I believe it was from the end part of the 1990s that the juggernaut really started. We have just been through a traumatizing ethnic conflict. Many people have been killed, much of our villages have been burnt down or deserted and jhumming cultivation has been off for at least two years. There were plenty of guns lying about, but there was not eno-ugh food. Businesses – except, I was told, petrol pumps, LPG and food grains–collapsed in the absence of purchasing power. Private schools, which were the only avenue of employment for the educated, simply could not accommodate all graduates.

So, the cry went out from every father’s lip to his sons and daughters: Go find some job–any job will do. Those who could afford rush off to Delhi or Shillong, took up residence in one-room tenements and started giving examinations for jobs–ranging from civil services to railways to bank clerks. In that situation in which the major preoccupation was on where the next meal will come from, post-graduate studies were considered a waste of precious time, and understandably so. People like L. Piang Ngaihte, who continued against all odds and finished his Ph.D from JNU last year told me that he simply never went home during the period because he was tired of answering the inevitable question from everyone who supposedly wish him well - ‘Have you got a job yet?.’ ‘It was as if I was just whiling my time all along’, he said.

These desperate efforts, evidently, paid off. Today, there is hardly any central government ministry in Delhi where you will not find at least one man or women from Churachandpur working. But, not surprisingly, almost all the employees sitting there were entering service from the clerks’ grade or assistants’ grade level. There are only a handful of people above the Under Secretary level.

Let me cite the case of Paite people which I know better. In the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats alone, there are more than 10 Paite people working, most of them starting at the assistants’ level. In the RBI, another prestigious service, there are as many as 10 Paite people working, almost all of them at the Group B Officers’ level. It’s an impressive record, of course, if one looks from that particular perspective. I know most of these people and I can testify that they earned their positions with the sweat from their brow. Most of them had settled for their present posts after repeated attempts at the civil services examination.

Now, if I look around, I no longer see anyone amongst the Paites who seriously aspires for IAS–except perhaps one or two. No doubt, no one from the community qualifies in the results just declared and it had been the same last year too. As for those seriously pursuing doctorate-level educations, the fingers on my left hand are enough to count them. And even as I specifically cite a particular tribe here, what obtains in their case may be true for other tribes who were also through the turmoil of 1997-98 and after. The situation is not likely to alter soon with the ubiquitous BPO companies offering ‘offer forms’ on a platter to graduates and undergraduates. The apparent ease with which jobs with attractive starting salaries can be obtained now is inducing in us complacency which will cost us dearly in the long run.

What I am driving at is this. In a situation in which there is acute poverty, the land is sterile and service sector is the only source of livelihood, it is natural and inevitable that we grab any job that landed on our lap. But, this any-job mentality is leading to the wastage of many good talents who could have made it to the top jobs in this country and abroad. As I was tal-king with a friend last Friday, he mentioned about his friend who is still young, who was topper from high school at home till college here in Delhi, and who is presently holding an LDC post. The man was not satisfied with his job, my friend told me, but once in, he’s finding it tough to get off. There is poverty and there is family pressure to contend with. I know there are many others who are faced with the same dilemma. It’s the stuff mental depressions and substance abuse cases are made of.

And it’s about time we change our set opinions on post-graduate education. It’s now ten years since 1997. The Government is making all out efforts to promote this sector, especially for the disadvantaged sections of society. There are scholarships and fellowships aplenty. There is, for the scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, Rajiv Gandhi scholarships for M. Phil and above. This was introduced in 2005 and under it, the scholars receive Rs 8000 per month plus Rs 10, 000 contingency fund, extending for five years. Finance support is, thus, no longer a problem it used to be before.

Everybody ought to not just eat well and live for himself alone, but also for others around him. It is a fact that one man in a decision making level position can be more much powerful than a thousand angry men in the street. Yes, the world is changing faster than traffic signals. Adaptability is key word. Much is made about the world becoming flat, degrees becoming redundant and work and fun fusing as one. But the core values we have inherited from those before us–hard work, honesty, perseverance, humility–never change. They will never grow out of fashion.