After watching Sachin tame Shane Warne & Co at Sharjah, all I wanted to do in life was bat like Sachin. Dancing to A.R. Rahman’s tunes in the movie Muthu , I wanted to be Rajinikanth. As a kid, my choices were simple; I could be anyone. Somewhere along the line, these choices vanished.
After the initial wishes of hitting sixes or spurting punch dialogues, came the so-called reasonable deals such as Charted Accountant or a chef (there was no Master Chef back then). These dreams too soon vanished simply because I managed to convince myself that one was too difficult and the other made no practical sense!
Next was there was high school where a fresh dose of friends and new ideas came up. Maybe I didn’t really give them much thought because I don’t remember them now. I distinctly remember not even bothering to make a choice before joining engineering because everyone was invariable going to become an engineer! I was actually shocked when one of my friends said she’s going do Visual Communication. What blasphemy, I thought! I had no idea about the course nor would it have made any difference, as I simply was not interested in thinking about anything other than what I had chosen.
On the first day I told myself that I will do very well in engineering but four years down the line, I am mocking at the younger me! After four years of choosing fun over academics and outings over libraries I was left with an average CGPA and a job at an MNC.
Then a pursued a new dream — MBA. This dream had set itself up over the course of four years only to crash one fine morning. That morning I decided to take my GRE exam. This was the most sensible option but also the one that was going to kill another dream. The way I felt that day because, is the way I still feel five months and a very good GRE and TOEFL score later. The same gut wrenching feeling that tells you the best decision of your life involved a huge sacrifice and the death of many other dreams.
Today, I have started telling myself that this will be the last dream that I ever give up. I need to fight for it. To the brave new world and a better, stronger me!
ABHISHEK P.C., 22, Engineering Graduate
