The Rat Race

Winning or achieving by bringing another down,

An evil grin resulting from someone’s frown,

Chopping off a King’s head to snatch the crown,

Floating on the water by making one drown,

Gives what satisfaction? Compared to a smile from a clown,

Or making our own chocolate cake in a rich brown,

Or stitching for our mother a handmade gown,

Or laying down one’s life to save a whole town!

Cover Photo by Pankaj Tottada

​Welcome to India. The land of spicy food, sarees, billions of Gods, Bollywood, unique culture and whatnot. We have basically everything here! Well, almost. But what we do have, and something which I am personally very proud of since I’m a part of it, are the IITs, the Indian Institutes of Technology. They are the best Engineering colleges in India, without a doubt, and definitely among the best in the world. Many in the country want to be part of these institutes at some point in their lives. But there are only 16 IITs, with a cumulative intake of nearly 11,000 per year. Since our population is around 120 crores, it is clear that not everyone carries the IIT brand.

This leads to the next obvious question: Who are those few? The answer to this is the JEE, arguably the world’s toughest exam. Children are now made to start preparing for it as early as the 6th grade, when they probably don’t even know what the acronym IIT stands for! This leads to intense competition among the children to become one of the top 11,000 in the country. The word ‘topper’ becomes a nickname of sorts, which is desired by all but is destined to be given to only one, with the others left in a fit of anger and revenge on that person. It leads to the destruction of many friendships and relationships. The innocent and fragile mind of a child is forced to compete with peers and develop a sense of selfishness.

The children go to really extreme measures due to their immaturity, such as telling a peer that an assignment which was supposed to be given that day has been postponed, and that peer doesn’t submit his paper and loses marks. A few more may also distract their peers throughout the day and prevent them from studying on the eve of an exam, but they themselves may have already prepared for it. Such criminal ideas are not their own; they are induced upon them by parents, teachers and many other factors.

Later on, when they become adults and start working, competitiveness to get a promotion before one’s colleagues, office politics, trying to score brownie points with the boss by foul-mouthing fellow employees, and other such things are all the result of the competitive rat race mentality. Human beings are the only animals who can effectively communicate with each other at such a highly sophisticated level. But instead of working together to improve the world around us, we are working against each other to come out on top.

The extent of this mentality is so pathetic and sadistic that some people believe in deriving pleasure from the failure of the other person, even at the cost of their own failure. Can it seriously get any worse! The term “Survival of the Fittest” is slowly being turned into “Survival of the contest!”

I understand that not everyone gets everything they want in life, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t let others have what they want! Instead of wasting your energy on messing up that person’s life, if you put a part of that energy into developing and improving your own life and trying to achieve what you want, you will get it! Where there is a will, there will be a way! You just have to look around properly! Have faith in yourself! You can do it!

I made it into IIT Bombay despite millions of obstacles like bad friends, movies, Facebook, gaming, texting, WhatsApp, mood swings, and every other possible distraction for a teenager, but I made it in the end! If I can, so can you! Nothing is impossible until you decide it is, and your decisions aren’t valid until you’ve tried! So go for it, don’t think about what the others are up to, you decide for yourself what is right and what is not. Achieving something by suppressing someone has no high to it, but struggling hard, losing blood, sweat, food, and sleep over it, and finally achieving it has a feeling that is greater than the achievement itself!

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Credits

This opinion was written by Prakhyat Chatla, edited by Sreekar Ayyagari and photographed by Pankaj Tottada.

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