Wide Angle 25 - Thoughts on 3 Idiots

Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!
25th column, silver jubilee it is!! Never thought that I could reach this far when I started this little affair. Like my mum said the other day “This is your first achievement in life”. Certainly seems like it. Hope I have been able to entertain you all and provide a wider angle to the world from my view. Please write back with your comments on what you felt reading my work (that is if you were reading them at all ) and what else you would like to read. Apart from this milestone, last week has been rather stressful with 14 hours of work, illness for me, my family and the extended Infosys family here as well. But, things are alright now as they say “All is well”. Back to today’s Wide Angle. Since it is the silver jubilee, I thought I’d write my own thoughts and also write on something more mainstream and popular. I hope everyone has seen 3 Idiots by now and has enjoyed it I presume. The movie has become a cult and has led to introspection amongst many on the scheme of things. I’d like to present my point of view on the movie and link it to the bigger picture. To do that, I am going to analyze the different characters in the movie that are most certainly metaphorical and represent a point of view on the big load called Indian Education system as well as competition in general.

To Begin With:
Everyone has felt good about this movie – firstly, it is entertaining to the core with lots of laughs and a core message so you can’t go wrong there. It also stands for the underdog which considering human nature, everyone thinks he is. The reason why it has done so well is because it has appealed to the “critical mass” which generally doesn’t stand first in class and has been made to feel guilty about it. I have also heard contrary views from a few columnists/people saying that it encourages people to run away from competition and “hard work”. I would rather state the obvious that the movie stands for – follow your passion instead of only running behind success – excel at what you do and you will b successful. I don’t think it reviles hard work but they could have gone easy on painting black and whites (Bollywood won’t be itself without it right) with the characters and also condoning simply unacceptable behavior like peeing on your principal’s door. Let me analyze the different characters now and let us see what this comes up with. Before I do that, I’d like to state one thought that came up when we were discussing the movie in the pub the other day. Aamir Khan is like the “Rancho” of Bollywood and Mr. Shahrukh is like the “Chatur” of the industry – both have their own ways but they are both successful (hope I haven’t antagonized the lady population by saying this).

The Characters:
Rancho – This is most certainly an ideal character but I have seen very few such people in my life especially in India simply because the system/culture does not encourage such behavior. When I say such people, I mean it to the degree shown in the movie, there are many such people at differing levels of “Rancho-ness” and more often than not, these are successful. I’d say that to get into an IIT, you need to be a Chatur, but those who make it to IIMs are often more “Rancho” plus “Chatur”. The concept behind this is simple, if you are studying something, “learn” it after “understanding” it rather than simply “learn” it – by heart I mean. During our engineering days, people did very well at the written papers but used to be shit scared of orals because that’s where you were probed on “fundas”. One of my friend believed in “fundas”, he often used to get the same marks in both orals and theory – 45/50 in orals and 45/100 in theory. Needless to say, he is very successful today. There were a couple of other folks who were very intelligent and designed their own crosswords – both went to IIMs. A word comes to mind here “Auto-didactic” which means self taught. I think if everyone has this attitude, no matter which school/college you go to, you will always look to excel and success will follow as Rancho says.

Chatur – I believe this character has become more popular than Rancho. The anti-Rancho – the other way to success. Possibly the easier way – simply rote it, butter up, trip the competition and count success by the numbers. Everyone has seen such characters in their lives and those who were not Chaturs almost disliked this guy. However, from Chatur’s point of view, what wrong did he do? He was simply driven to succeed, he wasn’t super brilliant like Rancho – he had to mug. If we examine closely, there is more of a Chatur in everyone than a Rancho. It is very hard to stand out and be different, one rather follow the tried and tested methods and simply excel at that. In the movie, they showed him mugging up at exams but if it was the US where they do more projects than concentrate on theory, Chatur would anyway have done all the projects with zeal probably taking dad’s help etc. He represents conformity and playing the game instead of breaking the rules. He also represents mindless participation in the “race” but honestly, would an average guy with no super human intelligence afford to not participate in the “race”. All said and done, it is very easy to castigate Chatur and it has been done with abandon (with the accent and showing him being “different”) but more often than not, Chaturs become CEOs and COOs. The scene when Chatur challenges Rancho after the “speech” especially shows the soft side when he asks “Maine tumhara kya bighada hai?” – it is here that he has been shown up as a normal human being who is simply looking to “get ahead”.

