Friday, May 22, 2009

Show Me The Money

One of my cousins has just completed her first year of MBA and is about to start the second.

She’s been doing consistently badly in her exams to the extent that her Cumulative Grade Point Average at the end of the first year is below that required to advance into the second year. So she was asked to take 2 exams all over again so she could better her grades in those subjects and reach the required CGPA. But here’s the catch – students had to pay Rs 7,500 for each paper!

Her parents are already paying 11 lacs for her MBA. To make things worse, the institute she's studying at has very little equity in the market and has told all students of her batch that they cannot guarantee campus placements to anyone and that students are pretty much on their own!!

When I asked my cousin whether she felt bad that her parents would have to cough up another 15K for these two papers alone, just because she wasn't responsible enough, her response was “What’s there to feel bad about? They’re my parents, it’s their job to pay!”

I personally find this kind of attitude disgusting. I, for one, would never be able to say or even think something like this. Having been to college in a country where people are completely on their own the moment they graduate from college – and I mean the moment they have a Bachelor’s degree - and even during college, they help their parents out by working on/off-campus so their miscellaneous expenses are taken care of, I simply cannot identify with such an attitude. But I also know that she’s not to blame for it.

Her father has pampered her throughout her life. She was never refused anything she asked for as long as it wasn’t outrageously expensive. She was never held accountable for her actions. Quite simply put, responsibility and value for money were not some of the values inculcated in her, and it’s her parents alone who’re paying a price for it.

This is another example that fosters my belief that parenting is indeed a very difficult task. Most people become parents biologically but they don’t know how to be one.

4 comments:

Moonshine said...

I get annoyed with people (women in particular) who chose to be educated in the best of colleges but then do not work.. there is so much investment parents do for their kids, its not a joke... your cousin's parents should tell her to scrounge up money on her own!!!!

Scarlett said...

That's what I told her - that had she been my daughter, I'd have asked her to arrange for the money on her own. To which she replied "Thank god you're not my parent"!!

Kalyan Karmakar said...

well one bad apple doesn't stop a bushel. Onne of the reasons I did my MBA was to become independent as soon as possible

Scarlett said...

@Knife - My cousin thinks it's her parents "duty" to support her as long as she wants them to!