16 June 2010

An Important Question


I remember in school one of the most important & dreaded questions that your wise teachers threw at you was:

What is your aim in life?”
At the time, I was completely clueless about the answer.

The other ‘brainy’ students of my class never failed to amaze me. They always knew they either wanted to cut or build; be a doctor or an engineer. How smart, I thought. Why was I not sure of what I wanted to do AFTER I GREW UP? [What is that? Like you weren’t growing then!?]

‘Engineer’ was associated with being a math geek & since I have always had an unmatched record of “just pass” in math, I knew better than to go for ‘engineer’ as an answer for this life defining question.

I liked & scored well in biology. I had also cut up a few mice in my class 11 & 12 science lab. Slicing human flesh shouldn’t be that hard, I reasoned. After all, they train you to do that for four long years. I assumed I could be a doctor.

All the wannabe docs (short for doctor) & engines (?!? What’s the short for engineer?) sounded intelligent. I didn’t want to come across too stupid. It was, like my life depended on the right answer to this question. Being used to objective type questions & multiple answers, you learn to choose the best amongst the worst! Since “doctor” was the most popular choice, I thought that would be the ‘correct’ answer.

Whenever anybody asked me THE question, I always said, with great humility in my voice, ‘I want to be a doctor & serve the society’. If people prodded further, I would also add the heavy-duty, well-rehearsed, emotion drenched line: “I want to serve poor people & treat poor patients for free”.

Elders believed my words. They had faith in me!

5 comments:

  1. My aim in life till the 7th was to be a doctor,it changed when I saw the curriculum for maths in the 11th.But to tell you the truth and you are gonna have a hardy laugh,I actually wanted to be a dancer and a theatre actress all my life.Boy ! what I wouldnt give to do the tumkas and latkas and matkas.:>...now I do them in the privacy of my home.

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  2. What is your aim in life now..?? Well, for me as I got older, I am only gettin ever more clueless.

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  3. @Suzaan: haha imagining u n ur tumkas

    @S: gud question. time for another post :)

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  4. I could see that you were very similar to me in being clueless and my exact opposite there in your reasoning for being a doctor. ;)

    "Slicing human flesh shouldn’t be that hard, I reasoned" "Wannabe engines" - Nice and subtle humor.

    A refreshing take on a very important question! :)

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