I’ve never really understood the point of the mindless rat-race for engineering. If you live in Andhra Pradesh, you’ll know how many teenagers opt in for the math stream after class 10, and then undergo coaching for engineering entrance examinations like IIT-JEE, AIEEE and EAMCET.
Well, I was one of them myself. Before I sat under a Banyan tree and attained enlightenment.
I’m just kidding.
But really, before I explored all the career options before me, I was like any other engineering aspirant: join Narayana after class 10, work hard (read: study until you kill yourself) for two years and crack IIT JEE.
Fortunately for me, just a few days into solving complex trigonometry problems around an abominable bunch of geeky kids who mindlessly crammed in every word in their text-books, I wondered what was the point in all that. There was no room for creativity, all we had to do was follow textbooks and theories. It suffocated me.
I researched about what goes on in the four years of engineering and I instantly knew it wasn’t for me. I wasn’t interested in taking up science for the rest of my life. So aren’t most of the engineering aspirants. They enter the race oblivious of the consequences. And when they realise what happened, they switch streams and do an MBA.
Too bad coaching centers don’t tell you what you’re signing up for when you enroll for their classes.
Ever since I was a child, I was into business. Whenever I thought of my future, I saw myself as a CEO of a huge firm. After reading Chetan Bhagat’s ’2 States’, my desire to get into Management etched into the depths of my heart. Everyone asked me to go for engineering and then do an MBA. That’s what I thought I’d do. But I changed my mind after I knew what engineering was all about. Especially after a discussion with my IIT-professor Uncle. I did not want to waste four years of my life just to switch streams later.
I was always interested in debating and writing. Whenever I saw court-scenes in movies, I wished I could be a lawyer. Ten years into my future, I knew that the only profession that I’d be happy in was Law. But I didn’t think about it much, thanks to the engineering thing going on my mind.
But when I was sixteen, I finally broke the walls I built around myself- those of IIT and engineering, and began fresh.
The only thing that came into my mind was Law. I knew that was what I needed. Especially after the 2G Scam. I saw my country fall apart before my eyes, and I was determined to do something to put it back together. Law, I knew, would give me the ability to make a difference.
I read about Lloyd Blankfien, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. And about how law and MBA make an unbeatable combination. And that was when I knew what I wanted in my life.
And so I plunged. This time headlong. And now there is no looking back.
Because I know what I need. And I know what I am doing. I have never had so much clarity before.
I guess it happens in life. You are in the dark searching for answers, and when you finally get them you know what your life is going to be! You forget the past and everything you want is right before your eyes, and you suddenly have courage to do everything you never thought you could.
Because I needed courage. I had to convince my family. Class 10 topper, Science Olympiad national ranker, not go for engineering? It was scary! But my parents were very supportive. Mom needed a little convincing, but she understood that I was determined. My parents knew I loved words than numbers. The others in the family… Well, they think I am an idiot who flushed her career down the toilet.
Because apparently, Engineering or Medicine are the only two career choices one makes.
Everyone else laughs at me.
If nothing, I am an outcast! People are shocked when I tell them I’m heading for law.
They look at me like I am the biggest idiot in the world!
I took Science in class 11, will head towards Arts and then go for commerce.
(But if you ask me, Science+Arts+Commerce will be the best thing that could ever happen to anyone!)
MPC, Law and then an MBA. She must be crazy, they say.
But for once in my life, I don’t care. I don’t care what anybody says. I know what I want, and I am going for it no matter what anyone thinks.
At least I know that what I am doing now will define my life, and that I am writing my future myself, right from Page 1.
At least I know where I am heading and even though I see a thorny path, I have the guts to get up even if I fall.
At least ten years later when I look back on my past, I will be happy that I carved out my own path rather than follow everybody else on a road somebody else has built.
I know everyone is heading for engineering for a secure future. You get into a good college, and then you get placed. If nothing else, you’ll get an IT related job. It’s just a safe path- you don’t fall. Engineering and then a job and then you get married and settle down. Typical Indian mentality.
But that is not what I want. That is not the life I have chosen for myself.
I have something else in store. Something in the distance that will be hard to reach. But the hard work will be worth the destination.
I will have reached happiness.
And so begins my journey on the road to the future I have written for myself.
I have taken the road less traveled by
And that, I know, will make all the difference.
