Square Peg In A Round Hole

Vicky Hilton was our course coordinator for a three-month ‘Training of Trainers’ course, I attended at Edinburgh University in 1996. She was highly impressed by the academic profile of the participants from India. She asked me, “You are a Forester, so you do a Master’s course in Forestry in the National Forest Academy is quite understandable. But, why have you done Masters in Physics and Business Administration?”

This reminded me of one of the faculty member’s statements in Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy while addressing newly-appointed probationers, “You have come from various academic backgrounds and most of you are overqualified for the job. Maybe your knowledge will be useful in administration. However, here we will focus on Forestry and allied subjects over two years, which will make you experts in this sector. Many in our country, know much beyond what their professional domain requires and many times are more interested in others’ jobs than their own. If you talk to a doctor, he might be more inclined to talk about traffic management in the city, an engineer may feel like discussing how to operate on a prostrate, a police officer would like to advise on dairy development, and a banker will happily talk on tourism development and so on. Nothing wrong with that; it is good to have varied interests. But I expect you to take pride in being professionals in Forestry and Wildlife.”

Many choose a profession not because of their passion, but under the influence of peer groups, parental expectations, social perceptions, or simply because they qualified through a process of selection/elimination. I know a couple who had moved to Australia and were teaching at a university. Their son grew up in a society where all jobs are treated with dignity. He was very good at arts and crafts and during his adolescence expressed his desire to become a carpenter. “Carpenter!”; for the parents, who had grown up in a traditional middle-class Indian environment, this was simply not acceptable. Therefore, they decided to return to India so that their son could set a ‘respectable’ aim in life.

In our country, only a very few lucky are able to make their passion, their profession. Most end up in professions considered ‘good’ by society, joining family businesses or simply accepting whatever is available and thus start their careers as square pegs in round holes. The options for them are either to round off the corners to fit into the hole or to manipulate the hole trying to make it squarish, to try both or simply resign to fate. A large number of people spend the most productive years of their lives disgruntled.

Before becoming a professional singer, my wife ran a Health Club, exclusively for ladies, in our house since 1998. Neerja an officer in NABARD was one of her students. Her husband, N. Sunil Kumar also an officer in NABARD dropped and picked her up from aerobics classes. During this period, we struck a friendship with the couple. Sunil was passionate about wildlife and always keen to accompany me whenever I visited wildlife sanctuaries. During our visit to Protected Areas I realized, Sunil was extremely knowledgeable about wildlife – their behaviour, their habitats, and was an avid conservationist. He recognized all animals and birds and could even identify their calls, droppings or pugmarks. I must admit I learnt a lot from him. I pondered, what was he doing in a Bank?

After some time, Sunil joined an executive MBA programme at Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur. I wondered why he was taking himself further away from his passion. But he had other ideas. He very soon resigned from NABARD and joined an International Bank and worked for its foundation. The Foundation has significantly invested in supporting India’s efforts for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by United Nations. As an extension of these Community Investments, they constituted the Earth Heroes Awards at the National level in 2011 to recognize individuals and institutions who have gone beyond their call of duty for the protection/conservation of India’s wildlife and biodiversity. Annually these awards are given in five categories. Sunil remained in overall charge of these annual awards since their inception. This also augured well with his passion for visiting National Parks and Sanctuaries. I think, he has visited almost all Protected Areas of the country on several occasions. We together have visited several of these. I observed he knew the landscapes like the back of his hand, he even knew many park managers at the grassroots level. He is one of the few lucky ones who could make his passion his profession.

My younger daughter, Vedika (Annie) after graduation in Management joined a major Steel company in its Strategic Management group. But, in two years, she realized it was not her cup of tea. Although she was rated highly in the company her heart was somewhere else. She is a very good basketball player and would have liked to make it her career. But, she realized the career options in this field are extremely limited. Her hobby is preparing cakes, particularly, cheesecakes. One day she proposed to resign from the steel company and have her bakery. In our family, the only enterprise we are comfortable with is putting money in “fixed deposits”, therefore, I was really not the right person to guide her. But she is smarter and more innovative than me and decided to take the plunge. I encouraged her to pursue her passion rather than languishing in a job where her heart is not there. The only support I promised was, “Don’t worry, Papa is always there, for you.”