I recently watched the hindi movie "3 idiots" ... a few weeks latter than the rest of the world thou... for which I would blame my lazyness rather than busy schedule :).
The movie was a great watch... A great comedy, with the age old message of "follow your passion"... Being true to my passion, psychiatry.. I decided to socio-psychologically dissect the movie, from my point of view..
Within minutes I made a mental frame work of the 3 idiots in the indian society... that strive and long for individual brilliance but keep blaming each other for their failures...
our 3 idiots:
a. Mr.Education System
b. Mr.Parent
c. Mr.Individual
Together they form the great indian education circus... where an individual preforms.. the parent is the ring master ..and the education system is our event coordinator...
There can be huge debates of the reforms, responisibilities and duties of each one of these 3... but in the end no one wants to take an action on the debated.
A few moons ago, when the education minister decided to bring reforms by simplyfying the education system... it was the parents and the students who objected to a "grade" system.
The indian education system is orthodox, outdated and highly demanding on the mind of the student...but also its the simplest way of catering to an every growing number of students.
2 lakhs students appear for MBBS entrance exam every year... when the country has hardly 2500 open seats.. aint the question papers bound to be tougher and tougher every year.
Its very easy to blame it for all the non-imaginative, non-brain stimulating, stupid things that a student has to learn every year, but if tht extra information wasnt there, how would they qualify and quantify 2500 out of 2 lakh.?
Mr.Parent... is probably the most important link in this great circus. The socio-cultural rules and regulations of the Indian society compel the Parent to have complete physical, mental and emotional authority over his childs.
The movie was a great watch... A great comedy, with the age old message of "follow your passion"... Being true to my passion, psychiatry.. I decided to socio-psychologically dissect the movie, from my point of view..
Within minutes I made a mental frame work of the 3 idiots in the indian society... that strive and long for individual brilliance but keep blaming each other for their failures...
our 3 idiots:
a. Mr.Education System
b. Mr.Parent
c. Mr.Individual
Together they form the great indian education circus... where an individual preforms.. the parent is the ring master ..and the education system is our event coordinator...
There can be huge debates of the reforms, responisibilities and duties of each one of these 3... but in the end no one wants to take an action on the debated.
A few moons ago, when the education minister decided to bring reforms by simplyfying the education system... it was the parents and the students who objected to a "grade" system.
The indian education system is orthodox, outdated and highly demanding on the mind of the student...but also its the simplest way of catering to an every growing number of students.
2 lakhs students appear for MBBS entrance exam every year... when the country has hardly 2500 open seats.. aint the question papers bound to be tougher and tougher every year.
Its very easy to blame it for all the non-imaginative, non-brain stimulating, stupid things that a student has to learn every year, but if tht extra information wasnt there, how would they qualify and quantify 2500 out of 2 lakh.?
Mr.Parent... is probably the most important link in this great circus. The socio-cultural rules and regulations of the Indian society compel the Parent to have complete physical, mental and emotional authority over his childs.
As happens with 90% of the people i see around. First the society pushes you to marry someone they feel is compatible for you. 60% of these new couples "adjust" to each other... A year after marriage, the society starts playing the trumpet of parenthood. Willing or Unwillingly parenthood becomes a reality. As pregnancy progressess, the society takes the form of an aggressive mental predator...which keeps asking stressful questions to an already tense and stressed to-be parents. Boy or girl? White or Black? Name? who will take care of the child at night? how to change nappys? Mothers milk or bottle feed? Gynec Bills? Peadiatricians Bills? New house? School he/she will go to? Money for donation of school? blah blah blah... and finally what will he/she become?
Its like putting 100kgs of weight on a loaded coolie... in between this, the occasional uncle/aunty/friend will come up with there own "hyped" notions and experiences.
aunty- when i was carrying amit..then only i had thought of making him a doctor...see today he is so successful (very neatly.. 28ys of struggle with books, an easier admission procedure 20yrs ago, thousands of slaps on his face take out your irritations, etc etc.. have been deleted)
uncle- good to see you young parents.. i tell you guys.. i have been reading the newspapers, a with my huge social circle, and my 30yrs of experience tell me ..that if its a boy.. make him an MBA ( again very neatly... 30 yrs of nothing but siting in an office drinking tea, doing one same job, reading newspaper articles on sachin's century's and fashion models wardrobe malfunctions..and a bunch of friend who indulge in a sadistic ritual of geting pleasure by findin faults in others... has been deleted)
uncle 2- oh well looks like another engineer or doctor is coming to enlighten the name of our community and city.. ( he is the master of all.. his euphoric statement was based on a mathematical genius mind whose statistics show how 5 out of the last 5 generations have been extremely "monetarily" successful.. nobody cares if they had a horrendous family life, there children left them, they where alcoholics or they just strived to smile.)
friend- when we were having juhi... i knew she had to become an enginner.. after all she needs to get married...and today qualification and working girls are must. now we are also slowly slowly buying some gold..after all we need to give her at least 2-3 gold sets... (oops... juhi is just 8months of age...poor girl already geting to hear all this...)
A similarity between human and animal psychology stikes my mind ... in a given stressful situation, the easiest way out is choosen.
90% of new parents follow this rule. Instead of standing up for their own beliefs, their own ways of educating and moulding their children, decide to take the easy way out and follow the set rules and regulations of the society...
Its therefore acceptable for them to see their 6-8yrs old children carry a 5kg bag to school... with the idealistic expectations of he/she becoming a successful engineer, doctor or MBA...without caring that its during those growing years that a child learns to smile...not when he/she becomes a doctor/engineer or MBA.
If i was to speak in the language of psychiatry... its a self-created hallucination that a parent concieves about his childs future. Its based on facts, experiences and knowledge that the parent has. Completely different from the facts, experiences and knowledge that his child will acquire.
Its extremely rigid, and constitutes the core of happiness the parent expects to get from his child. Leading to a retardation in psychological, physical development of the child.
Finally the weakest link.. the main lead... of this circus...The student...the individual... A preformer who is taught how to act, move and behave in accordance to his ring masteer.
The mental behavioral code can be simplified to taking stress, creating stress and fighting that stress. Happiness comes from conquering one stress... Stress-free environment is not known to exist.
The Desire to Learn and apply is only for those who are a "bug" in this system... Smiling and Rejoicing life is for "the anomaly" in the code writen... Going against the flow, persuing something of your own interest requires the courage and bravery of a prisoner of war trying to escape from behind enemy lines...
The biggest reality show is life... where an individual gets a pre-defined script... 1000's of eyes scrutinizing his behaviour... 1000's of voices asking him questions... 1000's of "counceling" sessions... Not every body is happy with results... and no chance to say I QUIT!!!...
They say change starts from the smallest of disturbance in a peaceful enviroment.
"3 idiots" make us think.... but to make it count... depends on each one of us.!!!!
Dr.HemanTT MittaLL
