Life is all about learning, but that is not what it seems to a 23-year-old who thinks she has had enough of studying already. This short story is about a girl who has been coddled all her life. It talks about the first decision she ever made completely on her own where she took charge and succeeded even when people told her to give up.
She completed her Masters a while back and instead of going for the normally pursued PhD, decided to go for a Government job. Inexperienced about the processes these examinations go through, she was completely blinded by the settled lifestyle it would provide. After hectic studying for over 20 years it felt like a good idea to be able to relax at a fixed job. As days…no…years went by, it became more apparent that the tediousness of the process of procuring such a job would quite surely outweigh the benefits of a relaxed life. The processes were dishearteningly slow, still are. Every year there are multiple cases of forgery and cheating in the Staff Selection Commission exams which are taken to the Supreme Court thus further extending the delay. She wrote multiple exams all year round. For one of the exams, the preliminary level began in early 2016. She finally got through the whole process of multiple levels at the beginning of 2018. By then she had given up all hopes of ever getting a ‘Government Job’. The call letter with the job location took another 8-9 months to finally arrive.
However, there was another marked change, she realized that too much relaxation converts into stagnation. Gradually, it felt like it is better to learn and grow than to have an infinitesimally small growth rate, so much so that it is nearly negligible. So, deciding to forego her job offer, she began studying for MBA examinations in the hope of learning something new and landing a job which would provide a better chance at constant growth with infinite levels of improvement. She wasn’t sure that she would pass any of the exams or convert if she passed. The gap years felt inexplicable at any interview. Nevertheless, she put her heart into it and finally converted for T. A. Pai Management Institute. Maybe the faculty sitting at the interview panel saw something which she had herself failed to see. That girl is me.
In July 2019 I was notified of another Government job I had cleared 3 levels of and had another level to go. But the date clashed with coming to TAPMI so here I am sitting in my hostel room writing about how I decided to reject a ‘settled job’ offer and dive into the world of knowledge where if you stop learning you fall right off the wagon into the abyss; a life on the edge.
