After I screwed up my class twelve grades I had my heart set on doing what my sibling did and become a Computer geek…and I was pretty into it to…since class 9 the only subject I preferred doing was Computers…you know why….coz I wanted to be a Computer Engineer…but yeah, as luck turns out ….i’m 6 months away from graduating with a BE (MECHANICAL)…and that’s not what computers are called these days!!
Kids want to be Sachin, Sehwag, Kapil or Kumble if you’re desparate (nobody wants to be Kambli)…my parents had a similar idea, only this didn’t have anything to do with Sehwag or Sachin, hell this didn’t have anything to do with cricket or for that matter sports….my parents wanted me to be a PJ…Pandit Jasraj. They’re theory was if 1 or 2 people in the family could make a buck or two out of music…what must stop our son!!! Principle of Induction at its best!!
As a kid, like every third kid on the block I wanted to become a pilot, and I reckon I had a couple of real hunky uncles (note: anybody older than you, who isn’t your dad is an uncle….get that Webster!!) were pilots….and the more I goo-goo’d that I wanted to be one of ‘em the more I got to dip my fingers into their whisky and soda!! Given all the fauji’s in my khandaan…becoming a pilot shouldn’t have been tough! So I was advised to study at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, but the only thing between RIMC and me, was diarrhea… I think that was the only time my dad was proud of me….my son didn’t even have to give the exam, NOT to get into RIMC. Thus ended the dj and the fauj saga.
It was then that my sister give me a whiff of the moolah!! And I think the order of those days was IT, and I swore that day I was gonna become a comp geek!! Since then, which is class 8 all my electives have been computers.
My dad has been to a WHOLE lot of places abroad, his job was of that kind….and that was my next dream….to visit as many countries as my dad did. Now neither did I have the money to do it by myself nor did have the PR that my dad has to get a job that would take me places….and wallah the Indian Foreign Service keeda took form!! But no sooner did I realize the quanta of work that went into becoming one than the fervor waned.
Come class 9, I was exposed to the realm of nuclear chemistry, that brought alive the Nuclear Scientist in me…I couldn’t wait to assemble a nuclear bomb man…and hey, I knew the difference between a fission and fusion bomb!! But when I checked out the Nuclear Science course in MIT ( I had no idea I was to land up as a Fathers Angel!!) and read all that thermal blah….no sir…maybe some other time!!
It was around that time that I realized that I could make people laugh (I was not aware of the “laugh with not at” theory). So after a week of “Whose Line Is It Anyway” I wanted to be Ryan Stiles….then I heard the Jim Carrey story and along the way bumped into the “laugh with and NOT BE LAUGHED at” theory. So it looked pretty clear to me Comp Engg it was gonna be.
At boarding school you either be stud or grovel in the gravel…so I had to play a game apart from, who can finish the beer can first…I was no good at Basket Ball…cricket wasn’t my forte, tennis is what my dad wanted….that got ruled out right there….so football it was. Now I had to become a Raul or a Giggs…so my dad put it in perspective for me “you get into Tata Football Academy, and you can quit school”….yeah if they let me play more than 60 minutes I would. Ever since, football has been analogous to TV.
Now at boarding school you also have to find a way to attend as few classes as possible, LEGALLY please note. Now, that was done via Band Practice….I enrolled myself in the school marching band…I learnt the C D E F’s of music and then started dabbling with the guitar that was lying around in our dormitory…its this Satrianic prowess that led me into playing for a GOOD band in Hyderabad (my adopted home!!)…so a couple of Metallica albums later I was ready to sell my soul to the devil and in exchange have him teach me to play the guitar. Yeah let’s say, that didn’t work out too good!!! But tension not, I still have the comp geek option…only now it seemed less of an option and more of a compulsion.
The funny thing is that while career options whizzed past me…my folks were certain that if not PJ, their son was gonna pull off a Bill Gates!! So after I screwed my ISC, I waltzed to Mumbai, actually more like stuck my head between my legs and hoped no utensils hurled at me actually got to me and I moved in with my dad. Coupled with rotten luck and good PR, my dad got me into Fr. “Angels”. For those of you who know what its like out here, I actually told my dad that if I were to study in Mumbai, I wasn’t gonna study in any D J Sanghvi or RAIT (D Y Patil)….they’re names didn’t quite appeal to me…I was gonna study only in Fr. “Angel”. Yeah, “be careful what you wish for, it just might come true”….Congrats, you got into “Angels”…and just as I was Ho Ho Ho’ing to myself…..he added, but there is a catch, they’ve put you in the Mechanical Department….WHAT??? I don’t want to become a mechanic daddy….no it’ll be fine. We’ll ensure you get a switch….yeah and here I am a computer engineer…. NOT.
At first I wasted a lot of time believing that I’d get into the AC’d labs of the Comp Dept, but come my first KT and I was stuck with Mechanical ad infinitum.
I tried being positive “may be I’ll head Mercedes’ truck division one day” and then I’ll sit atop a 100 crores!!! Or maybe just work my brains out for a 40….I wisely chose the latter.
The past 7 semesters went by with a few more “ambitions”, being a music journalist was one of them, I gave it a shot. I sent my friend, a music magazine sub-editor an article I wrote; he hasn’t spoken to me ever since!!
I’m 22, my folks expect me to share the load….but don’t I have to do my MS first, says I ….you’re on your own on this one laddie, says daddy!! So as I hurtle between things I hope I find my true calling…hopefully sooner than later!!! But you know I must admit, when I see people who have it all sorted for them…I find it a tad mundane!! So maybe there is a purpose for the delay!!!
