When I was growing up my father’s varied business interests often put our families financial logbook in the red. Our blessings came in the form of our maternal uncles, who were forever there, not only to support us(me and my sister), in our educational pursuits but every other way
My mom was a bit different. She was a working woman, which was why she understood things about financial independence ,which few do. I am talking about India in the eighties, when working women had no perks at all. I had 3 things instilled in me:
1)Study hard
2)Get a good job
3)Live life debt free.
India was still full of hope and good cheer. Corruption if present, was not so blatantly exposed. The social media phenomenon was still in the making. The family was everything, it still is.
Education is the biggest blessing and the only way to a meaningful life. I am talking about both mainstream education and that which we get by reading things other than textbooks .I was never told I can’t dream because I was a girl. My mom told me to study hard and pray all the time. I tried to make it fun. There’s really no other way than learning and asking God for his blessings.
I often hear people complain about the study pressure, competitiveness at school .I believe all children need to learn. Most often that doesn’t happen easily , because of the skewered teacher-student ratio .So what happens is, they get scared. Parents get upset. But life is not easy. The less we learn, less we can cope with challenges All the subjects we learn at school ,go a long way in making us think out of the box. YOu should never miss the forest to staring at a tree.
India is a country with a soul. That’s why people come here to meditate. The west is suffering from the loss of family structure, where there’s no one to share your sadness with. What’s worse , you have no one to share your joys with.India has the best of both worlds. We love our families. Even when we don’t get along, we try .We also believe in higher powers guiding our way. We believe in education. Because that’s the only way our children have a chance.
Subsidised education in Premier Government Institutions
Only in India is the best medical colleges, engineering colleges, still heavily subsidized. I studied at Asia’s oldest premier medical College, Calcutta Medical College for Rs 250 per year. That was the annual fees in 2005.My relatives helped with the books, but education luckily didn’t cost my mom her peace of mind. Where else in the world could this have been possible?
Why the sense of indebtedness?
Probably that’s the reason I feel a sense of deep indebtedness to my motherland India. For making me self-sufficient. For being able to be financially independent. For giving me the ability to help people. If not for that, I would probably not understand the need for working in a Government Medical College, for helping train the next generation of doctors. Doctors who will compete with doctors, trained in Private Medical colleges of questionable repute, with degrees that have cost them a crore.
If not for being an Indian I would not have understood the need for the right to quality education. That educating one more member of your family, can change the socio-economic profile forever. In this regard quality education access is needed for everyone. That’s the kind of equality, which takes countries ahead. But if merit is compromised, then society will implode. It’s not sustainable. Darwin’s law of Survival of the fittest works at multiple levels.
The cost of post-secondary education in USA & Canada makes getting a college degree inaccessible for many students Outstanding student debt in the United States totals in trillions.
If this was the case in India, many like me would never have made it as a doctor, debt-free!