The Classic Issue

Having just completed a month or so at Purdue, I'd started to slide into the usual rut. There's homework to be done before such and such a date, lab work on such and such days and papers to be read for such and such a purpose. All said and done, nice comfy routine. I was quite rudely shaken when I saw Arjun's pics.

For those who don't know, Arjun "Lopa" Nagarajan is a civil eng. student from the class of 2006. His significance is far greater to the batch (Remember Varad's statement - "Yeh to apna 'Almost G-sec' hain") Having managed to somehow complete 4 years in IIT G with his wits about him, Arjun joined Schlumberger, the exploration giant on the look out for engineers, and he technically possessing a B.Tech degree. He's currently based in Alexandria, monitoring oil drilling in the desert before moving on to other things. If things go well, it'll be Sudan in a while, and who knows, Congo,South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, East Pacific, hell, the Moon if they find petrol there.

Precisely what niggles me is the thought of what he's doing. Sure, like I said, things are cool, but there's no real red-hot feeling in it. Not like what's aroused when you think of pottering about the desert in Giza - that would be red-hot, one way or another. The thought of Lopa out there makes me not a little green.

Which brings me to the classic issue that all youth like me face viz. what precisely is it that we lie doing? What is the calling? What is that mystical thing that is our gift, our art, the thing with which we can really make a mark in our lifetime?

More importantly, how precisely do you find it? There are some of chaps (like Pesh) who know exactly what htye're gonna do from Class X. But for those who don't - what is the way? I mean, unless you follow a floating star to a bow and arrow or a music sheet and a guitar or a laboratory with chemicals in it, how do you know what is your thing? The only solution that really occured to me was to sample stuff, and then figure out what appeals to me the most - which is essentially what I am doing now. But then can you really sample EVERYTHING? I mean scuba diving and professional tennis and piloting an aircraft and conserving tigers and making ice cream and herding cattle and acting in porn films and so on and so forth. You'd have to be an Orochimaru of sorts [Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orochimaru_%28Naruto%29#Background to understand what I'm saying] to do that, which can't be very good for your psyche or physically possible.

Fear lurks at me