This is a story from a parallel world. It is set in India, which in the alternate reality is still a booming economy ( oh wow). However, things are a little different there. The country in recent years, has had a huge spurt in private colleges that churn out millions of photographers, filmmakers, painters, writers, poets, musicians who somehow get a degree and end up working at call centers to start off their careers. From all these millions, among similar other dreamers, our main character is a boy named Gadadhar aka Babloo.
Babloo grew up in a house with a lot of sisters and unmarried aunties; his dad was hardly ever around and there usually was a general lack of males around him. As a result, he was always being asked to fix something around the house and he learnt a variety of useful work like repairing fuses, fixing pipes, tinkering with the water pump to make it quieter etc. and since then, he had always wanted to grow up and be in a career that made good use of these skills of his. In school, once he got the hang of computers, he grasped it quickly and grew adept at programming and hardware technology. He decided he wanted to be an IT engineer.
As he crossed into high school to take up science in the last two years, his parents hinted that he should study literature. Babloo was annoyed AF but he understood the situation at home , what with his dad's early retirement and mom a housewife, and realized that studying literature would pave the way for a college which could get him a job early in life. He could keep up his coding and computers as a hobby.
Fast forward 15 years later, Babloo is working as a literary genre analyst at a big movie production company abroad. Babloo is now known to his peers, colleagues and friends as Babs and he is still the hotshot guy who knows how everything works and is asked by friends to solve even the small everyday issues. The trade-off between money and happiness was huge and after 7 years in a corporate job, Babs was starting to feel the mental strain of it.
Some time after the famous wildlife photographer Stephen Hawking passed away while running a marathon for people in their 70s from a heart attack, Babs thought about how Stephen had once said in an interview that even though he enjoyed being a wildlife photographer, he could also have lived the life of a scientist; that had always been his second career choice. Babs mulled over this for many days and finally could not take it anymore and called up his parents one day.
Babs: "Hey listen, I'm quitting my job."
Babs's Parents: "What? why? Are you getting fired Babloo?"
Babs: "No"
Babs Parents: "Then? What's wrong? You have such a great job, a good salary, house and everything else."
Babs: "I am quitting to work on and change my career"
Babs Parents: "What new career? It is too late, this is not the time to make new changes in life and career, you should be settling down and getting married and living life happily with your wife abroad."
Babs: " Mom, Dad, I know how much you wanted me to study English and get this huge corporate job but I think I have paid my dues, I am unhappy in my job and need a career change.
Babs's Parents: "What is this new career then? Please don't say it's something to do with your computer things ! "
Babs: "Actually yes it is, I don't like my job here and that's all I have ever wanted to be and still want to be - an IT engineer."
*Silence*
********************************************************************************
Like Babs, there are millions of other young boys and girls that India is churning out to be in the art industry and it seems like that area is now saturated. I hope many more such Gadadhars don't hold back and leave their jobs as musicians, poets, writers, photographers, filmmakers to realize their dreams of being an IT engineer. Babs now works 3 IT jobs and is happily married with 2 kids back in India. He was hailed as a superhero for his move by his friends and they even gave him a
superhero-nickname - RightChoice Man.
Babloo grew up in a house with a lot of sisters and unmarried aunties; his dad was hardly ever around and there usually was a general lack of males around him. As a result, he was always being asked to fix something around the house and he learnt a variety of useful work like repairing fuses, fixing pipes, tinkering with the water pump to make it quieter etc. and since then, he had always wanted to grow up and be in a career that made good use of these skills of his. In school, once he got the hang of computers, he grasped it quickly and grew adept at programming and hardware technology. He decided he wanted to be an IT engineer.
As he crossed into high school to take up science in the last two years, his parents hinted that he should study literature. Babloo was annoyed AF but he understood the situation at home , what with his dad's early retirement and mom a housewife, and realized that studying literature would pave the way for a college which could get him a job early in life. He could keep up his coding and computers as a hobby.
Fast forward 15 years later, Babloo is working as a literary genre analyst at a big movie production company abroad. Babloo is now known to his peers, colleagues and friends as Babs and he is still the hotshot guy who knows how everything works and is asked by friends to solve even the small everyday issues. The trade-off between money and happiness was huge and after 7 years in a corporate job, Babs was starting to feel the mental strain of it.
Some time after the famous wildlife photographer Stephen Hawking passed away while running a marathon for people in their 70s from a heart attack, Babs thought about how Stephen had once said in an interview that even though he enjoyed being a wildlife photographer, he could also have lived the life of a scientist; that had always been his second career choice. Babs mulled over this for many days and finally could not take it anymore and called up his parents one day.
Babs: "Hey listen, I'm quitting my job."
Babs's Parents: "What? why? Are you getting fired Babloo?"
Babs: "No"
Babs Parents: "Then? What's wrong? You have such a great job, a good salary, house and everything else."
Babs: "I am quitting to work on and change my career"
Babs Parents: "What new career? It is too late, this is not the time to make new changes in life and career, you should be settling down and getting married and living life happily with your wife abroad."
Babs: " Mom, Dad, I know how much you wanted me to study English and get this huge corporate job but I think I have paid my dues, I am unhappy in my job and need a career change.
Babs's Parents: "What is this new career then? Please don't say it's something to do with your computer things ! "
Babs: "Actually yes it is, I don't like my job here and that's all I have ever wanted to be and still want to be - an IT engineer."
*Silence*
********************************************************************************
Like Babs, there are millions of other young boys and girls that India is churning out to be in the art industry and it seems like that area is now saturated. I hope many more such Gadadhars don't hold back and leave their jobs as musicians, poets, writers, photographers, filmmakers to realize their dreams of being an IT engineer. Babs now works 3 IT jobs and is happily married with 2 kids back in India. He was hailed as a superhero for his move by his friends and they even gave him a
superhero-nickname - RightChoice Man.
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