An Unexpected Lesson

Quite a bit has happened on the Maya front. The class wrote a letter condemning the actions of our dear 'president' and lending full support to Nair. I'm really glad we were able to stand up to her. We wanted to make it public but on the advice of the teachers we decided to refrain from doing so in order to maintain our dignity and not resort to the same tactics as she does. I didn't go to college today but I hear she's come up with a rejoinder to our letter. Doesn't she have anything better to do? She is seriously jobless. We don't plan to respond though. Everytime she comes up with a new pamphlet she only reaffirms how foolish she is. Anyway, to move on to a much more pleasant topic, I saw Pride & Prejudice with Ashmi and Isa. All of us absolutely LOVED it. I never thought there could be a more dreamy Mr. Darcy than Colin Firth in the BBC version but I guess I was wrong. Matthew Macfayden is absolutely fantastic as Darcy. I was dreaming about him the whole night. The chemistry between him and Keira Knightley is really amazing. She is brilliant as Elizabeth Bennet and the liveliness with which she essays her role is very different from the earlier interpretations. The proposal scenes were some of the most romantic I have ever seen and I still haven't stopped going over them in my head. The movie is a must for all Austen and Darcy fans...it doesn't hurt if your just a hopeless romantic either.
The next day we went to American Diner for an 'All you can eat' breakfast and believe me when I say we STUFFED ourselves. I couldn't eat anything else for the whole day and of course, there was a cricket match which we won. The way the Indian team played was fantastic. They really gave the Pakistanis a drubbing!! When I was coming back home after the breakfast, the auto driver suddenly started talking to me about the importance of time and how every second counts( All this was in hindi). It kind of took me by surprise...I don't know why but maybe one doesn't expect an auto driver to tell you that kind of stuff- maybe your parents, yes. It's not that I think they are dumb or anything, not at all. It's just that when you get into an auto the driver is just someonewho drives you to your destination. You don't really think about the kind of life they lead, the opinions they have or any such thing. It made me realise that they are no different from any of us. He went on to speak about the importance of education. He has three sons, all who got above 90% in their boards and are now trying to get into IIT. All three managed to get scholarships at different levels of their studies- one in B.sc, the other in M.sc and so on. Their father had their whole life planned out for them- the kind of jobs they would get, the money they would earn, everything. Nothing less than engineering was good for his sons. One could see the pride in his eyes when he talked about them because like he said, a parent can dream about what they want for their children but ultimately its upto the kids. He was fortunate to have children who had fulfilled all the dreams he ever had for them and who would probably go on to do much more.
The conversation made me feel quite small because I felt that my parents had given me all the advantages one can ever give a child and I had done nothing to repay them. It made me look at my own attitude towards life. I want all the good things in life but when it comes to working for it, thats where I have a problem- I'm not willing to. There is no compensation for hard work, even I know that but one does tend to get laidback at times. Studies take a backstage, and everything else comes first. It takes a wake up call for you to realise that just having fun is not going to take you anywhere in life. I don't want to spend my whole life struggling and depending on my parents. I hear about young people making it big very early in life and I want to be like them but its not going to be easy. In order to that I have to work hard at whatever I set out to do. Sure, everyone needs some relaxation but for me at least, the time to work is now. Do well in studies, get into good colleges, get a great job, make your parents proud and finally make yourself happy. There will always be time later on to enjoy all the fruits of one's labour. I can still enjoy myself but I have to make sure I don't lose sight of my priorities.