The Life Of A B. A. Student.

The following incident is a real life conversation between me and an old man (stranger) in a city bus.

Old man -Degree college student, eh?

Me –uh, Yes.

Old Man – Bcom? BSc?

Me – B.A sir.

Old Man (visible cringes) – B.A na?

Me – Yes sir. B.A psychology, English Literature and Journalism.

Old man (gives a disgusted look again) – How much percentage in intermediate? 50-60?

Me – 90% sir.

Old man ( shocked beyond imagination) - *silence*

After 1 min.

Old man – Psychology is a good course, no?

Me (with smile of victory) – Yes sir.

These are small victories that we B.A students achieve. In a world full of doctors and engineers, we are the people who had the courage to choose arts, we had the courage to listen to all the needless taunts and suggestions from people who don’t even know your second name.

There are a lot of misconceptions that people have on B.A students. Here are few of them.

1. Low IQ

Many people think that BA students are people with low IQ who managed to just pass in their 12th standard. Believe me, arts is a very complex stream which needs creativity and thought. People with passion towards the subject who wouldn’t quit the stream can only succeed in arts.

2. Manage to get a degree.

If you want to take B.A only because you want to become a graduate, don’t take it. Contrary to popular beliefs, we have a lot to study in BA. The subjects might be very easy to understand but it requires constant studying and complex understanding. As students, we need to study a lot of theory and need to write a lot during exams.Only if you are willing to study day and night and actually have the capacity to comprehend concepts, become a B.A student.

3. Have a broad mindset.

If you are taking humanities, it is very important to be able to be “humane”. The true intention of humanities is to be able to see everyone with the same perspective and to be able to show feelings of sympathy and empathy towards others. If the degree you’re taking doesn’t match with your personality, it’s a waste of your time and money. A person with a stereotypical mind and narrow mind set studying humanities is like someone who doesn’t like machines becoming a mechanical engineer.

It’s weird how people give more importance to mechanised work than creative work. With robots advancing in this age, work of engineers and surprisingly even doctors are being done by robots. But it takes a creative mind to write novels, to create art, to comprehend situations according to emotions, to counsel people, etc. If you are a B.A student, take pride in yourself. There are so many people who gave up their dreams to become an engineer or doctor or CA, but you stood your ground and achieved your dream. Raise your head high and say proudly, that you are a B.A student!