To Be or Not To Be

I grew up in an era when choices one had as a career option was limited. You were either a well qualified Doctor or an Engineer. That was it! Yes, there were a few other options too – a teacher or maybe join the administrative services.
And to cut a long story short none of these options interested me which seemed were hanging down like a pendulum ticking severely more than ever as I gradually ascended from primary to middle & finally high school.
My parents unlike rest of them (to be read as my overtly pushy aunts & uncles) never did pressurize me to death. I don’t know the reason behind this. But I remember Maa telling me off & on that as long as I turn out to be a sensible, mature and a loving person “all is well”. She herself being a teacher (for which I was a tad angry on numerous occasion, because I felt I was surrounded with this species called “Miss” both in school and home as well); she never allowed me to parrot read or like in school we were asked to “learn by heart”. Except for the poetry, rest she explained everything to me like a story. Even the ocean currents – a lesson in Geography I used to dread; she made it so easy for me that it seemed I too flowed with the mighty currents, at times warm and at times utterly cold clock-wise and anti-clock-wise in both the hemispheres.
And because as a kid I’d always see her being a “Miss” I decided I too shall become a fine teacher one day. So on holidays I’d make all my dolls sit in the classroom (read the lounge area we had just next to the kitchen), make best use of the wall as my black board and there I was – the teacher. This fascination lasted me for quite some time until I stumbled upon a lady (I don’t remember her name); she was not a regular visitor to our place, but I recognized the other woman with whom she came. She was my granny’s friend. This “first time I met” lady had a bag full of candies and two big bottles of aerated drinks – one cola and one orange for me and boy I was bemused and thrilled all at once! I realized that she was an “air hostess”. And the next thing I wanted to be was an air hostess! My teacher-giri bit ended prematurely! Maa would smile whenever she saw me playing “Air Hostess” but granny would get slightly alarmed. She would keep reminding me that only people who couldn’t excel in studies would opt for doing things like these! I would get scared as a ten year old. I didn’t understand why she said so. But her statement would ring like an alarm every time I’d sit with her to revise my Assamese lessons on the dining table while she’d be either cooking the regular meal or baking one thing or the other.
So there went my air hostess bit too. I was sad but could I do anything? Nothing came up and I thought like the rest of my cousins I too shall end up being a Doctor or an Engineer. But the path to these two profession required Science and Math which were my least favourite. Thus I felt being trapped. I was throttled and I could do nothing about it.
As a teenager I wanted to become a musician. Dad taking a cue called a music teacher too. But No! Hindustani Classical music was not something I was zeroing onto. I wanted to be a Jon Bon Jovi! Couldn’t he possibly understand that? One day gathering all the courage I did manage to speak him about this utter confusing state of affairs. He listened patiently and said, “Even Jon Bon Jovi did learn his basics the way you are doing now”. Now who could give me first hand info if my idol too had a sicko & disgusting music teacher like the one I had! Nevertheless my musical journey continued for about three long and appalling years. One day I finally said I had enough of music and bid adieu to my music teacher. Dad was angry and I took all what he had to say with a pinch of salt.
By the time I had cleared my tenth board exams most of my cousins were busy preparing for various entrance/competitive exams. I visualized them as docs & engineers building bridges and somewhere deep inside me I still wasn’t prepared for all this.
So the next best thing I did was take up Commerce stream and decided to wait and watch. During those five glorious years of bunking & partying one thing that I got interested was the world of advertising. As a management student advertising & marketing was one of the key papers and I loved it. So this is my call. I thought to myself.
But wait, during the same time cable TV first hit the Indian television and I was bestowed my Danny McGill’s charms & charisma and I felt I was deviating from my advertising world. I wanted to become a VJ!
Before I graduated with a B.Com degree I had lost my parents and for my granny it was all to “Greek” when I told her that I had cleared my MAT (Management Aptitude Tests) side by side with my B.Com and would like to do a course in advertising. She said she had no idea what I was saying. I continued further by saying I need to go to New Delhi to clear a few GDs (group discussions) and interviews in a few institutes.
A few interviews and G.Ds later I knew I’d be in DSC (Delhi School of Coomunication) for the next two years studying advertising. I was just a matter of few months away. And as planned I found myself in the New Delhi railway station one hot June afternoon.

I was so sure I’d be working in an ad. agency in the creative department that it seemed too good to be true.

Yes! I did! I did manage to work for an agency but it was nothing the way I had imagined. Instead of doing some fun filled copy writing, here I was typing tender notices in Adobe PageMaker! I waited. I said to myself, “the best is yet to come”. But it didn’t happen or maybe I was impatient or maybe I was lured to a fatter pay packet and thus I bid adieu to my whatever-little-I-got-to-do advertising world.

I started working as a product trainer for one of the world’s most reputed and oldest brand. And shamelessly I never did miss my advertising days, not even once. I traveled extensively; met a whole lot of people and got to see places which otherwise I’d never write in my “must visit” travel itinerary.

Now I am a very much “stay at home” wife & mom. As I look back I don’t repent nor do I have regrets. I got a chance to dabble about brand building and doing my teacher-giri bit again as a trainer. Plus my job meant I was on a vacation forever!

But only if we had alternative career options during the growing up years. I guess kids today are much more luckier to have such a wide range of opportunities.

When I look at my doc & engineer cousins I feel they live such a rigid life. Doc are forever studying even now… & the engineers… well they too are doing fine (I just guess as I am not in touch with them)…

And for me I know I’ve done my parents proud. I as a parent would be the way my parents have been to be. Would love to see Nior as a mature, well groomed, compassionate and a good human being more than anything.