DO WHAT YOU LIKE OR LIKE WHAT YOU DO?
Hi, I am a to-be engineer, like most of you there! No I wasn’t forced to take this up. It was my choice. I was moulded to make this choice.
As a child I loved acting. I used to spent hours mono-acting my own cooked up plots and find solace in it.
Then, I was sent to school and there, my first dream profession was to be a teacher! I loved getting all messy with chalk powder all over my hands and having the authority of commanding people to stand up on the bench!
I
loved dancing too. But then, I was never sent to dance class because the decision makers had the notion that I would put on a lot of weight if I quit dancing half way. I gave up on it because I thought they were right. I was new to this world after all!They put me to music class instead. I don’t really know if I liked music, but a hungry child like me would grasp anything that came on the way and try to give the best shot in learning it. Thus I developed interest in it as I learnt it and got fairly good at it. So far so good, one down, more to go.
My marks card always spoke nice things about me in parent-teacher meetings at school, and my science-lover parents found my scores to be suitable for science stream. That doesn’t make sense to me either, but then, I always heard them say stuff which sounded like “Arts is for dumb fucks, science it is!”, “oh! He is, after all, an arts student!” and then I repeated to myself in my brain, “I’m not a dumb fuck, I’m a science student!” Trust me when I say I loved history, geography, drama, music, dance, Sanskrit, philosophy and poetry, probably once step more, but I was also really good at physics, chemistry and math! But now, the mind set was, arts is just for passion, science is for a living!
One thing that makes all the parents,
especially those from the middle and upper middle class say such things, is fear. Fear, that no other field is safe enough for the future of their kids and kins!When I spoke to my parents about acting, they told me instances of how many people go for it and fail miserably in their lives, while only those few with a bright fortune shine. They said it wasn’t a profession you could rely upon, especially for girls, as the profession is too short lived. It stays, only till you have the glamour, while science would hang on way longer.
I was told about the failures, even before I had even begun, and frightened away to take refuge under science!
Physics was my favourite in science. I would love going deeper in it and becoming a physicist! But again, the fear factor played its role well! “It is India! Research means searching for a job! No pure science baby!”
Well, being a doctor never fascinated me much and I was pretty glad people already discouraged me about it saying by the time I became a qualified-enough doctor, I would be my own patient! (due to old age of course).
After so many filters of fears and discouragements, Engineering was the winner of this elimination game! Typical arranged marriage scenes!
All these happened too quickly, before I could myself decide what was right and wrong. My discretion was biased by external factors, even without realising it! Well I guess that is why I say, Hi, I am a to-be engineer, like most of you there! No I wasn’t forced to take this up. It was my choice. I was moulded to make this choice.
