By Aamir Wani

For as long as I can remember, success in Kashmir has been measured in government job postings.

From a young age, children are told that the safest, most respectable path is through an office window with fixed hours and guaranteed retirement benefits. Parents take pride when their son becomes a doctor or their daughter clears the civil services.

These dreams are rarely about passion or purpose. They are about safety, a word that has silently replaced freedom in our collective imagination.

A government job looks like security. It offers steady paychecks, paid leaves, and the comfort of a pension. In a place where economic opportunities are scarce, it feels like winning a lifelong safety net. But this very comfort often becomes a cage.

Most employees spend decades doing routine work, bound by hierarchy and fear of risk. The system rewards compliance over creativity, routine over reinvention.

It keeps you content, but not necessarily fulfilled.

This mindset is reinforced early in school. Our education system prizes memory over imagination. Students learn to obey, not to question. Success is defined by grades and degrees, not by the ability to create or solve. We produce skilled workers, not innovators.

Many of the most influential figures across the globe succeeded because of their courage to think differently.

The overreliance on government employment has created a dangerous dependency in Kashmir, where unemployment is nearly double the national average.

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