We were told about ‘life focus’ and how it is important to have an ambition, set goals, yada, yada… We were handed down (mostly) second hand stories of ‘successful people’ who had ‘made it’ – succeeded, went abroad and bought half of Ivory Coast/started a company in the Silicon Valley. But we didn’t find these stories interesting coz we were at an age when ‘having fun’ found more appeal than ‘finding direction’. Nobody asked us what we wanted to become, and even if they did, their expressions told us if our personal ambitions were acceptable or not. Mostly, they weren’t.

And anyway, no one really informed us if any of this would bring us happiness. It was rather, subtly implied. Since it was implied, we did easy mental calculations in our tiny heads and equated happiness to what we witnessed around - pubbing, shopping dating and partying. Popular culture – T.V, music and cinema (which was as clueless and pointless as our lives) seemed to agree to our self-deduced conclusions. Little did we realize that art was just imitating life – and being as unoriginal as unoriginality can be in the process.

In between all this, we attended myriad coaching classes where we witnessed the routine slaughter of lateral thinking and the redefining of ‘brilliance’.

Then we finished school and could no longer elude the big question – what next? Depending on whether we were ‘brilliant’, ‘average’ or rich, it was either Engineering/ Medical or the rest. The first seeds of discrimination were sown, but it was our daddies who felt it. We went to college where happy-go-lucky meant being irresponsible. The rules of ‘having fun’ were re-written. Rich guys with fast cars got all the beautiful girls. And this discrimination didn’t miss us. People seemed shallow and life sucked. We had to take out this anger somewhere so we either rebelled at home or tried not to think of it too much. Either ways, drinking and girls seemed to be the only way out and guess what – our bodies and minds found it cool. But hell, girls were inscrutable and always had a way of spoiling our trip. Booze was expensive and gave us a hangover and anyways, it was too much trouble to face mom with an honest face in the mornings. Life sucked even more.

By then, we finished college and we stood at the second crossroads of our lives. But this time, the signboards were as confusing as the question that was really crying to be answered – what have we been doing all this while and what’s the point anyways?

I am not expecting every person reading this to hear a bell of recognition ring, but this is pretty much how an average Indian’s life is. Funnily, it gets even more clichéd after this. A certain majority does not even get to the point where introspection is definitely the only thing that will beget any kind or originality. They just keep repeating the same things over and over again, rather mindlessly. And this plentiful lot directly or indirectly decides for the next batch of innocent minds what’s cool and what’s not.

On the other hand, some suddenly remember that the Ivory Coast beckons them (aim for the stars!) and they get around to preparing for CAT/GRE/ (its easy to mistake India for a land of intellectuals going by the number of people appearing for these entrance exams. That is not true. Entrance exams are more about weeding out than selecting the best.)

to be continued….