RANDOM NEURON BLIPS I

I sit down just to muse what I probably may type. To get the audience picking up their reading glasses, and this to at least reach up to the standards set by the previous writers, it needs to be a good short note interlaced with humor and probably a little philosophy and moral and perspective. Oops… I realize I am miserable at each of them, well definitely humor. And so, the only thing, probably I am going to give a shot at is perspective, and this is going to be hard. Nevertheless, a peep inside my brain cells and the firing neurons, and it goes thus…

“Well, well… how many of us have grown up listening to this in all kind of languages, be it their mother tongue, or English in the classrooms, “Beta/Beti, ye ‘x’ (being in science, x seemed right for representing the number of years, slight obsessions I reckon) saal tumhare liye bahut important hai, mann lagake kaam karo aur uske baad tumhari life ekdam badhiya. And, I don’t fall into the minority who have had the great good fortune of not going through this. But to be told by people you never even wanted to remember, alright that’s just an addition to the misery.  

Dreams as a kid, and fantasies as I grew up are the two things that have definitely changed a lot in my life. Growing up, I always wanted to be a cricketer. Not that I am great at the game but the prospect just being a cricketer always fascinated me, the end basically. But then, as mentioned, dreams change with time, it was back in the 9th grade that I somehow decided without any logical reasoning I wanted to be a doc. And then, the best thing humans do probably is live the dream in their mind before it even is close to reality. I was in this happy space that one day an uncle (probably the one in every family who tries to inspire the younger generation kyonki unhone jee lee hai apni zindagi) inquired what was I planning after 10th. My grades were good in 9th and 10th and so he went on to say, beta science padhna hai naa doctor bannekeliye, toh this year is very important for you. I nodded vehemently, the good kid that I always had been. Well, fast forward to a few months, and our maths teacher lectures us how important are the two years. Wasn’t it the same thing I heard just 2 years ago? Déjà vu. 

Well, several years have gone by and honestly, I raced across some years and dragged myself across a few. All good till this very fine day in the first week of my research career. A senior in the lab sees me sharing a laugh with my friends and walks up to us. And like most he believes probably, with age comes responsibility and with responsibility comes the thought of changing the world for a better place and with this thought comes the sudden enthusiasm to become a motivational speaker (trust me we have this one quality in all of us). Sigh… and yes, you guessed it (yes, you can read my thoughts now I think). The same statement with a change in the x, variable after all. 

I don’t have any problem with people saying this. What I don’t understand is the naivety of people who say this. Is it not like efforts are supposed to be continuous? Isn’t it like success is a process and a journey and not just a destination? Is it not like if you’re motivated enough, you should look to make each day count? Then why do some think, or say at least this year is important? Should we rank the years for how much importance they hold in our life? Just like the day before the exam is more important than the other days probably. Well, I still think it is upon us when we want to consider some years important. I still do think there are no years which are more important than others, but just that your today decides your tomorrow. And you decide which ‘today’ is going to be your ‘today’. I’ll probably say the efforts needs to be on a more consistent basis rather than an upsurge. The intensity may go up on some days, but success as such comes out of constant effort blended with flexibility. Yet the constant reminders in the form of uncles, teachers and seniors may just help for some.

As I sit and still ponder, more confused now probably about this little statement the uncle left me years ago, I hope you keep putting your whatever little efforts in whatever you’re trying to achieve.