Heart is the Teacher

Who would not love Al Pacino as Tony Montana in “Scarface”.He was indeed acting personified, the definition of expression.But this isnt about pacino, neither hollywood, its about Tony montana, the man who followed his dreams. Like he said in that cuban accent ““I’m Tony Montana! You fuck wit me, you fuckin’ wit da best!”,this guy had an important lesson for the world to learn.

 

How can i forget this.”In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman.”

 

Ofcourse i am not saying lets all emulate Tony montana, let us peddle some cocaine, make  quick cash, start looking out for pretty women . No, that’s not the point. What we got to learn from Tony, is to stand up and think for ourselves. Are we as good as ants, just follow the pheromone trail, dont loiter around, just do as u r “programmed” to do.

 

So many of my friends are engineers, infact i can count with my 10 few fingers all the friends i got who arent engineers!!! Here is a typical “Non-IT” graduate story from a typical Bangalore Engineering college.

 

Our protagonist is a happy go-lucky chap, endowed with adequate IQ to pass all exams, without worrying too much. He has a decent sense of humor, which does help when it comes to flirting with the ” hot n exclusive” girls in the college. He started off cycling to college, quickly realised that’s so uncool. So squeezed some savings from his dad to get a bike, and is quite contented with it. Hey,wait a minute. This is getting so moribund.So where does the real action in the story begin???

 

At the end of his 3rd year, he starts hearing some strange new words dominating the conversation at the canteen and else where. ” Placements” , ” Higher studies ” ???

 

Now our hero has two choices in hand now.  One ofcourse is to do what your friends are doing. One friend can be wrong, two yeah well maybe wrong, but all of them, noway. Following the crowd is the easiest and most obvious thing to do. Its infinitely sensible and much easier than the other choice he has.

 

Choice number two: Think for yourself, do some soul-searching, devote some time to know what you are good at, what you are interested in, what you would enjoy pursuing as a career…  Holy mother of god!!!where do I get all these ” philosophical” questions from

 

Our hero only wears “Che Guevara” T-shirts. Neither does he know who the hell he was, neither does he know what that whole “Che” attitude stands for. (Che Guevara was a revolutionary Cuban leader who wanted to achieve his dream of freedom in Cuba at any cost.) Anyway so he follows the usual path, sit for placements, get a nice paying IT job, who cares if he knows more about stress distribution on a computer keyboard than what comes up on the monitor. So his parents are on cloud nine, they go around in great pride. Of course why wont any dad be not happy about his son getting paid 10 times his own salary!!! His friends are happy for him, his juniors look up to him as a model senior and his girl-friend adores him even more.

 

Wow our hero is having a whale of a time. So he graduates in great happiness and reports to work eagerly. A month passes by, slowly he is getting bored of finding those ever evading bugs in the code, its not even fun like squashing a mosquito Every passing day seems like eternity. Imagine put in a metal cage with only an abacus as “source of entertainment”. Well that paints an exaggerated picture of how bored our hero is.

 

The second choice dawns upon him now.Maybe I should have listened to my heart once in a while, maybe its good to do what you are interested in. Its not just good , its the logical way out. Now he starts the process of soul-searching, he could have started in college itself. But as a quote goes ” Its perfectly normal for a 22 year old to be confused about just everything”. So it isnt late to start now for him.

 

Three years have passed since our hero was a utterly confused 22 year old catching bugs on a computer. Now he works as a design specialist in a small mechanical company which does customised car exterior designs and fittings. He is as happy as he was in college, before all that confusion began. His dream is to own the company he works in. Well with the passion and interest he has for his job, that doesnt seem far.

 

He says with a smile ” First, when i told my parents, this is what i want to do, they were shocked and appalled. My decision doesnt follow common sense. But this is my life. It isnt common in any way”