As I sit here on my desk trying to write something for my soul and your enjoyment, I find myself at loss of topics and above all the most vital and common omission- concentration!! And why not? Concentration demands favourable surroundings and mine is the least. Except for the small space I have reclaimed for writing, the whole table is strewn with magazines, papers, copies and titbits of disastrous time pass regime.
Suddenly from this heap, my now useless seventh semester marksheet seemed to be mocking at me with the ‘#’ symbol indicating the flunked subject. And my mind in the brain and adrenaline in the blood started racing. I had something to think or rather something to ponder upon. Don’t worry friends, I am over the academic interest but can’t help the practical thoughts. And what I was thinking was blasphemy after proudly calling myself a ‘MECHANICAL ENGINEER’. But thoughts are thoughts dear and I am not strong enough to ward them off.
What went wrong? Did I want to be an engineer? Or did I want something else? You might laugh at the futility of such thoughts but I wish to question the very basis of the general mindset where the parents want their children to be either doctors or engineers and the children are wary of breaking new grounds. Having taken the dip myself four years back, I can’t see myself as a champion of free thinkers and trailblazers but call it remorse or corrective thoughts, I am thinking today.
Actually it is a very difficult decision to take; you have a professional and clear cut life on one side and an uncertain path thanks to the lack of proper information channels. Mindset also plays a major part in such cases, a mindset that deems commerce stream as inferior to science! Students often take the bite that is fed to them under peer pressure and the fear of failure. Caring not for the skills they have or rather the skills they lack. Disregarding the fact whether they are even interested or not they go for the plunge.
I am myself guilty of doing it; I chose engineering over my dream with evidently disastrous aftereffects like the one marksheet on my table, peeping at me with the ‘#’ sign, still mocking me and many more marksheets that are part of my resume now. All say only one story that I was not made to be an engineer.
Many a times life becomes a wrong step and you should be brave and determined enough to rectify the mistakes. Hoping for the best from the future I am hereby signing off but the marksheet with the ‘#’ sign still mocks me…..
