Rat race

During one of my journeys from Delhi to Dehradun I happened to meet a guy studying in NID (national institute of designing). As a small boy, he dreamt (in his own words!) of designing cars. Why design a car?....Well he belonged to a small village where a car coming in the village was a rare sight. He kind of developed a fascination with cars and made up his mind to be a car designer when he grew up (am not sure if there is any such vocation!). Coz of lack of awareness in his village he didn’t really know how he could get to his dream. But because he felt he had to keep going he finally ended up getting into mechanical engineering in some college I don’t much remember. During his engineering years he still dreamt of designing cars. But once his engineering was over he had to face up to the fact that there was no car designing in mechanical engineering!...on the contrary he had to work rather with the pedals. This guy was broke emotionally… All these years of hard work seemed worthless to him. But he didn’t want to give up to his dreams. He wouldn’t spend his life working around with pedals. So he decided to gather all the information he could on things related to car designing and concluded that it was only through an admission in NID that he could get closer to his dream. He gave up engineering and started all over again. Finally he managed to get admitted in the institute and guess what??....he was just designing a car and drawing its layout while on the way to Dehradun- the thing that he always wanted to do!
This encounter kept me thinking. What on earth was I doing in an engineering college when I never ever wanted to get into this stuff?
I guess it’s always been a kind of rat race or whatever one calls it. Each one of us wants to do what everyone else does. If you are different and want to stay out of the track you are tagged as crazy or still better a loser. This fear of being alienated is precisely what keeps us from taking up the roads less traveled. Also the fear of the unknown makes the idea of going the other way appear to be less appealing as everyone would prefer to live in comfortable zone. But at the end of it all I don’t know how much satisfaction one can derive by going on in an aimless journey while we follow everyone else (provided the race wasn’t the aim).
Following ones dreams was never easy…It’s never been! But I guess it’s the uncertainty on the way that makes the journey stand out from the rest and only those who have the will can conquer the way!