As of now I just want to focus on being an ambidextrous Kung Fu fighting China man…yeah I see that happening!!!
Bakwas
Kids want to be Sachin, Sehwag, Kapil or Kumble if you’re desparate (nobody wants to be Kambli)…my parents had a similar idea, only this didn’t have anything to do with Sehwag or Sachin, hell this didn’t have anything to do with cricket or for that matter sports….my parents wanted me to be a PJ…Pandit Jasraj. They’re theory was if 1 or 2 people in the family could make a buck or two out of music…what must stop our son!!! Principle of Induction at its best!!
As a kid, like every third kid on the block I wanted to become a pilot, and I reckon I had a couple of real hunky uncles (note: anybody older than you, who isn’t your dad is an uncle….get that Webster!!) were pilots….and the more I goo-goo’d that I wanted to be one of ‘em the more I got to dip my fingers into their whisky and soda!! Given all the fauji’s in my khandaan…becoming a pilot shouldn’t have been tough! So I was advised to study at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, but the only thing between RIMC and me, was diarrhea… I think that was the only time my dad was proud of me….my son didn’t even have to give the exam, NOT to get into RIMC. Thus ended the dj and the fauj saga.
It was then that my sister give me a whiff of the moolah!! And I think the order of those days was IT, and I swore that day I was gonna become a comp geek!! Since then, which is class 8 all my electives have been computers.
My dad has been to a WHOLE lot of places abroad, his job was of that kind….and that was my next dream….to visit as many countries as my dad did. Now neither did I have the money to do it by myself nor did have the PR that my dad has to get a job that would take me places….and wallah the Indian Foreign Service keeda took form!! But no sooner did I realize the quanta of work that went into becoming one than the fervor waned.
Come class 9, I was exposed to the realm of nuclear chemistry, that brought alive the Nuclear Scientist in me…I couldn’t wait to assemble a nuclear bomb man…and hey, I knew the difference between a fission and fusion bomb!! But when I checked out the Nuclear Science course in MIT ( I had no idea I was to land up as a Fathers Angel!!) and read all that thermal blah….no sir…maybe some other time!!
It was around that time that I realized that I could make people laugh (I was not aware of the “laugh with not at” theory). So after a week of “Whose Line Is It Anyway” I wanted to be Ryan Stiles….then I heard the Jim Carrey story and along the way bumped into the “laugh with and NOT BE LAUGHED at” theory. So it looked pretty clear to me Comp Engg it was gonna be.
At boarding school you either be stud or grovel in the gravel…so I had to play a game apart from, who can finish the beer can first…I was no good at Basket Ball…cricket wasn’t my forte, tennis is what my dad wanted….that got ruled out right there….so football it was. Now I had to become a Raul or a Giggs…so my dad put it in perspective for me “you get into Tata Football Academy, and you can quit school”….yeah if they let me play more than 60 minutes I would. Ever since, football has been analogous to TV.
Now at boarding school you also have to find a way to attend as few classes as possible, LEGALLY please note. Now, that was done via Band Practice….I enrolled myself in the school marching band…I learnt the C D E F’s of music and then started dabbling with the guitar that was lying around in our dormitory…its this Satrianic prowess that led me into playing for a GOOD band in Hyderabad (my adopted home!!)…so a couple of Metallica albums later I was ready to sell my soul to the devil and in exchange have him teach me to play the guitar. Yeah let’s say, that didn’t work out too good!!! But tension not, I still have the comp geek option…only now it seemed less of an option and more of a compulsion.
The funny thing is that while career options whizzed past me…my folks were certain that if not PJ, their son was gonna pull off a Bill Gates!! So after I screwed my ISC, I waltzed to Mumbai, actually more like stuck my head between my legs and hoped no utensils hurled at me actually got to me and I moved in with my dad. Coupled with rotten luck and good PR, my dad got me into Fr. “Angels”. For those of you who know what its like out here, I actually told my dad that if I were to study in Mumbai, I wasn’t gonna study in any D J Sanghvi or RAIT (D Y Patil)….they’re names didn’t quite appeal to me…I was gonna study only in Fr. “Angel”. Yeah, “be careful what you wish for, it just might come true”….Congrats, you got into “Angels”…and just as I was Ho Ho Ho’ing to myself…..he added, but there is a catch, they’ve put you in the Mechanical Department….WHAT??? I don’t want to become a mechanic daddy….no it’ll be fine. We’ll ensure you get a switch….yeah and here I am a computer engineer…. NOT.
At first I wasted a lot of time believing that I’d get into the AC’d labs of the Comp Dept, but come my first KT and I was stuck with Mechanical ad infinitum.
I tried being positive “may be I’ll head Mercedes’ truck division one day” and then I’ll sit atop a 100 crores!!! Or maybe just work my brains out for a 40….I wisely chose the latter.
The past 7 semesters went by with a few more “ambitions”, being a music journalist was one of them, I gave it a shot. I sent my friend, a music magazine sub-editor an article I wrote; he hasn’t spoken to me ever since!!
I’m 22, my folks expect me to share the load….but don’t I have to do my MS first, says I ….you’re on your own on this one laddie, says daddy!! So as I hurtle between things I hope I find my true calling…hopefully sooner than later!!! But you know I must admit, when I see people who have it all sorted for them…I find it a tad mundane!! So maybe there is a purpose for the delay!!!
As of now I just want to focus on being an ambidextrous Kung Fu fighting China man…yeah I see that happening!!!
Bakwas
