Kashmiris only pursue medicine and engineering  as the viable career options. It is astonishing to see and know how Kashmiri people fail to see that there are career opportunities beyond these fields. It seems as if in the people in Kashmir see other educational pursuits as stupid. The parents behave like uneducated literates and tell their children if they don’t become a doctor or an engineer, they don’t become anything. Pursuing other courses is like a curse.
It astonishes me when I see so many doctors and engineers in the society and very less bureaucrats. It amazes me how I see people from outside the state dominating the bureaucracy. We Kashmiris are left with a single job: to discuss their lavish lives and their great postings. The Kashmiris see bureaucracy as a dead-end. What we all care for is doctors, doctors and doctors. A medical student not getting an entry into a medical college is a blot on a family in Kashmir. He is just like an idiot who has achieved nothing since he was born. He is considered a poor fellow with a brain similar to a domestic animal like a sheep. He is taunted constantly by his parents which leads to some frustration. It looks as if we have forgotten how life can be pursued with dignity and respect without pursuing M.B.B.S and Engineering. Sometimes even an engineering student is looked on as a person who has failed in life. How many times would bureaucrats from other states come and rule us. Before Dr Faesal broke the jinx, there were only a handful of civil service officers who had actually qualified the examination.
Now what does this show to us? It shows us that Kashmiris have failed to look beyond the field of medicine. They have considered other fields as null and void. There has been a pure intimation to the students that there is nothing beyond medicine and they will be swept out of their homes if they fail to pass the medical entrance test. The list of IAS officers from other states posted in J&K is astonishing.
These are just a few nails that have been hammered into the J&K coffin. It has a dark side as one would expect a non-Kashmiri to be not so gentle on the local population. The Kashmiris criticize these bureaucrats as selfish but no one has bothered to do something about it. The sentiment among the new youth is that it is crime to pursue Indian Administrative Services as it would curb the Azadi sentiment, even though there has been some change in the thinking after Dr Faisal did the unthinkable. The bureaucrats call the shots in the government and that is how the business end of the government works. Having Kashmiri bureaucrats in the government would increase the Kashmiri say in the functioning of the government.
There has to be a change in the Kashmiri attitude as it has only destroyed the concept of a UPSC examination from the mind of a young student. Students are really taught to pursue science and nothing else. The students who have now qualified the prestigious UPSC examination and the students, who aspire to do the same in future, do it out of their own wish and not at the urging of their families. Barring a few individuals who are pushed by their families to prepare for this prestigious examination, youth lack commitment towards IAS. The young qualified people in Kashmir don’t lack the talent and skill but they lack the will. It is high time we realize that civil services are the road to a glorious career. It is high time that we change our mindset and look forward to something that few people try in Kashmir. 

(Faz-lul-Haseeb is a Kashmiri B Tech student at Jammu and he can be mailed at haseebheights@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST