The road not taken

When I made up my mind to get into this course, I had to be prepared for the shaming that the society will put upon me and some of it on my family as well. After all taking up journalism after engineering is seen as a downgrade. It’s the doctors and the engineers who take all the respect, even though there’s an abundance of both in the country. So much so that engineering is now seen as a stepping stone while making a career. Everyone gets into engineering and then decides what to make of their lives. It’s funny how that has come to be and on one hand while every nook and corner of this country probably has an engineer, there is in fact a dearth of qualified ones. While if that same logic is applied on doctors, it becomes a frightening scenario. Do we entrust our lives in the hands of someone who might not be qualified enough. This is in fact the doings of a tunnel-visioned society that places more respect on certain career options than others, feeding the upcoming generations the falsehood of the relation between garnering respect in society and certain occupational choices. While getting into the course itself wasn’t very easy, my first myth about it was busted pretty soon into the first semester. The notion that the course is easier compared to other career options that one can take is laughable. Now three semesters into it, I have also come to understand that the pay scale is not as good as in some other career options. This is probably another reason why some jobs are “respectable” in the society, as they pay more. While it shouldn’t be the case, unfortunately it is. The concept of dignity of labour in our country and in the society is somewhat absent. Even after knowing that journalism is not as easy as it first seemed, and the pay scale is also not great when compared to others, what makes me stick to it is my desire to present the society with the truth. Perhaps such sentences draw a good hard laughter nowadays considering how murkier this profession gets with each passing day. While the respect has definitely decreased now in my life, compared to the days when I could say, “Yes I study engineering in Hyderabad” and the awes that it would draw, I am a much satisfied and happier person now. And knowing that the same people are glued to their televisions at prime time watching this one person who we call a journalist, gives me a wicked sense of satisfaction and a renewed hope to succeed. Soumyadeep Das 3rd semester