whatever is wrong with "me being me?"

I am deviating from the topic of this blog as far as this post goes. But really who can ignore the fact that 2010 has started on a depressing note, with a string of suicide cases among students.
For me being a student was all about learning from my mistakes, and believe me I made them constantly. I was your typical geek student, with an inferiority complex that was more complicated than all of my standard 10 syllabus put together.
As for the horrid, everpresent marksheet of the great Indian education system...well I was a true Indian on that front. Zero as a number gained acceptance world over only after Indian mathematicians recognized it, and I being a true Indian, more than a mathematican made it a point to have a zero in my score, for every math exam. And since it couldn't be a hundred all the time, I took a smart shortcut and stuck to the easier to score, single digit Zero!
Needless to say my parents were quite devastated with my particular talent for maths. While my father wondered how his gujju genes, overloaded with a love for numbers (actually profit and loss figures) had failed so miserably, my mother, till today, continues to believe that I could have been the next Aryabhatta, has she solved some complicated math problems when she was expecting me! But what I did get from my family was my love for reading, (and it was not related to my school syllabus) and this was one habit that my parents encouraged, irrespective of my marks in school.
Years later I got my bachelor's degree in applied art and did a postgraduation in Applied art, and did my postgraduation in journalism. My poor, bewildered parents continued to support me and do so even today, almost a year later. Today I'm the only journalist and while I have yet to achieve a lot before I get somewhere, I already feel proud of the fact that my parents have backed me up all the way, the only journalist in the Desai family tree!
Sounds pompous? It is but not entirely, because the point is just to understand that every time has their own dream, and it may not always coincide with what their parent dreams for them. The children are too young to even think coherently, and suicide is more often than not a hasty decision they make. It is the parents who must understand that not every child wants to be a doctor, engineer or lawyer and it is okay for them not to do so.
Honestly give your child a chance... because irrespective of what they do or do not achieve, not considering what they pay package will or will not be, every human being has the right to make what he or she wants of their life. And while your shadow can save a little tree from being exposed to too much sunlight, sometimes it may just smother it, leaving it in darkness to wither bit by bit.