Little lies. Those sweet little lies were always hilarious. In the end, it almost became too hilarious.
If you were to be a mythical creature, you would’ve been the fiery Juno.
Life is funnier when it happens to somebody else. Such sadists we are.
Listen up, people, whenever you hear a teen/post-teen girl say:
“even if i i break up can’t see any other man”
” now i can’t be with anyone else”
“i’ll have to remain single”
“i’ll have to remain single for the rest of my life”
i feel i love him much more than i used to…but he doesn’t say nothin’”
and close variations of the above, rest assured the bloke in question has did the job on her. And know this for sure that it was her first time. Hello, someone popped the cherry.
Man, it’s for stuff like this we have bubble gum pop, all-women alt.rock bands and a steady flow of B-grade Hollywood/Bollywood romantic comedies.
Innocence. Good times. Goodness.
but so little time. Forget HIV, Procrastination is the biggest and baddest virus out there. It feels good to be busy again. Yep, conference research papers, abstracts, Project Swadesh. Not to mention, the syllabus.
When i started my undergrad years, I made a promise to the parents. I’ll be right there in the Top 3 in the final Part 3 university exams. The promise has more to do with proving myself that I’m good at my line of trade which I love than the promise itself. Studying to learn a discipline’s a whole lot different than studying to excel at exams. All this time I’ve been following the former, now i reckon it’s time to follow both. The Part 3 incidentally is a curiosity. It’s got four enticing papers which are right up my alley.
Now I don’t make many promises oh no. Not of the academic kind. The last time i made such a promise i was in 8th grade. My mother had her uterus and ovaries chopped off for a benign (but possible malignant) lump. In the hospital visiting hours one afternoon she made me promise i would study hard for the annual exams while she’s away in the hospital. It was strange ’cause she didn’t ask for a promise nor she ever pushes me to “top” any exam. She was asking for assurance but i took it way too seriously. I came first in class. Yes sir, by a 1 mark whisker over my best friend. It was the only time i “stood” anything in academics, ever.
Now the thing is, unless the percentage/GPA is really bad it doesn’t matter. Seriously. My friends in engineering would second that. Even in my field, contrary to conventional wisdom, percentage/marks is only half the story. In the academia marks matter only up to a certain point and extent. What counts most are research skills and aptitude and strong fundamentals. For people with career paths in the corporate sector marks matter even less.
As i was saying, it’s good to be busy. It’s not studies and academic conference papers. Honest. There’s a whole lot of stuff i would like to do than time could afford. I figure when i’ll look back to these days ten years down the line i’d regret being a lazy ass slacker flushing precious time down the toilet. You never manage to really comprehend the value of time unless it’s gone. You just don’t. I’m tired of making that same mistake over and over and over again. I just don’t want to anymore.
When you say “i’m sorry” just say it and shut up. Say it like you mean it even if you don’t. Don’t say anything else, don’t stutter, don’t give excuses and please please don’t give an “explanation”. Really, just shut your pie hole. Trust me. You don’t want to say anything else. Learned it the bitter way. Not hard, just bitter.
It’s a lesson i’ve taken to heart. You will do good to do the same.
For months me homies are drowning me under one question: what should I do after graduation? I don’t know what to do. aaaah!! What should I do with my career? Say something.
As if I’m a career counselor.
It’s the staple question of us people nearing graduation in “general line” working through social science/humanities majors.
Take Mr. Sasmal Jr. here on the left. His father’s one of the more respected economics professors in the city and he himself is in the same trade. Yet he’s clueless as anyone else. Too bad Mr. Sasmal Jr. You’re not as talented as your father nor as hardworking. At least your influential daddy bailed you out in the university exams. Lucky SOB.
Well, at least in my line of trade, Economics, the vaunted “King of Social Science” one can take numerous roads after graduation. It’s a luxury undergrads in humanities subjects or even other social science subjects don’t have.
The reason of me being an adviser of all things career lately is obvious enough. I somehow manage to appear cocksure about these things. Maybe there’s something about the contours of my face that act as agents of assurance. And then of course it’s common knowledge that I sat for the GRE in my final year of undergraduation, something not commonplace for economics undergrads (but something which will soon become commonplace) and scored barely enough to stand any chance at getting into decent and desired graduate schools west of the Atlantic. Then the unforeseen happened but brooding and cursing won’t do any good. Anyway.
I always say the same thing to me homies. It really doesn’t matter what you want to study. The real question is what you want to do in your life? Sometimes I phrase it like an economist would. What do you want to do for a living? Living, like paying your bills, taking a foreign vacation, treating your comatose father in a good private hospital for two months without going broke. Things like that. Things that’ll give you a comfortable upper middle class living, if not more.
I mean, folks, hey, the roads are many but you have to choose the destination. It amazes me how so great many students nearing a major academic milestone are still clueless about what they want to do in their life, forget about knowing what they want to do with their life.
I sometime wonder should I ask them fellows don’t you guys have a dream? Did you ever had a dream? Or as they phrase dreams about career, ambition.
It really saddens me, it does.
I’m not ambitious. Rather, I have limited ambitions and been trying unsuccessfully for ages revolting against my limited ambitions with the limited talents I have.
Oh, and about counseling. I’m tired of saying this over and over again.
If you want a job in the big bucks corporate sector working 14 hour workdays in weekends, don’t think of a masters in economics. Go do a MBA from a decent place in India. Or abroad even. If you want to be a international trade analyst and somesuch then it’s A-OK get a MA in Trade/Finance and such uber-specialised discipline from a decent graduate school.
If you want to be in the academia as a professor and researcher or have a thing for bigtime IGOs, go for a phd in United States/Canada.
Don’t even think about going for a phd in India. Unless of course you want to do average research, run around the ass of your guidance counselor who’ll be as elusive as Brad Pitt, and most importantly remain unemployed till you’re 33. Not to mention the stipend will be absolutely pathetic.
There’s too much in politics in Indian academia . It’ll throttle your soul, put a short leather leash on your academic potential and leave you in the gutter frustrated and hopeless. I can’t stress this far enough.
Okay ,I’ve dispensed enough free advice for a day. Peace.
