A True Story

There are perhaps only a few who have really understood the rationale behind my career decisions. I doubt even if my parents have fully comprehended them. And looking from their perspective, I really don’t blame them either. And perhaps my story might give significant insights into the real problems (including sports of course!) of our nation. Or rather I assume so. So here goes my story, as they say, from the horse’s mouth.

A simple son of a tyrant farmer manages to graduate in science and like the typical Indian during those times migrates to a city in search of good job, good life. Manages to get a govt. job where he realizes rather late that he is being exploited. Meanwhile he gets married and soon his family increases to 4…as its said…hum do hamare do! One of the two sons happens to be yours truly. Survival becomes a real challenge: 1 room house, daily household expenses, education of the kids, his own underemployment and to boot a totally new city, new language and hardly any support from his native village. Somehow the family copes up with the challenge taking many sacrifices along the way. As an instance the kids never celebrated their birthdays and didnt have the luxury of having their own tricycles.

Fortunately (or was it unfortunately), the kids were a bit too mature for their ages. (Let me generalize the case and call myself A~). A~ was kinda reticent guy aware of all the happenings. Very early he understood the importance of studies and made it a point to excel in the same. His methods of studying (like parroting the answers) were actually not the correct ones but what mattered was securing those marks which will clear his road for admissions in good colleges and lessen the burdens on his parents. But he secretly loved sports and did manage to excel in whatever his school (which unfortunately wasn’t a convent one) could offer. He knew that his parents couldn’t afford the best of sports gears for him and he used to manage from whatever was available to him like using his dad’s torn shoes for cross country training. And approaching his parents for requesting to be sent to coaching was unthinkable for him in those circumstances.

The parents were oblivious to this. And of course their main concern was to see that their son gets to lead a comfortable life and he doesn’t encounter the kind of struggle they had to. And so sports were really never even something to be thought over of. A~ knows this and takes it in his stride. The best possible route to self-independence was undoubtedly engineering and like the thousands of students joins the bandwagon. He needs to avail of the education loan in the process. He manages to complete his graduation from one of the city’s premiere colleges and takes up the first job he gets, his only real reason for the entire engineering degree. Not very difficult to guess, the job is of a s/w engineer. The job makes it possible to repay the education loan. But of course…this really never was what he was meant for and he relentlessly pursues to break free in a field that is connected to his childhood love. So though he could not become what he really wanted to but at least he might be able to do that for other kids. And this step again comes with its own sacrifices…taking a pay cut…stepping into a new territory where there aren’t many options.

The question he is often confronted though is whether he is right in taking such drastic decisions. Shouldn’t he rather be investing his energies in seeking the riches and realizing for his parents the materialistic benefits which they can only dream of and which they had proudly boasted to their relatives? He may fulfill those too but will he run out of time? His parents don’t know what to answer when somebody asks them what their son is upto. So they fake and answer that he is doing good and earning heftily. Is he selfish in not looking beyond himself? Not easy questions to deal with. He is trying his best to do. Form your own opinion and let me know.

A true girl friend would have been really a good support in times such as these but he isn’t as lucky in this field too. Rather whatever he had at one time was actually an illusion. Life is indeed not easy sometimes.