Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought ME back:
I have always been a curious kid. The minute I would see something unique, I would jump to my feet and name it something in the broken English I had just learnt at school. One of the first memories in my early years was the sight of something I enjoyed calling “The Rolly Polly”. As years went by, my fascination for the Rolly Polly kept growing and so did my ability to understand things better. I eventually learnt that it was called a RMC-Mixer Truck. I didn’t really understand the term RMC, but knew for certain that something was jumbling on the inside. And I was desperate to know what.
A few years went by and I still kept watching the moving wonder. On one fine day, me and my dad were stuck in the middle of a huge traffic jam. Everyone was irritated, but I wasn’t. I was the happiest. My car was parked right next to a Mixer lorry. I took my time and managed to read “UltraTech” written on the mixer. Curiosity hit me again. Was that the thing juggling on the inside?
At that point of time, my family was also building a house in Bengaluru. At the construction site I again discovered “UltraTech” written on a few sacs. And this was the threshold, because I needed to know what “UltraTech” was. Desperately. So I went ahead and asked my dad what “UltraTech” really meant. And he explained the concept of concrete so beautifully that, from then UltraTech was my new best friend. I keenly observed how “UltraTech” was used in the making of my home and developed an instant liking for construction. I was only eleven back then but then I knew for certain that when I grew up, I wanted to build homes and buildings for people. And today I stand as a proud Civil engineer solely because UltraTech managed to charm me.
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Discovering the True Me:
From the very beginning of my schooling days, I have always proven to be a straight A student. I enjoyed learning and was more than comfortable being surrounded by books. But in the process I did not realize that I was compromising on my social life. I envied all the popular kids at school, but there was nothing I could really do about it. So I continued my affair with books till tenth grade. After my tenth boards I began feeling a void of friends in my life. I was so happy in my secluded space that I had failed to realize so many opportunities that had passed by.
So soon after tenth, when I decided to change schools I promised myself to be the most outgoing person I could ever be. I made friends on the very first day and was absolutely proud. From one extreme of solitude I had gone to the other extreme of popularity. I had transformed into someone I barely recognized. I loved the attention but deep down I missed my me-time. I couldn’t find time to study and scored poorly in exams. I did not live to the expectations of my parents for boards and barely managed to get into a decent engineering college.
After this period I was devastated. I needed to find the perfect balance. My life had turned upside down and it was time to make changes. I joined college with a goal. A goal to achieve good scores and to find the right friends. I remained in isolation for the first few days, observed people and chose the ones I felt had the same wavelength as me. It took me a fair amount of time to rediscover my inner potential but eventually I did find my equilibrium.
Today, I am the Silver medalist in my engineering batch, had bagged the first company that came on campus and have four best friends that would take a bullet for me. Things may have gone wrong for me in the first 17 years of my life, but for all the positives that have come my way now, I am sure as hell glad for making my mistakes.