Meera Syal, a successful actress and writer, advocates letting youngsters follow their passion, warning pushy parents that they might be setting their children up for failure. Syal's own immigrant parents had once suggested medical training but she instead chose a different career path. She said, “There is a misconception that if you choose arts at school and university, you are going to spend your life starving in a garret”.
A mother herself, she believes that the Asian community is becoming more relaxed. She said, “I can't think of many of my contemporaries allowed to go into the arts. That has really changed.” Syal's own parents accepted her decision to pursue English and Drama at university and her career took a turn thereon. In a lighter vein, the comedian and star of BBC1’s The Split said, “There are many more people alive today because I did not become a doctor”.