Virus – I believe this represents despotic behavior that a person slips into. It all started for Virus with his personal brilliance because of which his American professor gave him the “pen”. To add to that, he is competitive and successful. To such people, understanding lack of superlative ability or mediocrity is very difficult. Why did Sachin not make a brilliant captain – it is very difficult to look at things from the point of view of a person less capable than you and get him on board and performing because you never “understand” what it means to be not as brilliant. More often than not, the John Wrights of the world become better coaches than the Greg Chappells. Then Virus takes over the institute and takes it to #1. To brilliance, success and competitiveness gets added pride and then hubris. It is an institute he has created with its rules and for such people, nothing can be greater than their creation. If you look closely, Virus is more closer to Rancho than Chatur – it is a Rancho who has turned over to the “Dark Side” by his own success. Like I repeatedly say, leaders can often slip into being “Virus” if they are not too careful about their vehemence regarding what they believe in. This often happens to religious, political leaders who stand for an ideology and sacrifice their families for it.

Farhan’s father –they have got this one exactly right without any exaggeration. Most of us are engineers and this movie got everyone wondering why they became one. The answer to that question is also the reasoning behind Farhan’s father’s aspirations for his son. When most of us old folks  became engineers, there were really only two options for middle class students – doctor or engineering. The reason why this was so was simple – it is only in these two fields especially engineering that you could make a decent income without being the best or the luckiest. It is not a zero/one situation like let’s say the acting profession where if you are not successful, you are a loser. Here, losers could also make decent money to feed themselves hence parents wanted “engineering” for their sons. This was also the feature of a “poor” economy where there were only few careers because there was very less economic activity. A lot has changed for us since then – with a growing economy and a richer society, more and more specialized professions are and will become “honorable” e.g. “hair stylists” or “Anchors” and people will get to follow what they like. This is what happens in the West – when every job starts to pay enough money and the economy is stable enough to make sure that the enough money is really “enough”, fathers of Farhans would not say this when they are born “Mera beta engineer banega”.

Raju/Farhan – very obvious characters, they stand for the supposed “losers” who are often at the back but have sparks nevertheless. I have been there during my Boston’s Computer Course where I was amongst the bottom two. In Blue Star, I was put in a “non-prestigious” project because of my bottom rank. No sweat – I simply worked harder and have not done too bad for myself. If you are a Farhan and your father can afford it, simply do what you like because you will do that well and will succeed at it. If your father/mother cannot afford it and you are stuck with a profession you don’t like, try and be the father/mother who can afford his kid to do anything he wants – my theory is that one generation has to work very hard and save/create lot of money so that the forthcoming generations can be secure and happy. The first generation has to make that “sacrifice” though. If you are the first generation – recognize the fact and get to work. If you are a Raju, then you are already the first generation and he knows it, his only problem is that he has not reconciled himself to the “last” position. My take is this – life is a marathon, you have to work for 35 years or more and then live for another 25. If you are towards the bottom of the academic ladder, it just means you have to run a little harder later on to catch up but it doesn’t mean you are out of the race. Moment Raju recognizes this, he is free and succeeds on his own terms.

ICE – When I write about the college, I take it as a metaphor for the education system. Why are marks/placements/rote learning so important in ICE? It is the same as getting into IIT/IIM etc. is for us in India. It is because of “shortage”. This also links back to the reservation issue which most of us are so distraught about. There are two aspects to the working life – one education and the other a job. Both were in short supply, jobs have now become liberated and are in some abundance because of the economic reforms. Education is still in shackles. Someday I will write about small government but as an example – suppose potatoes are produced by one farmer and sold by only one shop in the town, these two can make enormous profits by raising prices the way they want by creating artificial shortages . The same is applicable for education in India. It is not about the rat race or rote learning or over-ambitious parents – it is a demand and supply thing – economics 101. The demand for education is huge because of the population and aspirations in addition to education being a ticket to good life. The supply is limited because the government i.e. politicians + bureaucrat nexus controls it. Why do we have only 5-6 IITs and 5-6 IIMS. For 1 billion people, we should have at least 10000. If the government cannot build them, let private players do it with proper regulation to guard against unfair fees. The day education becomes abundantly available, the mad race will also stop because everyone will be able to get a proper education. But the government won’t let go of this golden goose because they are able to buy votes (by reservations), make money (by donations), extort (by harassing the few private institutes that run) and most of all controlling the supply of the one valuable commodity in India – education.

To conclude, this is a great entertaining movie with a good message but we need to recognize the underlying facts in the movie that I just highlighted. There is a very real danger of people taking the characters literally and start shirking competition or losing their edge, it will only lead to disastrous results. The fact is that competition never leaves one – it is present in socialist countries too so better be ready for it. The only thing you can do well is to take the Rancho method to success i.e. really understand what you learn and take it forward.