CAREER CONFUSION!!!??

Hello people,

This is my first real blog. So, really anticipating your suggestions.

I am sure everyone who is reading this would have given a thought about what they want to become in future. Not necessarily a rarified thought, just an elementary idea. (For those who haven’t, my sincere advice is to do it as soon as possible). Well, the idea of this blog is not to help you in deciding your future. It’s just about my experience in doing so.

I am one of the unlucky few who cannot stand on any one decision once made. So, fortunately or unfortunately, (I am yet to decide), I’ve thought of many things for my future vocation. My college hasn’t helped me in any possible way to decide as to what course I want to do my masters degree or any sort of further study. “Inspirational” is the last word you can think of when you see our lecturers. I’ll give more info on our teachers in another blog.

These are a few of the various subjects I’ve considered for myself-

(1) ANIMATION

As you can see in my profile, I’ve a rather immense liking for computer games even from the time of “Prince of Persia (The 2-D game)”. And when I was in my 6^th I got a pretty decent Graphics Card for my computer. As far as I can remember, I bought “Mortal Kombat 4” and I was just speechless. I just loved it. My other favourites were “Prince of Persia”, “Serious Sam”, “Need for Speed” etc. but then in about 12^th I played a game called “GTA-San Andreas”. And boy!oh!boy!! was it addicting. I adored the game so much that I decided that I was going to be an animator. I used to imagine myself working for companies like Pixar, Rockstar Games, Ubisoft and other such “Head Honchos” of the animation industry.

I was very serious about it. I, therefore, decide to join an animation course. I went to an animation school seeking advice on my newly found interest. The guy who owns that school, asked me-“Are you good at drawing?”. I said-“Yes, I am. (I wasn’t making that up. I was pretty good at drawing)”. “Then this is the course for you sir”-He said to me. I asked him-“Great then… How much does it cost?”. I was expecting more like 20000 for a 2-year course. Guess what price he quoted???? “3 lacs for a 6 months course!!!!”. I am thinking like-“What the hell!!! U have got to be kidding me!!!”. I asked him-“Why is it that high?”. He told me-“People earn about 50000 per month just by completing this course even without a bachelor’s degree”. I said to myself-“That’s a blatant lie. This is not the place for you. Get up and walk out”. Later, somehow, I changed my opinion about computer science as a so-called-“Saturated industry”(Which is crap!!). And that was the end of my dreams about animation.

(2) PHYSICS

Even since I was a kid, I saw scientists with enormous respect and admiration, especially physicists. And that was because I thought-“Once you are a physicist, you know each and everything about how the world operates. Except for things related to biology. Which is a ‘girly’ subject”. and thus I held physics in esteem and biology, quite the other way round. I don’t know why I did that, but somehow I did. I now realize that, my opinion about biology was “wish-wash”. I regard all sciences as equal.

But, there is something about physics that niggles my mind. Everytime, I see documentaries about “String theory”, “Time travelling”, “Einstein’s universe”, ”Relativity” and the like, it charges me up. Maybe the physicists featured in the video have some kind of an aura around them. And there’s the book-“Surely! You are joking Mr.Feynman”. That book really got me thinking about what it is to be a physicist. Even now, I hold Richard.P.Feyman as my idol. (Although I don’t do anything about it). I am always awestruck when I hear jargons in physics like “Strings”, “Quantum electro-dynamics”, “Relativity”, “Parallel Universes”etc.

Thus physics fascinates me in a way no other science can do, and it still is my dream to become a theoretical physicist one day, and it always will be.

(3) MATHEMATICS

“A Beautiful Mind”- I suppose, most of you have watched this movie. It’s a masterpiece from Ron Howard and an exquisite performance by Russell Crowe.

For those who haven’t, it is the real life story about a great mathematician John Forbes Nash. After watching that movie, if you don’t feel like being a mathematician then (1)You have already made up your mind strongly about something else for your profession. Or (2)You don’t understand English. I really mean it. Its really soul-stirring.

And thus my next endeavour was to find out about being a mathematician. Here’s a little quote on mathematics I found in a book.

Mathematics can be compared to a well-crafted hammer, an aesthetic masterpiece. We as students can see the hammer in 2 different ways.

--The hammer can be hung on a wall. And one can admire the fine craftsmanship in it.

--Or, the hammer can be used to pound a nail into the wall.

Metaphorically,

--One can see mathematics as an art form, marvel at its elegance and rigour. And wonder at its unfathomable power to explain the world around us.

--Or, one can use it to solve problems. Be it, problems related to military applications, cryptography, economics and theoretical physics or more modest problems such as returning correct change to a shop-keeper at the market.

Mathematics is the queen of all sciences. It’s the language of all the other sciences. Based on what I’ve found out from my research on mathematicians, in blogs, university websites etc. once you become a mathematician, you are required all over the world. You can work in whichever industry you want. You can change your specialization to any subject you want, be it, theoretical physics, chemistry, engineering and the lot.

Though mathematics involves tons of jargons, hordes of precise theorems and a multitude of rigorous applications, we all have to agree upon the fact that Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only supreme truth, but also divine beauty. That’s what makes, “Being a mathematician”, an aspiration for me.

This is not all, folks. I’ve still got some more. The rest in my next blog.