My son is a doctor.
My daughter is a solicitor.
Our children are doing Business Studies.

Ask any Indian parent what their offspring does for a living and I guarantee that over fifty percent of their answers will fit into the above, or similar, categories. These career paths are what most Indian parents long for their sons and daughters to walk upon, as they ensure hefty pay-cheques and a sense of 'respectability' amongst the Indian community. But with a natural inclination towards the Science, Law, and Business sectors of the job market, I am here to investigate why Indian children are discouraged from pursuing Humanities' subjects, arguing that in the end our community is the one which fears and shies away from the notion of a child who strives to be different.

To begin with, let us examine this culturally enforced conception of a 'respectable' career. It seems that amongst the older generation a 'respectable' career is one which focuses centrally on the acquirement of money. Forget whether your child actually enjoys his job, forget whether he gains a sense of fulfilment from his work and forget whether he feels as though he is making a valuable contribution to society. Most Indian parents stick with the equation that work equals money, refusing to acknowledge these other factors which are merely pushed aside in the long quest towards those flashing pound signs. But is the acquirement of money really the be all and end all of our purpose in life? Sure, I agree that money makes the world spin and without it existence can be very tough, but is that really a good enough reason to go through an entire lifetime chained to a job which brings us nothing but misery?

So what happens when one day an Indian child decides to pursue a career which is out of line with the average horizontal streak our community is accustomed to? Well, heaven forbid this should happen. Anyone who is brave enough to pursue a subject of the Humanities will no doubt be bombarded with cries such as 'what will you do with that?', 'how will it benefit anyone?' and of course 'how will that make you money?'. As an English Literature student I am well attuned to the smirks and ridicules of not studying a 'proper' subject at university. I'm sure that half my family think it has something to do with reading novels all day long whilst the other half probably don't even know that I'm studying English, because as far as they are concerned if you're not doing Medicine, Dentistry or Law you're not worth remembering! After an initial anxiety and hostility by my parents towards the subject they soon came to realise that in actual fact, possessing a degree which demonstrates that you can think is a much sort after attribute by almost every employer. But this mode of thinking is not common amongst the Indian community and because of this hostility we are left with amazing people who are denied their talents because parents are too afraid to let them venture into the unknown.

So what are the benefits of being a black sheep amongst a herd of white? Speaking from a completely personal viewpoint I believe that life should not be one mundane existence governed by the set routine of a job which you can barely stand. Indian parents need to encourage their children to seek and become something other than the Average Joe and more importantly, not suffocate a child's dreams with wild exclamations about the lack of money prospects in their chosen field. I have forever had to face the age-old taunt from the older generation that English, and the Arts in general, does not actually benefit anyone whilst people who study more 'traditional' subjects are learning to keep the world ticking. My reply to them is that they may keep the world alive, but our courses, our subjects and our chosen career paths are what people stay alive for. Granted, that Maths, Science and Economics are all noble pursuits, which ensure the survival and successful running of this world. But ask anyone and it will be Romance, Beauty, Truth and Love which are the reasons why people want to stay alive. Reasons which can be found in Literature, Poetry, Art, Music, History, in short, the subjects of the Humanities. If we stop producing individuals who can offer all this to the world and are simply left with mechanical people who are slaves to the wage then where is the point in living?

By studying a Humanities subject individuals are taught how to think beyond the textbook. We are encouraged to seek answers to the happenings of this world and because of what we have studied we are usually able to find them. Fair enough, we may not be cashing in thousand pound pay-cheques every month but at least we possess the comfort of knowing that we are human, in every literal and metaphorical sense of the word. Subjects of the Humanities inspire students to become thinkers, to feel and to be sensitive towards others and to understand human relationships. And if nothing else, at least we can seek pleasure in knowing that at least we have something more interesting to talk about than rising house prices.

To conclude, what this article has attempted to demonstrate is that yes, money is important in this world but not so much so that it becomes all we struggle towards. Experience has taught us that to earn a small wad of cash we need to work hard for a week and to increase that sum we have to dedicate our years to work. Then maybe after forty years we may have something substantial enough to call our 'savings'. So if we are destined to do all this hard work then we may as well offer it to something we at least enjoy. We need to get out of the mindset that it's okay to work a dreary and tedious job as long as it guarantees a Mercedes in the driveway and a house that resembles more of a showroom than a home. I'm not saying that people who aspire to this are wrong. Not at all, and they can continue to live in this way if it pleases them. But what I am trying to say is that this shouldn't be the only mindset that the Indian community perceives as stable and normative. We need to understand that there are people out there who don't want flashy cars or showroom houses but simply want a chance to do something they have a passion for. Whether that means working in Starbucks every afternoon, living in a bed-sit for an entire life or never owning a car, then so be it, but at least they can sleep every night knowing that when they wake up tomorrow they will do it with a smile on their face. And for me, there is nothing more 'respectable' than that.

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