Random stuff. Not at all coherent and no points made here. And no new year resolutions for me.
This time as I was leaving my mom pulled me and directed to the ‘Pooja Ghar’ and said, “Jaao, bhagwaan se kaho kuch akkal de tujhe. Be serious. Control your phone bills. And do study this last sem”. She gave me those ‘I know it all – whats going on in your life’ types look. I tell you,moms have got those eyes of steel.
And as I meekly entered the hallowed room with my brother dispatching a ‘well timed smirk’ and my dad passing his ‘you think this will work. huh” glance, I decided that so be it. I won’t change. Not even a bit.
And that I would kill even the micro-bacterial size achievement ka keeda in me. No expectations. No vindications. No judgements. This year I will be me.
And regarding the being serious pledge. I am serious. Seriously! It does not mean that I have to make a grim face – a know it all look – and be in a career conscious gait to prove that. It does not mean that when my aunts and uncles from far far away lands bump into me and put up there ever so concerned querry “Ab Aage kya socha hai beta“, I should rattle off some IAS, MBA, MS stuff just to fit into their world view of ‘Focussed Child’ and put up a role modal in front of their toddler. ‘Lo iski tarah bano!’ NO.
And its not just with me. Its the way we are brought up in our society. Achieve this. Prove that. Be there. Be loud. And when you have done this all and you are free, prod others to follow your race. So when the HR head of mu-sigma asked me as to why I always wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to say cos this is what intelligent 90 percenters do to screw their happiness. And I am no different 
Its like if you are enjoying , if you are laughing , you are not making yourself into a breadwinner. The entire Indian society is designed to make enjoyment a very ridiculed thing, just after Saurav Ganguly. And if you are in an elitest instituion like mine you need to be geared up. Abrest with knowledge. Aim high. Achieve. CGs and Position of responsibilities.
And so its about struggle, hard work, sweat, competition. Not enjoyment. And for what? For the attestation from the society that you are like them. So that they include you into them and then you espouse the same!
Work hard but grab the fact that there is a part in you who does not care about your social status! There is that kid in you who just wanted that digital watch and the sleek cell phone and you guided him to become and engineer. More so, you wanted to be the best of the best of the best! And above that every time you steered up, you wanted your peers to acknowledge those grade points on your sheet and give you that demigod status.
Last time on my trip back home I met this small rag picker in train and all he wanted was some money to buy a watch from a local ferry walaa so that he could locate the last train to reach back home to his only known survivor of village floods, his mom and give his daily earnings. That is his life. Simple. Plain. He wanted a pink watch and he wore it around with pride.
I tell you people, outside my A/C compartment, away from those pouting belly uncles and hanging jewelery aunts, seeing this small boy in his nickers and torn sweater with that pink watch and that ecstatic voice ‘bhaiya time theek kar do iski zaraa. mera station aane walaa hai’, it was all that I ever wanted to do. Match his clock
No gyaan this time. And no strong upbeat resolution to post. And as far as to how I celebrated my new year eve, I slept till 11am of the 1st.
Filed under: Random musings!!, Self
for once i do agree with you…but going by your track record for the last six months…and reading this post…i guess your worst is yet to come…
and i’m not talking about your writing!!
ahaan. we ll see
well said pondy ….. but i disagree….dere definitely is a child in every one who needs to be pampered all the time to stay happy, but dere is a fine line between the happiness that comes out of doin wat we want and doing wat is to be done wen it is to be done, if you miss this line it is only hardship afterwards which may or may not be worthed… anywayz nice post
That child needing pampering thing is no wonder true.
That ‘doing wat is to be done wen it is to be done’ is a phase. Ultimately each one has to wade his way across to the latter ‘happiness in what we love doing’.
Anyways the post in picture did not by any means denigrates the value of hard work or competition. It only presents a fact that care for your dreams while toiling for the same. Enjoy both the road and the peak. Don’t give into the “social attestations”
Nice follow through btw.
The man’s after my own heart.
Nice post Pande
nice one rohit!! but ya be careful i hope ur worst phase is over.
al the best for the coming year!!
ah! so ‘the lord’ has become the rebel
nice post .. let us see if u really keep up this attitude outside ur blog!
@ mri:
God. You testing me!
on the requirement of proving yourself to the society and behaving the way you want to; i believe that you can do what you want and not do what others expect or want you to do, but the problem arises when you still expect them to behave the way you want them to , and perceive you the way you want them to. So give them what they want from you, and get what you want from them. Of course, it leads to the question of ” but i am not true to myself” which can be either taken as a valid question, or brushed aside as ego
sometimes you choose the race you want to run and what you wana run it for, most times the crowd pushes you in!
n the realization of it leads one to posts like these n some not so ‘acceptable’ consequences!!