Surrendering Dreams

" The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries" said Descartes a few centuries ago. For me, it would have remained just another quote uttered by the so called "Greatest Thinkers" of modern history. A trip to the historic National Defence Academy(NDA) in pune changed it all and for the first time in my life I was able to understand the spirit behind a quote . The sprawling campus,right from its inception has always been a silent witness to the innumerable accounts of Bravery and sacrifices. Just like everyone else I was deeply moved with the discipline over there. However I was hoping that once I stepped back into the humdrum of the mundane world these thoughts would quickly pass away. But I guess weightage of the words like Duty, Courage, Honour and Valor is too substantial to be forgotten so easily . With these thoughts at the back of my mind, a phrase from a Peter Drucker's book struck me - Yes, it was about 'Surrendering dreams' to cope up in this harsh world. Instead of brushing the forfeiture of various childhood dreams under the carpet, I thought of writing an article on it.(...as you'll find out later in this blog...I wanted to be fighter pilot!!!)

After a conversation with a close friend during the trip, it dawned upon me that it was not just me who had been giving up the various fancy career dreams. Everybody chucks up some or other dream during their life. She further informed that is she had received a proper career guidance she might have been part of the defence service now. I could sense the heaviness in the tone and had an instantaneous urge to fire away some useful career guidance tip, but the honest fact is that I barely knew any. However I know a golden mantra imparted to me by my brother about Engineering " All is well that ends"....I will elaborate that for clarity - "Cut the crap, finish the job and get the hell out of there"...No need of bells and whistles !!!!

• ASTRONAUT : Invariably, all kids dream of becoming a Astronaut at least once. The sheer thought of walking in the space and being able to see the whole of universe at once is mind boggling. On top of it, the cartoons make you believe that it is just a matter of finding a suitable rocket to get into space and once you are bored up there, just come back !!! Forget space, these days I barely have time to take a look at the sky in the night. It is only during power cuts that I get to realise that there is something called as "moonlight".
• MOVIE STAR or CRICKET STAR : It is cliche to say that in our country, movie stars and cricketers are treated as demi gods.Everybody wishes to have a super luxurious life like them.It requires no explicit mention that we idolise them and tend to imitate them in our own little way.
• BILLIONAIRE : Again most of the kids dream of becoming a Billionaire...Why ?? It just sounds cool...If u have money, you could buy the biggest toy, buckets of chocolates, biggest car, biggest house or any other luxury present in this world...or the whole world itself !!!! For some people, this dream does not really go away.....Okay, I am talking bou myself....Having being pounded numerous times with cross arguments on this topic for years now, I have recently conceded some ground...The cross arguments usually go like this "RAVI....zindagi mein paisa hi sab kuch nahi hota...sacha pyar aur rishton se badkhar kuch nahi hota...paisa to haath ka mael hai....yeh bat jaldi se samaj lo...nahi to zindagi mein bahut pachtana padega"...So now I attach equal importance to Paisa and "Sacha pyar & Rishte" :))))
• DEFENCE PERSONNEL : In this digital age, the media yields tremendous power. Just like other kids, my perception of Defence Personnel is heavily influenced by the movies and television series. For a really long long time I related patriotism with Sunny Deol screaming his lungs out in the movie "Border". ..Airforce was nothing more than Tom Cruise wearing the sexy jacket ,riding the fast planes and being a heartthrob. (I admit that I still want to have such a jacket and ride a F-16 and bomb few places) ....After watching them who does not want to be in the defence services ?? Talking about non cinematic influences, the respect the faujis receive in society and the fact that the serve the country in the true meaning is really inspiring...But somehow while choosing a career path, most of us tend to dodge this profession.....I have intention to judge whether such bypassing is right or wrong...I am not qualified enough to comment on that aspect...I am just serving the topic on a platter,,,,people can decide for themselves.
• ENGINEER/DOCTOR/LAWYER :- It is not as if my engineering boat had reached its shore in one single piece entirely under my command, that I can start sermonising people on how to choose a line of career. At best, i was praying that I get a life jacket and some emergency boat pick me up if were to be jettisoned suddenly . Even though the aforementioned point raises question on my credibility to write on this section, i do have a strong point to make here, which is practically very relevant. In southern India, it has been my personal observation that majority of the parents coerce their children to take up these "foolproof" professions without really giving a thought about the inclination of the child. These traditional careers are time tested and are most certainly to provide good salaried jobs. The choosing of these jobs is equated to the hindu concept of "Dharma" and therefore leave little choice for the kids to select their area of interest. Newspapers are abound with cases of suicide just because some one was not able to make into these 3 careers.

In addition to the above, there are numerous dream we give up...Maybe they are unrealistic or it is just that we lack the tenacity to persevere...Another point to be noted is that I have purposefully excluded the case of people who had ta specific career orientation right from their childhood and who later really converted their dreams into reality. I am not one of them so have no clue how their thoughts are. In a nutshell - the inconvenient truth is that as we advance in life, we learn the limits of our abilities !!!

For those of you who are wondering as to how the above image is related to this blog..try tracing me near the front end of the ship reading a concrete block...Yep, I am the insignificant one.....