while i seriously doubt whether the Foundation series had any such impact on me, the futures possibly something most of us think about. oh, and this is possibly the most shit-free post i have ever written... that doesnt say much, does it? its still bad ... :'(. all typed in one sitting, around an hour... of dial-up :(
Pressing Questions->
ive always had some questions abt myself which i could never answer. yes, one of them being "why do i have CAD?", but most others being reasonably serious questions... one question which noone else really seems able to answer is "what do i want to be 10 yrs from now?". now dont say 'being happy', or 'having a great big family', or 'being shit-rich'. i asked "what", not "how". the "how" question is possibly what you want as the end. "what" is the means you use to get there.
Coming to the END->
what is the "end" most ppl want to achieve? when do we come to a point to say "yes, i have achieved so-and-so end?" and when do we say "this is something i have achieved, but it is just a stepping stone to the end"? the point im tryin to make is that ppl DONT HAVE ANY IDEA what they want to do. and still they have dreams... dreams which ony one out of ten of them will ever realize. dreams which, although being satisfactory in their attainment, still dont answer the question "what do i want to be 10 yrs from now"...
How did we get here?
i kinda remember, as any kid would, the constant pestering of all the boisterous aunts, bespectacled uncles, booming-voiced great-grandfathers and pesky tenth cousins - "what will u be when u grow up, beta?". and what did you reply? doctor? lawyer? engineer? bus-driver? astronaut? what abt me? i wanted to be a pilot. when i was five. by the time i was around 10, pilot-ry seemed unfeasable. how abt the army then? me? the army? rofl, when i was around 13. then i wasnt sure what i wanted to be. i had no great love for the arts. drawing was the only subject in school, in which i almost-failed. music classes were too shitty for me to pursue a career there. besides, i didnt have an ear for music. how abt acting? speak at elocutions and debates, that i could do decently. but standing on a stage in front of a thousand ppl, wearing a stupid costume and wig, a ton of make-up on your face, making a complete fool of yourself while reciting some monologue from some long-dead leaders victory speech, who is probaly turning in his grave - was that what i wanted? hell NO. so then what was it that i wanted to do? manual labour? construction work? after all the money parents spend into a kids education, which kid would want to do that? a life of hardship, which no doubt would bring some satisfaction, but at what cost?
Other avenues...
there are loads of other professions arent there? historian, marine biologist, economist, accountants (more like auditors and company finance heads, not cashiers at some bank), journalists, political workers, blah blah... but nothing really that i wanted to do. just couldnt imagine myself sailing around in some creaky old ship (christened "the fair mermaid"), in the middle of the amazon, making a documentary about the breeding habits of amazonian-pirahnas, while at the same time trying to dodge poison darts from the half-naked natives (that live in those parts) shouting "bathaa-booga-buka"... or poring over thousands of books in a hundred different scripts just to find out the name of the twenty year old servant of the third cousin, of pharaoh ramses the two-hundredth, who tried to stage a revolution after he found no toilet-paper in the servants lavatory... so, back to square zero - engineering, doctor-bazi or lawyer-giri.
What do i choose?
i hate blood in real life. seriously. while i kinda enjoy seeing lots of it being spilt on TV or in comp games, i just hate seeing a liver pop out ( in real life) onto my hand(ugh.. a LIVER ). laywer? too close to the word "law", so what do i do? engineering... isnt it obvious? thats possibly what most ppl around me think they are doing. engineering. constructive work, isnt it, being a computer engineer? programming, removing bugs, re-programming, removing more bugs, the like... you get my point...[ i refuse to criticise elec engg :)) ]
to summarise, the GENERAL point of view - lets see, we need to earn some money. how do we earn money? by working. what do we work as? we just chose to become a part of that already-huge, but growing huger family of ENGINEERS. congratulations, my fellow-engineer... but wait... whats mister ganand saying? why am i an engineer? question answered? yes, but not quite...
The future
to know what you want in the future, look at what YOU have chosen for yourself... for the present. in future, you get a degree. wave your papers in the face of an employer, get a job. do well there, get a promotion. get more money, get a better life. attract whatever your money attracts to you, increase prestige, blah blah.... is that really what you want as an END?? you, i dont know. but me? hell no. so, what is it then that I want to do? i dont really care HOW i do it, but i want to make a difference. be responsible for SOME change, some radical idea, some fodu development. have my name all over it? i dont really care (preferably YES, but a group work will also do) , as long as I know its mine. this is abt getting satisfaction, what I want... as an END.
The Job Part->
what do you plan to do after your graduation? manual labour? why? you are one of our country's elites, the well-educated. dont you want to make your mark on the world? while at the same time earning enough to live in reasonable comfort? so, why did you join IIIT? why did you try for the IITs? why did you study for EAMCET? because you wanted to get into a good college. why is IIIT better than something-something Reddy Institute of Technology and Engineering? why did you prefer IIIT over that? because we have better facilities, we have a better pool of people (more intelligent or just more hard-working), people with possibly more potential that them, and we also have good placements. note, i aint saying we are better that ALL of them, im just talking abt the avg potential. academics aint everything, is it? but later, when youre 40 (hope i atleast live that long) how does your football-knowhow, your passion for cricket, your skill in swimming help you? keeping fit, yes,. but there are always OTHER ways. better ways... exercise. so whether or not you are good at outdoor games doesnt really affect you in the distant future. it you can play the guitar, how does it help you? if you can sing, well and good, but of what use is it in life? the ONLY reason we like the stuff we like is because we enjoy them. we dont care abt the end, we care more abt the journey there, the MEANS...
