This Sunday, myself and my friend’s daughter were having a chat. There was a mild drizzle in Delhi and that had left the car dirty. I was doing the cleaning and she was telling me her side of the story. She’s just about 5-yrs old and already has a tough schedule to follow each day. Getting up early (be it winters / summers) >> School >> evening with friends >> Homework >> some TV and then sleeping early to get up early again. I murmured to myself, how much I miss those days at my end. Leading a life tagged to the Blackberry is more dangerous than the “sazaa e kala paani“, if I may call so. She had further plans for the Sunday evening, that is, of going out with her parents and her sister to the local mall and “check-out” interesting things and possibly follow it up with dinner outside. And then it will be Monday again … that cycle will restart. I wanted to check out how prepared she was for her classes on Monday (we are anyways supposed to reach our Workstation everyday with the agenda of the day chalked out, nothing wrong in seeing how they themselves manage the planning of the day). She did manage to share with me the poem, that she was asked to memorize. She went on further to explain me how difficult it was for her to memorize the poem and that it hasnt been done in all, she needs to memorize the remaining part soon. She further went on to explain me how tough life is in school, hostel and then college. According to her, she had a long way to go, lots of hard work to be done and stay in a hostel to study Medicine / Medical theories.
“Accha to aap bade hokar Doctor banna chahte ho?”, I asked her. “Haan ji”, she replied. “Aur aap bade hokar kya banoge? Paar aap to bade ho gaye ho, aap to ban gaye ho.” She further added. She didnt qualify/quantify what I have “become” in life. I was not looking for an answer. I knew the answer was within me.
Like a lightening her response struck me. I was stunned. Is this the end of the road? About 25-30 yrs. back, even I would have answered someone about some aspiration of mine to “become” something, I dont exactly remember the same now. But what’s more important to me today, is that I am enjoying whatever I am doing. But is that all? Successes / failures / learnings are all a part of professional growing up and will continually keep evolving till we hang up our boots.
But in between all this, do try to recall your response to – “What would you like to become when you grow up?”. The road doesnt end here or there … it actually never ends!!! Remembering your response will definitely keep you passionate about life. Your brain will always love to hear from your heart – “Someday when I find some time, I will do this, I will do that ….” …. and life goes on !!!