Social Short Story – Rats in the race
Photo credit: bendzso from morguefile.com
The final mark sheet came along with a gold medal for me declaring the top ranker in BCA amongst all in the state and an end to my three long years of course. I should have clicked a pic of my parents then, the pride in their faces reflecting well in their broad smiles. Their only daughter, from a technical stream and though in a small population of enrolled students yet she scored the highest and now she can try for competitive exams or go for MCA, and what more any parents can want from their beloved child. Yes they were happy for me because I had a rank and happy because of me for I fed their pride.
With an aggregate of 80% in the tenth board exam I chose science stream for my next and last two years in school. Being an upper mediocre student I was suggested from both school and family to opt for science and most students in our group went for it so I was in the flow. But then I had no idea that I would fall in love with English literature eventually. Byron’s anger, Wordsworth’s nature love, Shelley’s romanticism and Austen’s complexity mesmerized me into an aura that was distracting me from my major subjects and naturally diverted me more in that direction. And amidst the chaos of physics, chemistry, maths and bio I somehow came to write poetry that helped me to escape the cacophony and spend moments in peace. Writing developed as my passion as by time I discovered more my relaxation there. The deviation towards literature turned into love and I decided to do my college in English, hardly I realized then my decision meant nothing.
The board exams took, joint entrances followed. I knew if I get a seat in engineering my parents would never allow me to study English, so I never gave one of them seriously. Months passed, results came, 70% in the state board and no seat in NIT and I thought my road to St. Xavier’s was clear. Little did I thought about the otherwise. He countered my reasons with unemployment issues in general streams and that too in English which is valued yet deprived and several others. I was the Farhan of 3 idiots in simple words forced into a stream that I didn’t care, like or felt any interest in it even after completing it. Computers is not for me, I know that. While I still have an ever growing passion in novels and write poems to find my peace the wounds never heal. No doubt I can study English as my subject later if I want but something in time brings more happiness than later.
Engineering and medical is not everything nor for everyone, the world doesn’t belong to them alone. What pride lies in if I get the top rank and still don’t consider it as something I don’t like. I got the rank because I studied, and I studied because I had no other option else that. And I have come across more who are or have gone through the same situation. So what’s the point of forcing when it’s just to say to your next door Sharma ji that your son is studying medicine or your daughter engineering if they are not happy with it!
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