The MEANS->
probably more important part. do you care abt your end? do you know what you want to achieve? no? atleast have a broad framework to get somewhere. some place where you have an abundance of options. it easier to fall down from a height, but difficult to climb there. you probably get a running start in your career, as compared to your friends back home. so use it to the fullest. get better than what they dreamt of... step one - start your career in some GOOD place. forget the pay, forget the distance from home. spend a year getting experience. observing and learning. then go abt doing what you like... just so you have loads of options. and for business, you dont need loads of money. you dont plan to start a shop of luxury goods do you? service related companies are what most enterpreneurs are looking at.
The accounts class example...
are you really that un-crooked? has there never been a case where you havent helped a friend just so you do better than him? dont you ever aspire to be better that what other ppl possibly are? have you always helped some1 in need? just because you were human? me? i aint core-crooked. noone i know is. but in our own way, we all are not as honest as we think. and ganand, you wont start a business cos its too unethical out there? are you truly ethical? have you always been kind and benevolent? havent you ever withheld something from some1 to get an edge? you have, i guess. i know i have. its all part of the competition. all part of the game... or is it that you are just too much of a chicken to take the competition? ( i dont mean YOU, i mean ppl in general)
[ Lose Yourself - Eminem ]
Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
.
.
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lietime, Yo!
[esc]:wq[enter]
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"what crap i type" - Tiamath Apocalypse, Legions of the Damned.
Quote->
"the Legions have decided to adopt a NSP (No Shit policy) as far as this blog is concerned, with immediete effect... all shit goes to the other blog." - Legions spokesperson, circa 2005 AD
5 comments:
Three continous posts in two days all making complete sense and how come everyone is posting their hearts out when they are away.Does home help you think better? , may be!
The following are my comments which I never thought I would have added to a post by The Apocalypse
*turns away from the screen and starts typing*
I am afraid I completely agree with what Badri says.
I hate it when people ask 4 year olds what they want to be in life , you see I never answered that question (courtesy my mother).She says I would sit there gazing dumbstruck into the questioner's eyes hoping that they would just go away.Besides what does a four year old know about life other than it being a four-letter word , it would have probably helped if he knew other four letter words , then it would have been easier to tell them to simply go away.
And its totally true that we do what we like as long as no one is stopping us from doing it.Even when they are ,we sometimes end up doing what we intended to.And while we are doing what we do , we dream about the possibilities of us becoming good at it and we see ourselves that way in the distant future.Its all about the path to the end of that dream that makes us do that thing more and more.
Although there is one career that I think Badri can become good at ... Journalism!
If electronics doesn't work out may be its worth a shot.
Good post, makes sense and makes a point. The Mumbai air must be doing your CAD some good.
its not much the air, or the "feeling" of being home or seeing your friends (none of my friends know im here :P). it has more to do with looking at your past and remembering something.
i met a few family members, old relations, who greeted me with the same ol "how tall youve grown" or "how smart u r, in some fodu college" (yuck). and to think these ppl were my idols 7-8 yrs back. how much i loved their company, and now they are just a bunch of annoying old ppl (not that old, but hey, thats what i think). how theyve been through numerous problems, which probably robbed them of their true character, that spark in them i used to admire as a kid... all gone, replaced by the same shit you hate in other non-admired aunts and uncles - the uncanny ability to induce massive amounts of boredom. with EVERY word. is it me or is it them? what has changed, now after this long? dunno... guess i'll never know...
and another thing ... the first day i came here, i just saw my dads old laptop. back from some shop who told us it was worthless, mobo being burnt. and the memories come flooding back. how much fun i had with it, a decade back (it worked from 1992-96, approx). how it meant nothing to me now. how i made silly promises of keeping it forever, how i dreamt of its wonderous powers, how i fantasised what i would do when i finally got old enough to buy one of my own (gimme a break, i was barely 9 then, dammit, i dreamt of computers, now of _ahem_). and now all that stares back at me - a pile of junk. once worth a cool lakh and "great times" for me, just a relic of my long forgotten past. one that will never be a part of my future... no matter what i do...
[esc]:wq[enter]
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*wipes a solitary tear from the right eye*
"*sniff*" - Tiamath Apocalypse, Legions of the Damned.
This post is so unBadri-ish.No bullshit, complete sense.
I guess voulnteering for Mag Club wasn't a bad idea Badri!
And Smiley why don't YOU and Sir also write a post?
you got a cool skin (blogskin, I meant..). Though "The Don's blog", and "Archives" come in the same link in the left sidebar. Just making a suggesstion..
Fuck word verification.
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