Monday, June 06, 2005

A Matter of Choice

As he finished answering the last question in his aptitude test, he smiled at the irony of it all...
There was a time, a long time ago, when the fear of injections and vaccines had put a noble thought in his head - that he would become a doctor, a doctor who would take care of all the illnesses in the world, without hurting patients.. well all patients except some teachers,a few boys from the other gang and some assorted enemies he had made during his seven years of life so far...
But after he had heard his grandmother say that there was nothing better than to be able to sing and bring joy to millions of people, he had thought he should become a singer...considering that he had been won a whole lot of music competitions at school and otherwise in his twelve year life, he had every reason to believe that he would make a good singer...
He hated the injustice happening in the world, the way humans were treating other humans who were less fortunate than them... how humans were taking things for granted, and going along a path where the only aims were achieving more power and money without any concern for anything around them.. at 15 years of age,having been a part of the school debate team for over 3 years, he did believe he would make a good lawyer...
engineering was a good career option, especially if you were the kind who could build bridges,airports, railways etc.. that way, he could become directly involved with the development happening around him.. 22 years of life had taught him that noble thoughts had to go hand inhand with practicality, and there was a career to be made...it also taught him that an MBA could be a ticket to future successes.. that was why he was writing the aptitude test...
as he finished the aptitude test, he realised that it was quite similar to life.. for there were a lot of questions in which he felt that all the choices given were possible..
unfortunately,among the options, he could never find 'all of the above'...
until next time, life's like that....

26 comments:

sanguine said...

i love this one , manu . really well put.
"unfortunately,among the options, he could never find 'all of the above'..." fantastic :D

Anonymous said...

Interesting read..!

Deez said...

oh yes. i too find a lot of similarity b/w aptitude tests and life. for one questions r hardly straight....lot life life, see!!!

Anonymous said...

and with just one stroke..life is changed forever!

manuscrypts said...

dreams: well, thats mr.coelho's opinion... upto us to agree, choose etc... y, thanks!! :)

sanguine: thx :)

manuscrypts said...

vanilla: but i wonder if it is us who are making it crooked :)

pleo: yup..

manuscrypts said...

nish: thanks :)

stone: yes, quite possibly..

Anonymous said...

i quite envy ppl who know at age 7 or something what exactly it is that they aer cut out to do.. really truly envy that...
austere

Brood Mode said...

mirrors my feelings to the last word...

this is the state in which i am right now...

http://thoughtsafari.blogspot.com/2005/03/being-twenty-something_30.html

Anonymous said...

Thats life i guess so many options to choose from but no definite answer whether what we do is right or wrong i wish we had an option as u said "All of the above" nice post btw

manuscrypts said...

austere: they might know something then, but they may not be right... but yes, if they do, and they are right, i am green too :)

brood mode: read that now, i guess we all are ...

Anonymous said...

Hey Manu.. is it the basic nature of the fish? yea, i'm also one of them and like you, has always wished that "if" there was such an option.

erratica said...

i am going thru a similar phase now, i really hope that an aptitude test solves all that. really liked the end about all of the above...just fiction or does it bear any autobiographical touch?

Anonymous said...

wot abt 'none of the above'?:)

IdeaSmith said...

Very well written...I think this is one of your best, yet!

Elixir said...

hehe, erratica is going thru that....
oh she said it already. but manu, i dono bout all o da above options...sumtimes u can do it all, have it all....or mayb its a different example.

Mrs. Dalloway said...

Well, thank god postman, tragedy queen and journalist didnt figure out in the list as it did in mine!

manuscrypts said...

anz: yup, the definition is only urs..

pradeep: more of inherent human nature, i think ..

manuscrypts said...

erratica: smart girl :).. theres indeed an autobiographical touch... btw, an aptitude test is not an end..

pixel: in an aptitude test, its easy coz u dont have to give an answer, but in life, its difficult coz u have to have an answer, some answer..

manuscrypts said...

thx ideasmith :)

elixir: sometimes, yes, but a rare sometimes, isnt it??

Nupur said...

"all of the above!"
:D

reminds me of my exams today.... where more than half the time I think the answer is "none of the above!"

But really...I think I'm just like ur charcter...there is so much i want to do so many things i want to achieve so many places i want to be at....but .......

GratisGab said...

auto-biographical?

Aekta said...

Everything is possible if one wants it badly enough :-)

manuscrypts said...

poornima: well, journalist kinda did, but it isnt here :)

blokes: it still depends on what the objective of the test is..:)

manuscrypts said...

dreams: true, only that i am talking of life and career paths and not the mundane stuff..

nupur: but..??

manuscrypts said...

gratis gab: semi :)

aekta: we all like to think we r in control... welcome back :)