Why I am a doctor,you are an engineer and .......

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The time when you don't know what to do.What you want.What you need.What you deserve.
I seem to have been lucky  to have had a say in what I would like my future to be like.More like the freedom to dream of what I wanted to be.Not what they wanted me to become.

Back when I was in school everyone seemed to be pretty clear with their life plans.They had a particular institute in mind...a particular degree in  mind and went through the following -

"Study study study..wake up at 4am study,grab a bite,go to classes,go to school,study-answer-top exams,grab a bite-go to classes-study-sleep for few hours-study"..cycle repeats.
EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR FOR 4 YEARS.

On retrospection,maybe I didn't work half as hard.Never went to any coaching classes.Never spent sleepless nights over books -until the last minute when I wasn't even sleeping any more.

Then the results came and everyone seems to have scored more...(still don't know about that) and they all got into the best institutes or the next best ones...or somewhere they could call college for the next 3-4 years ..while I ended up in an entirely different city..scratching my head ..wondering what on earth all those phrases in the  DTE forms meant..wondering what my option would be.

My entire educational career was a set of accidents spanning 10 schools,2 continents,4 languages and so on.So I ended up doing a degree I only dreamt of ..in a college I never even knew after dumping another degree I did NOT dream of in a college I never knew either.


Now I am still here trying to finish what I started while my friends are already working.Earning.And some of them wondering why they are doing whatever they are doing - just kidding- all the engineers are doing the same thing after picking those specializations.
Why did you become an engineer/doctor/lawyer ?Why?
Well here is why :
1. Money.You get to earn a lot of money once you are an engineer.Atleast thats what they tell you.
2.It is a respectable profession. Professional degree no?
3.Your mom/dad/grandmom/grandad wants you to become one because -
 a.They could not become an engineer/doctor/lawyer etc etc
 b.Everyone has a doctor/lawyer/engineer in the family.
  c. X mami's son is a doctor. He is earning so much money now they can ask for ____ money as dowry and will get a rich girl to marry.
 d.Y mama's son is an engineer working in IBM/Microsoft/TCS/CTS/you get it and earning so much money his mom won't shut up.
  e.Family business/hospital etc.
   f. Your father was a ___(insert Profession)_____.Your grandfather was a ______. His brother was a ....and so on.Hence you should also be the same.It is tradition.
4.That is what you got after the rounds of counselling.
5.That is the  option you ____________ for.
6.This is by far the best ...I was watching TV the other day and some woman was calling the astrologer in the show and telling him about her newborn grandson.After a thorough enquiry of his health,wealth,life,marriage etc she asked the astrologer "What should I make baby study?" ...astrologer: "His Rahu is something.His Mars is something...so you can make him study Mechanical engineering" ...and seriously that is how we make life decisions ...for somebody else.What happened to what "he wants to do" ? Who cares right?

You make everyone happy,go get a nice degree (in some cases a girlfriend/boyfriend as well much to the annoyance of your parents).
And then it happens.You realise a year later ...you don't want to program.You miss home.You have to cook for yourself.You miss mom's homemade food.You don't even like your job.Your boss hates you.Everything you wanted to be is a figment of a long gone dream.You don't know what you want.You wish you had a chance to do it all over again.I don't have a solution for what you feel.I don't know how I can help you yet.But please please please...when you have kids
DO NOT FORCE THEM TO STUDY SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF STATUS...especially after whatever you have been through.

Comments

jayshree ganesan said…
Ummm...heartfelt....and I don't see a beginning or an end to these travails each one of us faces..am sure the very same parents grandparents who r so influencing others thoughts ( caringly) have also gone through this phase and still don't know what hit them. But again, lucky are those who wake up..get into action...do what they've always loved to do.. thus realising their 'Swadharma':)
May 11, 2012 at 7:34 AM
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