the movie, where Madhavan as Farhan who wanted to pursue the career of a wild life photographer joins the best engineering college (because of parents’ interest) and is always among the worst performers of the class. When he realised that he should be a wild life photographer, rather than an engineer, he almost seemed to have touched the excellence in that. The message through this is simple and I think everyone should understand that we can be the best and have satisfaction in whatever we are doing, only when we have interest in that. The sooner we realise that the better it is. The mere percentage or relative grading doesn’t prove anything regarding the ability or inability of a student. If we can identify the one aspect of our life, at which we are the best and enjoy doing that then I think no barrier is hard to cross upon. Our education system also needs to be changed accordingly and should be the platform for knowledge capital, rather than being the labour creating machines. The creative abilities of the child should be nurtured and should be guided in the right path. The family and the education institution play the role of platform. More research oriented institutions should come up in the country which can utilize the best brains of the country to do something for the community as a whole. Then only the more innovations in science and technology or in any creative field will come up and we will not have to see the scarcity of patents from our country, which will result in overall prosperity of the country. For this, we need a planned combined effort implemented in the most suitable possible way. ’India Shining’ is just a media hype or a feel good factor until then.

The three idiots in the movie got all their dreams come true following the inner call, the passion for the same and the timely judgement. Amir Khan ,as Phunshuk Wangru, becomes a scientist who has 400 patents filed against his name and runs a school in Shimla where innovation matters. Madhavan, as Farhan, is doing a professional course on wild life photography in Brazilian Forest under the world’s best wild life photographer. Sharman Joshi, as Raju, is continuing his job as a successful engineer. Who will not want to be an idiot like them?

Note: The statistics used in the article are taken from ‘Business Line’- a business daily from the HINDU group publication, 1st Oct 2009.