The Power to Choose...

When I retrospect from now to the time I gained consciousness, I realize that whatever I have done, whichever way I have acted, whichever path I walked… in more than 90% (I arrived at this figure from the 90-10 Principle) of the cases I had options more than one. I said a particular statement, acted in a particular way, did a particular thing or walked a particular path was simply because that is what I chose. Yes, learning tabla at an early age which actually my uncle had bought for himself was my choice (I was fascinated by the different sounds it made when my little fingers fell on them). No, going to a boarding school in Dehradun was not my choice. In fact I was dead against the idea of leaving my loving joint family. They always pardoned me of my naughtiness. No! actually sins coz naughtiness will be too petite a word to describe the awkward situations I put them into by my sinful acts. This includes making them run on the terrace at midnight to play ‘pakram pakrai’ just coz I was not feeling sleepy. Throwing pickles from the terrace of my 4 storey building to the busy road below on the pedestrians... they thought someone was throwing jootha (leftover) food on them… the traffic stopped & the pedestrians started mouthing abuses to the hooligan on the terrace. Just when a couple of them were on their way to thrash their insane criminal, someone airlifted me to show the public that the sinner was a 10 year old & the raining ‘jootha’ food were actually pickles which my grandma had spread on the terrace to dry. Though, this was not enough to appease the pedestrians but then they could not harm a 10 yr child. Even courts grant amnesty on juvenile grounds. The countless number of times that I’ve hurt my younger bro & myself while playing physical games & running around. Till date, he holds me accountable for the scars on our faces. Once, when my mother asked me…“Nishit, where’s the necklace I handed over to you before going to take bath, I just pointed towards the window... ” Well, so on & so forth… No doubt, they had reasons enough to send me to a boarding school. It’s like my version of TZP (Taare Zameen Par)… just that in my version of TZP not me but my parents & family are the right people to sympathize with. Yes, choosing friends in my boarding school was my discretion. Continuing with my hooligan attitude in school which compelled the authorities to complain to my parents was my choice. I am sure I would have been rusticated from the school for climbing trees, for not behaving properly etc. if it was not for my elder brother. He was a topper there, respected by students & teachers akin. We were poles asunder. He motivated me to study & yes it was my choice to accede. It was my choice to run the cross country covering 8 Km without relaxing even if I died in the attempt which helped me to secure 6th rank out of 180 odd students competing. It was my choice to climb a mountain putting my life at stake while trekking from haridwar to hamkund Sahib to feast my ego & prove to my friends that they could not tease & dispirit me just because I had an asthama attack the previous night. It was my choice to become an accomplice of my friends in all the unlawful activities they did in school. It was my choice to tell uncountable lies to everyone around because I was not brave enough to accept the truth. It was not my choice to come to delhi after 8th post my appendix operation. I was destined to & I thank destiny for this transition. It was a transition from an All-Boys School to a Co-Ed. It was not at all my choice to get teased as ‘Bihari’ when I joined APJ, Sheikh Sarai, as the place of birth was not my choice. I blamed God & cried day & night. Not by choice but destiny, I met Mehul & today we are the best of friends. We’ve had great time together. But yes, it was my choice to work hard & top class 9th to escape from the ‘Bihari’ tag. To be true, I felt nothing against the place of my birth but the stigma attached to it, especially in my school was too daunting to face repeatedly. It was my choice to drop a year for IIT. It was my choice not to work hard enough & hence land up in IP University & choose Electronics as my discipline. Deciding to appear for GRE was my choice & not appearing for it later was again mine. Oh! I chose to write for ‘The Power to Choose’ but it’s literally becoming a half baked précis of my life. I have a lot to share but sorry! I choose to reserve the rest for an apt platform & time. Everyone has a story but the whole point I want to portray here is that at every crossroad of our lives we have the option to choose not always amongst right & wrong, but amongst 2 or more options both of which seem to be correct. And the path we leave is equally important in deciding our future as the one we take. The biggest power we have is- “The Power to Choose”. So, choose wisely. Now again I’ve a choice.

To post this piece or not…

With Love.
Nishit.