The broken wing

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I remember summer vacations of 2010, when I was home, relaxing, attending dinner parties with relatives and family friends. On one such occasion, one of my father’s friend introduced me to his son, an 11th grader bio-math student and he requested me to help his son with some college information and courses. I casually asked him, what branch of engineering he wanted to be in, the answer he gave although unique didn’t surprise me. He just replied in a prompt and confident way -

“ bhaiya mujhe bio-mechanical engineer banna hai! Aap bata sakte ho ki kaun se college main ye course hota hai “


It took lot of effort to control my demeaning self, and I just replied.


“ bhai, tune kaun se channel main documentary dekhi, national geographic ya discovery channel”.

The kid was left bewildered, but spark in his eyes hadn’t diminished. He just kept quiet as I explained how in course of time, he will forget about this branch and will take up any course which his rank in competitive exams could afford, a reality which all of us had faced. We were beggars, not choosers.


 That party was 2 years back, and still that conversation with the kid, feeds my self-introspecting thoughts. What happened to him? I don’t know, hell I don’t want to know, what if he indeed found the course he was looking for or may-be, he faced the same fate as others. I still ponder….


That kid makes me remember my old self, the young dreamy one. I remember people asking me, what I wanted to become when I grow old – a common question every child on this planet faces. And I would enthusiastically reply that -I want to be a district collector. Not that I knew, what a collector’s job is, but I said just because, saying that made me sound very ambitious, and people would always appreciate my thoughts. While growing up, the question remained the same, but the answers changed. I remember, I used to watch hell lot of discovery channel documentaries, they are kind of visual libraries and I think, they certainly give wings to any young mind.

But what happens in between? Most people would answer


-Reality. Yes that’s what happened! We stumbled upon our limitations. For some their parents couldn’t afford such a thing. For some of us, circumstances changed things and for most of us, we just didn’t try. We cut our own wings of desire to worldly thoughts, yes again I sound extremely philosophical in this one, but seriously I really question myself, what has changed? And the answer still comes as

-Nothing, Things are still the same, I just have stopped experimenting, the world has corrupted my free will and I shy away from experiments, I don’t know, what would have happened, if I chose to do something else, I don’t think over it, I have no regrets over my decisions, but I miss having the choice to dream. I remember I once lectured someone, how life is all about experiments, and we are not born with the results, we just try picking the ones that makes us happy. I wish I could console myself with this thought. The peace still evades me.


Okay, A regular visitor to my blog will certainly form an image that I just crib a lot about my purpose of life, well fella’s you have one more post , to strengthen your thoughts. But just think about it. The wings you, me and most of us have chopped, the dreamy wings, may be the sky would have looked a little closer, Life would have been smoother and the epic conclusion, which I am trying to draw here, would have been much better. Hahaha! That rhymed!

Anyways, people, Dream on! And what happened to the kid?

He is enrolled as an engineer, in some local state university college, yes his branch name has indeed the word “mechanical” in it, and you guessed right the “bio” just fell off somewhere. And nobody bothered looking.

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