There’s this kid, who has just returned home from school. His eyes show the excitement of what he has learnt today. He throws off his bag and rushes to his mother. “Mom! I can’t wait it to be night! I want to watch the twinkling stars and the round, big as football- planets!” Mom laughs, flipping the omlette she was making. “Oh dear, nights come every day, you are not going to miss the stars anyway! Come on now, have your lunch.” His smile broadens as his mother looks at him and does the same. He eagerly waits for the night that day.
That night he watched the stars, glittering. His eyes showed the reflection. As he grew big, he had become a frequent star-gazer. He loved physics; relativity, about which he had read somewhere. He wondered what filled that empty space up there in the sky. One day, he was with his mother. He couldn’t hold up to himself what he had read in a book. “Mom, do you know what this book says?” His voice was clearly showing the amount of attention he demanded for. “If we travel at a speed near to that of light, time will slow down for us!” His complete body showed how amazing it was for him. “OMG! That’s unbelievable! Mom I love science!” His mother had been listening to him throughout and smiled and startled at times. He was very happy. The long held words had come out that day.
Later, he overheard his mom telling his dad, “Our son loves science, space and stuff like that, he says.” “Oh! I knew it very well! I believe he’ll opt for science after his class 10!”, his dad replied. It was a shocking but awesome news for him. All life he was going to study physics, science; most importantly the stuff he loved. Time had slowed down for him that day.
Do I remind you, by this, of something which you experienced in the past? If yes, then you would clearly know what the future would have been. Look at yourself! Did you ever tell your parents you love science? What did you actually love? Physics? Or chemistry in certain? In India, it’s a general concept that if you love science, and hate biology, you ought to do engineering. So there are many among us who didn’t want to be engineers but fell prey to this tradition of our country. A few lines by an IISER graduate:
“Life after Death. Our degree is still hanging in balance. We are not sure when we will have our convocation… Before you join IISER, I would suggest you to think hundred times (not twice), as there isn’t money in this field, and you have to do a PhD later, so another 10 years of efforts after your 12th standard.”
This shows how bad the condition of research and pure sciences sector in India is. I feel jealous when I watch Dr. Sheldon Cooper. He’s a physicist. Why can’t a person in India be a successful physicist and still be a respected person in the society? (Sheldon’s not the example here) Our tradition. That boy loved science. He meant physics. But science here is usually engineering. Why don’t we get to do things which we love? I remember my math teacher scolding us, “Do you even know that parents in the US stop giving funds to their children right from the age of 14! And you idiots! Come to an engineering college and spend life enjoying!” Oh sir, I wanted to reply there and then, do we have an education system like they do? Do we encourage what actually a child loves? We expect our child to follow the same ‘path to success’, which has been opted by infinite in the past. We fail to try something new, and the environment prevents us from doing that.
What we need is open mindedness. Why does India lack in research or innovation? Why don’t we have superfast computers that can even compete with other s in the world? We only produce skilled workers. Pure science requires support in our country. We, at least must try not to suppress anyone who likes science. And the generality about science being engineering must be erased. Engineering is science, but not the vice versa. The boy, who dreamed of space, stars, should continue exploring! At last it was what he really loved…Peace.
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