Talent hurts in India. We do not respect talent. We do not know
what to do with it. As a matter of fact, we do not recognize talent. I would go
so far as to say that ours is a culture that seeks to actively suppress talent.
I am talking about the innate, inborn ability that some
people just seem to be born with. It could be a remarkable degree of
flexibility, there may be a comfort level with words, or your child perhaps has
the marbles for figures. The common thread is that the gift stands out in a
crowd and therein lays the reason for alarm.
The logical and unquestionable thing to do would be to
celebrate the flair and promote it at the highest level with the greatest
possible gusto. But that calls for a certain degree of security and we are a
people under constant threat of survival. So what do we do? We kill talent. We
negate aptitude by ignoring it, by undercutting it, by discouraging it.
Take any field. Sports, the classical performing arts,
academics; there is no discrimination; the throttling is across the board. An aptitude
alone should be good enough to merit progress; it is instead drowned in a web
of politics, corruption, indifference and an unprofessional ignorance. Some of
our most prestigious, national level institutes of learning are manned by
coaches and teachers who are at sea themselves. They train half-heartedly and with
redundant knowledge and techniques. Out of touch with contemporary realities
and bogged down in a maze of community favours and the quick buck, the last
thing on their mind is excellence! There are huge gaps in knowledge; they have
not stayed current with the happenings and are incapable of placing the skill they
impart in any relevant context.
Our academic institutions are no different. The children
struggle over years and work to their bones to make the cut off marks into our
top most universities and colleges, and what do they get after that golden foothold?
Intellectual fatigue, mediocrity and disillusionment.
The emotion they come out with is exhaustion. Be it the IITs, the SRCC or the
National Law Schools, there is an institutional indifference to any hunger to
grow and learn. The thrill and excitement of ideas is entirely missing. The
only value addition, if it can be called that, is the networking that comes
from attending these highly reputed schools.
Take the knowledge imparters themselves. Do they have any
leadership in their own fields? Have they contributed to the intellectual
capital of our country? It is no secret that there aren’t all that many blazing
trails of work visible on the Indian firmament. Little wonder then that we do
not figure anywhere in the world rankings of ideas. The drought is not just of
water! We are quite content to be mediocre
and do not rue the fact that we are irrelevant in the sphere of learning and
academics.
There is no concept of individual brilliance. No culture of
promoting innate talent above parochial considerations, above personal narrow
interests, above community envy, above everything else. We are suspicious of
any quest for excellence, attributing it to ulterior motives, more often than
not. Our public spaces are crowded with ceaseless chatter of an unproductive
kind. Very little peer exchange of ideas or theories or constructive critique
takes place. In most office areas, the exchanges invariably revolve around
grouses, entitlements, grievances, gossip and personal travails.
The world is not taking note of us in their “intellectual
reputation” rankings. Perhaps we need to accept that our strength lies in our
diverse cookery, intricate handicrafts and the amazingly talented Bollywood! We
ought to lay claim on leadership in these fields.
No comments:
Post a Comment