India rooted in its deep tradition of Gurus and Ashrams has a society construed with high and ulterior values and respect for the Guru or the Teacher. It is very evident from the Old Indian saying from the Gita “Matha, Pitha, Guru, Deivam”, proving that the society seeds the Guru before God and the Mother and Father precede the Guru.
However, centuries down the line we have a completely heterogeneous society that is frantically trying to cope with the modern and western civilization and trying to grab information and education in every possible way, let alone our system of Education which requires every individual to go through the 10+2+3/4 pattern for a decent job.
The qualities of Gurus and our traditions on the ‘Guru Bhakti’ have diluted and we have parents spending every dime of theirs to provide their children the ‘so-called’ best education in the best school. This has simply led to a confused society that has almost zeroed in on every other interest and passion and made “A job, An attractive salary, and A house” their goal in life.
Talent and potential for performance or expertise remained unidentified or were mapped in a wrong and inefficient manner that led to a disengaged individual who always performed way lower than benchmarks. Although the Indian parent is someone who cared the most for the child’s future we have embraced a mindset that sets apart individuality and kills every interest and aspiration of the child at a very young age through the preaching of dogmatic ideas and stereotypical material aspirations. It failed to see the individual as someone who is capable of creating a custom-made future in which he/she would be happy, content, work in careers or live a life to their fullest potential.
All of these created a snowballing effect and plunged employability rates of the young workforce that entered into employment every year. A staggering 25%! The last decade did see an outburst of Career Counselling, and these units offered the youth information and guidance on what they can pursue for higher education and mostly on the education options abroad which had promising or lucrative careers or jobs. These units promoted business interests based on what was up and profitable but not a counselling or guidance that would match the interest, talent and aspiration of the young mind.
In fact, there is practically zero or no mentoring in the average life of an Indian. It is only the extremely self-motivated and talented individual who seeks inspiration from the people around and consciously or subconsciously goes through some kind of remote mentoring. It is time for India to look at ‘Mentoring’ as an activity that would transform and add value to the life trajectory of the Young Indian that would enable and empower them to realise their complete potential and make a career and life worth living. It’s time we thought about Mentoring in India!