Sunday, May 31, 2009

The control that I have over my life.

De-chickenpoxed at last! Man it feels so good, to not be treated like some quarantined casestudy! So here it goes.

Well finally there’s some movement in the house. I mean I’m getting daily calls from some of my overachieving relatives trying to get me into a discussion (in the vaguest of terms) about my career and my future. All those discussions tend to go like this:

THEM: I think that you should take electronics in whichever college you get.
ME: How about nanoscience?
THEM: Naa, the scope for nanotech is very ....ummm...nano. (yeah, engineers are funny aren’t they?)
ME: How about aerospace engineering?
THEM: There is no market for that at all! Unless you want to do aircraft maintenance.
ME: What does that mean?
THEM: You know, like checking tyre pressure.
ME: FINE! And how about chemical engineering?
THEM: Great we finally have someone in the family, who wants to become a petrol pump attendant.
ME: PETROL PUMP ATTENDENT!! Why don’t I just do an MBA after my engineering?
THEM: Well, yeah, go ahead. Wal-Mart has a lot of toothpaste to sell. You can at least sell it for them after an MBA.
ME: What can I possibly do after electronics that’s so nirvana-ish?!
THEM: Oh, loads! After that do your masters then your PhD and then become a professor. (It took me some precious ISD minutes to realize that he was NOT joking!)
ME: (CENSORED) .

That! Is what my relatives call a ‘discussion’. I just can’t help but be amazed by how the next decade or so of my life seems so predictable to them.

When my dad initially asked me what I want to do in life, my answer was ‘I want to be slightly less miserable than people who hate me, that’s called winning!’ I wonder why? but I think that sealed my fate. That’s how parents think I guess, a witty response was interpreted as ‘an indication of how little my future matterd to me’, sooner than I could say ‘college’.

Gone are the days when I would brag about my dad being an all India topper.....Now I find myself hoping that that he was just an uneducated exporter.... Sigh!

Me.

P.S: And ‘Guwahati’ is not spelt as ‘Gauhati’ (as I have spelt it in all my comments). That just shows how dependent I am on Microsoft spellchek. :)

5 comments:

gypsy said...

"Gone are the days when I would brag about my dad being an all India topper.....Now I find myself hoping that that he was just an uneducated exporter.... Sigh!"

LOL...

nyways, good luck for that right option...

Zyenab said...

"When i was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When i went to school, they asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. I wrote down 'happy'.
They told me i didn't understand the assignment and i told them they didn't understand life."

But that's a quotation and i know this doesnt make anything less difficult for you, however what it does do for you is to ease your mind from the social pressure. I quote again

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

Good luck =)

Apparently intellectual said...

okay, this might sound a little weird but the moment you step outta your house and start living in a hostel or sth.your life's gonna be as exciting as a roller coaster. Trust me on that.
So cheer up! be it guwahati or delhi, you are going to have loads of fun!

Apparently intellectual said...

btw loved zainab's comment!

Rahul Bhatnagar said...

@d gypsy: Thanks for the wishes! But yeah, hilarious isn't it? :|

@Zainab: Thanks a lot. You know, you can exactly say things that someone needs to hear. Thanks again :).

@Apparently intellectual: Thanks,you're like a professional career counselor. Yeah, loved her comment too!