What do you want to be?

I remember this question being posed to me directly or indirectly growing up in Bombay, India. The implied sub-text here is 'when you grow up?' Now a couple of things worth expanding here - 1. 'Wanting to be' is as vague a notion in many an adolescent or grown (more on that next) person shaped by society and circumstance rather than some inner zeal or epiphany that perhaps a few chosen people have; 2. 'When you grow up' is the other mysterious part of the question. What the heck does it really mean? I for one have not yet done so. Growing up that is. Partly because I think I am not entirely sure what the definition of that term is. If it relates to certain physical characteristic or the ability to attend to one's ablutions on their own without assitance then I suppose I qualify. Beyond that I believe we are always growing. Learning. Adapting and hopefully getting smarter for it. Questions above sometimes are interpreted in society (largely Asian at least) as to mean what sort of eduation one would acquire. In India it was out of hard monetary necessity that one chose the so called professional coursework - Engineering, Medical Doctor, Lawyer or Architecture for undergraduate study. Anything beyond this narrowly defined framework immediately carried certain stigma or perceptions unrelated to the person's desire or inkling. Now in hindsight it irks me to know that my becoming an engineer was a collossal waste of resource - of the Indian government that paid the staff and allowed me to spend four years in a soporiphic and uninspiring environment - academically speaking - the teachers (their time) hired to read through the drivel called the curriculum; the parents who paid (fortunately not significant sums but princely for them surely) for it and thought they had passed the baton off to the kid who will hopefully not slip on the slippery slope of life and mostly myself. Could I have chosen instead to take up photography as a passion? Writing? Long distance walking? Cooking up new and hitherto untried food? Getting really good at it? Maybe? Fortunately things worked out for me - some street smarts and risk taking coupled with a great spouse saved the day. But that is luck. Now I am sure the question still haunts new college going students today. And frankly if they are smarter than the generations that came before them - in part due to the democratization of information through use of internet and cellular connectivity - then I strongly hope they make the right choice and let their inner spirit have a say in doing what they think they may want to try. TRY being the operative word. Because the trial they undertake could well be a FLOP. But that should not deter them instead guiding them closer to what they may want to do with the rest of their lives. A person's ability to make a living (and getting wildly successful - another strange term) is literally disconnected from the formal education one receives, except in certain specific cases but those are few and far between. True genius or innovation or business or people skills like that seen in the Einstein, Gandhi, Mandela, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ratan Tata, Indra Nooyi or the Ambanis are more a function of historic family background (figuratively and literally as in coaching and genetic makeup); a defined importance to education - the tools and wherewithall to obtain what is not available so as to cultivate a fertile mind that can then exponentially grow and achieve desired success; and a measure of luck. Or coincidental accidents that shape their success trajectory. That part has nothing to do with who the person is. Admittedly the right mindset can exploit that dumb luck to take them to the next level. For the record I do not do anything that is remotely engineered (or in person for that matter) with my engineering qualification or the business degree that I earned subsequently. Most of today's society is some form of paper pusher in the vast machinery designed by mankind to keep people employed. Procreation adds to the complexity, encouraging less risk taking and more of the predictability that guarantees a quality of life that everyone is used to. Its a vicious circle that sort of ends up consuming vast resources to keep generating more of them to keep the cycle going. Hence people commute (another idiotic invention of mankind) and shave everyday. Back and forth - because its predictable. Sort of. As I read this before publishing it makes me wonder if I should start scoping out some good hikes to head to the hills. For good. Or is that lure of the 'Pav Bhaji' going to make me want to come back and consume some more?