3 Idiots

Amir Khan is an actor who has given us some great movies..

• Taare Zameen par, would have helped many a parent to be more sensitive 
• Dil Chahta hai, prompted me to re-connect with some of my good, old friends
• Rang De Basanti, made many urban youth to be more aware of  common issues around us
• Lagaan... etc.

So, I waited for the initial response of his (now, not so) new film, 3 Idiots. I was confident he would ensure quality, as he has done in the recent past ( did not like his Gajini, personally though). The feedback from friends was 'must watch'! Got to watch last week...

Though the movie was 'inspired by' one of Chetan Bhagat's books( my favourite among all by him), I felt the controversy could have been avoided.
It does take a comic look at the hostel life, our parental pressure to become an engineer/doc and of course, on learning by rote in our educational system. ( CBSE's recent decision to do away with board exam is in the right direction, finally....)Most of us have different memories about all these three aspects.

I was fortunate to be in hostels, in 9th & 10th and then for the management degree. I rate both these stages of  my life as two most important milestones in my personal life... For what I am today, I owe a lot to these two stages of life. (More about it, later for 'autobiography'!) So, only very pleasant memories of hostel life.( No ragging experince either, thank God)

Career: All of us, who belong to the middle class category, would have felt similar experiences. My mom wanted me to become a teacher - as respectable, decent income and lots of vacations. Dad wanted me to follow his footsteps to fauji ( army) initially. I was not in favour of army, as I wanted 'freedom' and  better 'earning potential' ( wanted to reach financial stability, unlike many faujis). Then, he wanted me to become ....yes.... an engineer ! I did not get very high grade in engineering entrance and I would do only computer science or electronics, nothing else. So, I dumped that stream and hit Commerce and became a banker.... I never had the engineering bend-of-mind, though I was good at Maths & Physics. Fortunately, parents supported my crazy career ideas ( for 1980's). Not many parents were/are in that league, for sure... Kudos to Amir for bringing out this important aspect of our lives...

And, Freedom & financial stability, is very relative... 'everything is in mind'! I feel we should encourage our children to pursue a career of their interest and passion and be best in that field.Then they will not 'work', it becomes fun...

Learning by rote is perhaps one of the fundamental flaws of our educational system. Lot of my friends feel otherwise, and are in favour of all the thrust on memorising and pressurizing children in their school days. Though I don't blindly support the western model, we need to modify our educational system to enable our children realise their potential. I was at the receiving end as I was very bad in memorising, hence such strong views.

What I admire about Amir Khan is his passion for work. His passion can be seen & felt even by even a movie-goer. His ad campaigns ( titan, tata sky, paanch ke barabar coke ad, etc) were different. His 'athithi devo bhava'/Incredible India! campaigns are very timely and relevant. Was glad to hear he is a voracious reader and almost a fitness freak. Of course he is a fellow blogger, and all comparisons end there :)