I have always held a high opinion of myself attributed to my own vanity and a bit of childhood pampering. Many things dragged me down to earth too, but that did not stop me from soaring high.
There are many things which I can confidently claim to know (know not excel). But something made me do a reality check lately:
1. I'm a mechanical Engineer, but I dont know many things, even in the field where I invested three years post my graduation. The remedy perhaps is to go for masters, but then I have access to all the literature which may make me excel but something holds me back, something which I call 'laziness' or guess I am waiting for the time till its absolutely essential to know those details. Till that time, guess not knowing how to find the elastic center of the system can wait.
On second thoughts, I dont want to lie on my death-bed still thinking of how to find the elastic center of the system.
2. I had a fixation with Guitar since childhood. My twelfth birthday saw my birthday cake shaped in form of a guitar, my uncle gifted me a silver guitar. My mother gifted me a real guitar on my eighteenth birthday. I found a tutor and since past four years I am learning to play. I quitted for two years out of the four years, but then rejoined again. My tutor tells me, "I can only teach you, I cannot make you learn". Fair enough. He cannot battle my lack of dedication, I have to do that on my own. As a result, I can play a few songs on tabs and am struck on getting the basic C Major Chord right. Bottomline: I can play guitar but I am not perfect.
3. I have always enjoyed writing, its like giving vent to all those scrambled messages in my brain. I have toyed with poetry as a kid, moved on to short stories and currently am attempting to write a novel. But still I remember someone asking me what छंद in hindi poetry means and I did not know. So guess writing is just a hobby and I never cared to get the basics right. On second thoughts, is it so necessary to understand every aspect of everything before we attempt it?
The list is endless, be it dancing, singing, badminton, chess. I have taken up and quitted on many things and if I would have to name one thing I excel in I would come up with a blank. Its like the cliched 'Jack-of-all-trades' symptom. Is it too bad? Being a jack and not a king?
I have seen people devoutly following their dream, I envy and admire such people. I dont know which hormone I lack which prevents me from being that person who dreams and then gets it.OTOH, I am someone who dreams and then lets it go.
Wow... it all sounds depressing as I read it now. So I am going to concentrate on other things which I plan to be mediocre in...
1. Rap singing
2. Chess: I want to beat atleast one good player.
3. Dancing: Bharatnatyam? (Am I too old?) Salsa (Right...ha..ha..) Still to decide, will get back to it.
4. Badminton: Again want to beat atleast one good player.
5.Learn French, Spanish, Sanskrit and Urdu.
6. Surfing(not the internet)
There are many things, guess I will keep on adding to the list, for now I am complacent in knowing that mediocrity works most of the times. I am not an expert Mechanical Engineer, but go find me a person who knows everything from what he/she studied in, can make decent music, shake a leg, jot few words down lyrically, play chess, beat me in badminton, speak a foriegn language and basically be me. You wont suceed, but you may suceed in finding someone who has a different set of talents. So that makes me realise that it just does not matter, we may be good at somethings and suck at others but as I rightly discovered few days back, we are travelling towards perfection, the universe is expanding to be of the perfect size and the only thing worth doing is enjoying the journey while we strive to attain perfection.
PS: if someone finds the above mentioned qualites(highlighted in red) I expect an email id and phone number(only if its a guy!)
There are many things which I can confidently claim to know (know not excel). But something made me do a reality check lately:
1. I'm a mechanical Engineer, but I dont know many things, even in the field where I invested three years post my graduation. The remedy perhaps is to go for masters, but then I have access to all the literature which may make me excel but something holds me back, something which I call 'laziness' or guess I am waiting for the time till its absolutely essential to know those details. Till that time, guess not knowing how to find the elastic center of the system can wait.
On second thoughts, I dont want to lie on my death-bed still thinking of how to find the elastic center of the system.
2. I had a fixation with Guitar since childhood. My twelfth birthday saw my birthday cake shaped in form of a guitar, my uncle gifted me a silver guitar. My mother gifted me a real guitar on my eighteenth birthday. I found a tutor and since past four years I am learning to play. I quitted for two years out of the four years, but then rejoined again. My tutor tells me, "I can only teach you, I cannot make you learn". Fair enough. He cannot battle my lack of dedication, I have to do that on my own. As a result, I can play a few songs on tabs and am struck on getting the basic C Major Chord right. Bottomline: I can play guitar but I am not perfect.
3. I have always enjoyed writing, its like giving vent to all those scrambled messages in my brain. I have toyed with poetry as a kid, moved on to short stories and currently am attempting to write a novel. But still I remember someone asking me what छंद in hindi poetry means and I did not know. So guess writing is just a hobby and I never cared to get the basics right. On second thoughts, is it so necessary to understand every aspect of everything before we attempt it?
The list is endless, be it dancing, singing, badminton, chess. I have taken up and quitted on many things and if I would have to name one thing I excel in I would come up with a blank. Its like the cliched 'Jack-of-all-trades' symptom. Is it too bad? Being a jack and not a king?
I have seen people devoutly following their dream, I envy and admire such people. I dont know which hormone I lack which prevents me from being that person who dreams and then gets it.OTOH, I am someone who dreams and then lets it go.
Wow... it all sounds depressing as I read it now. So I am going to concentrate on other things which I plan to be mediocre in...
1. Rap singing
2. Chess: I want to beat atleast one good player.
3. Dancing: Bharatnatyam? (Am I too old?) Salsa (Right...ha..ha..) Still to decide, will get back to it.
4. Badminton: Again want to beat atleast one good player.
5.Learn French, Spanish, Sanskrit and Urdu.
6. Surfing(not the internet)
There are many things, guess I will keep on adding to the list, for now I am complacent in knowing that mediocrity works most of the times. I am not an expert Mechanical Engineer, but go find me a person who knows everything from what he/she studied in, can make decent music, shake a leg, jot few words down lyrically, play chess, beat me in badminton, speak a foriegn language and basically be me. You wont suceed, but you may suceed in finding someone who has a different set of talents. So that makes me realise that it just does not matter, we may be good at somethings and suck at others but as I rightly discovered few days back, we are travelling towards perfection, the universe is expanding to be of the perfect size and the only thing worth doing is enjoying the journey while we strive to attain perfection.
PS: if someone finds the above mentioned qualites(highlighted in red) I expect an email id and phone number(only if its a guy!)
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