Short Story Of Organized Stupidity

Organized stupidity

I read this small story from a commencement speech in 2005 to Kenyon College by a reputed writer David Foster Wallace.

‘There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “morning boys! How’s the water?” and the two young fish swim on for a bit , and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”’

This small story was very intriguing for me. Most times, the obvious realities are the ones that are hard to see and talk about.

As I was marching toward my ‘bright future’ on my career timeline, I was hit with the ‘What are you going to do after this?’ Question.

It is a rather common question but

Then the race gets harder. You have to sacrifice so much to gain so little.

These days I see kids in class VI spending their evening in IIT-JEE training.

The experts (the same uncles and aunties again) are staunch believer of the below life cycle

1. Work hard and make sure you get a high score in class X. Your entire life and career depends on it.

2. Just work for 2 years in XI and XII. If you get in a good medical college/IITs/NITs/Law schools/DU etc., your life is set.

3. Start preparing for your PG/MBA/UPSC/GRE/GMAT/GATE etc. otherwise your friend will get the job and you'll be left behind in the race. Once you're settled, you can enjoy as much as you want.

4. You're settled now and the only logical step is to get married. If you don't do it before 30, you'll be considered 'old' and your marriage prospects will diminish. You can enjoy later.

5. Since now you have kids, you need to earn more and work extra to secure their future. Your entire life is left for you to pursue your passions.

6. Now your kid is in class X and you start with the lies, all over again, thus completing the circle of life.[3]

You don’t know what to do? It is all