Wear heart on the sleeve – redefined

I always wondered why we live so much for the society, neighbors, relatives and friends. Why don't we live the life the way we want? No matter how many movies you see (3 idiots, tare zameen par) we still feel engineering and medicines are the only freaking professions on this earth. Why don't we encourage innovation and out of box thinking? Have you ever seen (I am talking about things 20 years ago) someone telling their kids to become a wild life photographer or actor or beautician in India, no ways.

Now the best part is things are changing in India and I feel great about it. I have been visiting various pre-schools and day care centers in Bangalore (exploring them to get admission for my daughter Yukta). I have been talking to so many kids between the age of 3 to 6 years and I was startled to listen to these bright kids talk. What are their plans for life? (I thought it's too early and immature question for these kids). Here are few things that these younger generations are aspiring for: Astronaut, Writer, Photographer, commercial pilot, police and there was one girl who said she wants to be a doctor (obviously her mom and dad are doctors). The strange things, in fact the good thing was there was not even 1 kid who said he/she wants to be an engineerJ.

I always loved interacting with people, travelling, speaking (I am a chatter box), I had this fantasy to wear suit to work every day – not anymore though (mostly influenced by Hollywood movies) and making money. After my engineering I chose to be in sales and customer facing jobs. Initially I had too many NO's and DONT's from everyone I knew. Now I enjoy being a sales guy and being successful in what I do J.

Okay, here are few outstanding examples of what you call Wear heart on the sleeve. Vaibhav Gupta (B. Tech in Chem Engg from IIT Bombay and PGDCM from IIM Calcutta) resigned his full time job to start a Tea stall, do not believe it check out the website. It is a chain of tea shops across different malls in the country. They offer 30 different varieties of tea.

Prabhkiran Singh of IIT Mumbai runs a lassi shop after college hours. Here is a brief extract about the shop: "The 20-year-old from Punjab who came to IIT-Bombay three years ago, didn't find a decent lassi joint in the city, and hence would rely on his mother's recipe every time he craved one. That marked the birth of Khadke Glassi — now a stall set up on a computer trolley, operating after classes at IIT close. The Rs 10,000-venture now has a fan following of close to 500 on Facebook and apart from IIT students, alumni and faculty, residents of Powai, crowd around this little corner every evening". Here is the link to the complete story.

I am hoping we will soon see a paradigm shift in India when it comes to choosing the right job/career.