Time makes life complicated.
When I was a kid, I felt such burden on my tiny shoulders with all the studying and exams, scoring marks, gaining ranks, competing on stage and at the field! When I grew older, I felt that the pressure which was limited to mummy's scolding has now taken a much deeper source, my future! If I do not score well in my boards, I might not get the subjects of my choice and maybe instead of juggling numbers, I'd be juggling frogs in the bio lab.
A few years hence, I felt the burden had grown threefold. Having the right subjects, if I do not get into the right college, I'd be like any other boy from the neighborhood. Actually no, i take that back, considering it was always the neighborhood boys whom I had to outsmart to keep mum and everyone else happy. Phew!
Well, to get that right engineering college I was expected to rip apart a country wide admission test conducted by the best league of colleges in India - IIT-JEE. The exam happened, ripping happened. Ahem, finally God was kind and there was another exam for souls who were ripped apart by this grand daddy of exams. This test was called AIEEE. I came out of the exam room confident to rank among the top 10,000 students, but all in vain. A few marks here and there and you realize why we need population control in India.
Somehow I managed a decent college with the course I wanted to opt for, but the burden of stress was just getting started with. As if it was teasing me. What I had seen by now was nothing compared to what was to follow. The next target was a job! Among 256 engineering colleges in Hyd, with over 3 lack students studying alongside, we were to hunt jobs in a recession struck market.
I pounced as hard as I could and found myself holing a call letter from Infosys.
If you are expecting a happy ending here, I am sorry you aren't getting one, neither did I.
Someone once told me its good to be ambitious, keeps you on your toes, keeps you focused and asking for more. I sadly took this gentleman's advice and jumped into another rat race, this time for a MBA. Before I could join Infosys, I had my CAT results in my hands. Obviously with probabilities of almost triple the pay package, I skipped the IT firm and went on for the 2 year post graduation course.
Thats when I realized that the 3 lack people in Hyd weren't so bad to compete with. Imagine competing with the top 5% in the country! Well, I yet again pulled up my socks and ran like all the other rats. I did finish well to my surprise! Finally a happy moment! Completed MBA, bagged a heavy package, the peace in the world is restored!
I just missed a slight question which later hit me, very hard. What kind of job? This is frustrating. After you get that feeling of your arrival into the crude world with your flag flying high, you expect a job where everyone treats you such, you are expected to do some very important stuff, be the alpha! In the real world, I was adopted by a Lala! Clueless about my future professionally, it took me 6 months to decide that I needed to change the line of work. The industry as a whole.
Realizing the fact that not all industries were offering such high salaries, and the ones which were, weren't exactly awaiting my arrival, it took me all kinds of ridiculous situations, patience and a great deal of help from friends and family to finally find a break in the relevant industry.
Everything can never be rosy. So I had to take a good slash at my pay package. But with a clearer future, the slash seemed a good trade-off.
Today, I find myself much happier, much content. But still, there is a lot more I want on my plate, a lot more that I expect out of myself, a lot more of going ahead.
Finally its not about stress or burden. Its more about handling it, dealing with it. Our stress, our burden is our state of mind. Every hurdle could either be an inspiration, or be a burden. The choice is always ours.
I choose to get up, get pissed, gear up and ask, Whats Next? How about you?
When I was a kid, I felt such burden on my tiny shoulders with all the studying and exams, scoring marks, gaining ranks, competing on stage and at the field! When I grew older, I felt that the pressure which was limited to mummy's scolding has now taken a much deeper source, my future! If I do not score well in my boards, I might not get the subjects of my choice and maybe instead of juggling numbers, I'd be juggling frogs in the bio lab.
A few years hence, I felt the burden had grown threefold. Having the right subjects, if I do not get into the right college, I'd be like any other boy from the neighborhood. Actually no, i take that back, considering it was always the neighborhood boys whom I had to outsmart to keep mum and everyone else happy. Phew!
Well, to get that right engineering college I was expected to rip apart a country wide admission test conducted by the best league of colleges in India - IIT-JEE. The exam happened, ripping happened. Ahem, finally God was kind and there was another exam for souls who were ripped apart by this grand daddy of exams. This test was called AIEEE. I came out of the exam room confident to rank among the top 10,000 students, but all in vain. A few marks here and there and you realize why we need population control in India.
Somehow I managed a decent college with the course I wanted to opt for, but the burden of stress was just getting started with. As if it was teasing me. What I had seen by now was nothing compared to what was to follow. The next target was a job! Among 256 engineering colleges in Hyd, with over 3 lack students studying alongside, we were to hunt jobs in a recession struck market.
I pounced as hard as I could and found myself holing a call letter from Infosys.
If you are expecting a happy ending here, I am sorry you aren't getting one, neither did I.
Someone once told me its good to be ambitious, keeps you on your toes, keeps you focused and asking for more. I sadly took this gentleman's advice and jumped into another rat race, this time for a MBA. Before I could join Infosys, I had my CAT results in my hands. Obviously with probabilities of almost triple the pay package, I skipped the IT firm and went on for the 2 year post graduation course.
Thats when I realized that the 3 lack people in Hyd weren't so bad to compete with. Imagine competing with the top 5% in the country! Well, I yet again pulled up my socks and ran like all the other rats. I did finish well to my surprise! Finally a happy moment! Completed MBA, bagged a heavy package, the peace in the world is restored!
I just missed a slight question which later hit me, very hard. What kind of job? This is frustrating. After you get that feeling of your arrival into the crude world with your flag flying high, you expect a job where everyone treats you such, you are expected to do some very important stuff, be the alpha! In the real world, I was adopted by a Lala! Clueless about my future professionally, it took me 6 months to decide that I needed to change the line of work. The industry as a whole.
Realizing the fact that not all industries were offering such high salaries, and the ones which were, weren't exactly awaiting my arrival, it took me all kinds of ridiculous situations, patience and a great deal of help from friends and family to finally find a break in the relevant industry.
Everything can never be rosy. So I had to take a good slash at my pay package. But with a clearer future, the slash seemed a good trade-off.
Today, I find myself much happier, much content. But still, there is a lot more I want on my plate, a lot more that I expect out of myself, a lot more of going ahead.
Finally its not about stress or burden. Its more about handling it, dealing with it. Our stress, our burden is our state of mind. Every hurdle could either be an inspiration, or be a burden. The choice is always ours.
I choose to get up, get pissed, gear up and ask, Whats Next? How about you?
