It is okay to be confused and look for things that you may like. In the process you might not find what you like but certainly will find what you don’t like. This is the story of Nikhil Sinha, who had many dreams like other children and tried to stand up to expectations of family, which we all do. It is later we realise how different this world would have been if only we had stood by our choice.
“The first time that I really developed a life aim was when I was 9 years old, cricket.. But, like every other kid in our country, this motivation fizzled out when things got serious in school.After spells of wanting to become a pilot, an actor, etc, the next serious words occurring in my life were ‘engineering’ and I moved bag and baggage to Kota for the next 2 years (which later on became 3).
I haven’t yet said that engineering is something I wanted to do. It’s the atmosphere in my home and school that led me into it. Nevertheless, I made an engineer. Not IIT, but NIT. Not computer science, but civil.
In the first year, I learnt dance and after that, all I dreamt of was judging a reality show at least once in my life. Life came a full circle when I resolved to take up my evening tennis more earnestly in second year. Dance aside, all I craved for now was an all India rank in tennis to the extent that I joined the All India Tennis Association (AITA). I hadn’t even played a tournament when third year came along with all its expectation, pressure and responsibility. As a result, I convinced myself to undergo coaching for the civil service because that is something that my immediate, close, not so close and distant family always wanted me to do.
In my final year, the cattle fair of engineering came by. A consultancy firm bagged me. Thankfully, my CAT and GATE results didn’t give me many more options to think of.
Today, I am an aspiring entrepreneur. Finally, I have found something that keeps me engrossed because I like it and not because others like it. But this choice came from experience and all of the above stands testimony to that. Looking back, I feel that I struggled whenever I planned to do something that the world wanted me to do and I didn’t. It would have been much better if at every point in life, I would have chosen to do what I wanted to do. Then, this experience wouldn’t even have been required.
Therefore, to all my friends in school and college reading this, make your career in what interests you. Your family might hate it, your friends might detest it, your teachers may object it, but you like it, and that’s what matters. Not every kid in India needs to start a cricketer, do engineering to figure out what to do exactly and end up a software engineer.”
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