So here I am. The last time when I was here, it was after a day long journey to Nashville with a few friends-turned-family. Add 2 sleepless days prior to that and voila! I was on some kind of a high when I last blogged. No wonder, it was all about a past that I lived. It's always flashback time when you're high. Wo000osh! Thud! Oh, I just jumped into the present. Here's what goes, and has gone, into being what (or rather "whatever") I am today:
Some incidents count towards your experience. Some do not. And there comes by a third category which changes all the experience you've had so far. It spawns a new beginning. And here I am, at MY new beginning.
I've always been the learner who learns from incidents happening around me. For example, back in my under-grad days, I was eccentric. Eccentricity was my alias 'last name'. Incidents happened and things changed. I learnt. But one thing never died in me. The urge to know new people and new places. Of course I could know a lot of people in India. That's one thing India could never fall short of. New People. But I probably was in search of new people from new places. Two jobs in one hand and a visa in the other, it was pretty darn tempting to choose "two" jobs over "one" visa. But sometimes the focus shifts. I had to chose between two "run-of-the-mill" jobs and one "gateway to a whole new experience" visa. The choice I made is pretty obvious by now.
What I get as a degree out of my Master's Program hardly matters. What job the degree gets me hardly matters. The prospect of knowing a whole new set of people and their way of life is what excites me.
One thing I have learnt out of my experience here so far: "You have one life. Live it or suck at it." Always make choices you will not regret. Always make choices you wanted to make. We, Indians, inherently suck at that fact. 1) We're always told what to do. 2) We're told what to love. If ever we combined the two and were "told to do what we love," we probably could have produced a dozen more tendulkars, nigams, bindras, nehwals and mirzas. We still believe that a "chai-wallah" is more low class than a Software Engineer. We still lack the dignity of labor. More often than not, the truth is the "chai-wallah" loves making "chai" more than the Software Engineer, who did his under-grad in Mechanical Engineering, working his behind off testing software. Mech Engg and Software!? Heck!? But that's what pays and that's what is "dignified". And, sadly, that's how we are. Even though we have the distinction of producing the highest number of engineers every year, we also have the distinction of having the lowest number of inventions/year.
We prefer to sell our ingenious rather than use it to develop indigenous products. That's how we are. Things are changing. I've heard. But that's it. I've only heard.
We are still afraid of going home and saying "Hey people, I wanna work part time jobs and earn for myself" because we're sure we'll get to hear "We will lend you money if you want but you dare not work such jobs." The only ray of hope is that things have changed to "Let me know when you work." although it actually reads "I am pissed at the idea but I won't make it evident because its not cool to be pissed." Haha.
I might be too critical here but it's too true a fact to be ignored.
The only thing constant, they say, is "Change". Eventually, things have to change. They will. Only, wish this "eventuality" is a part of my lifetime. I've got just ONE.
P.S : Fortunately, I have been blessed with people who have been supportive all the time and appreciate everything I do. A very objective post.
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