This is my Journey....

They said one in 60 get into IIT; they said its the toughest exam on earth; they said the odds are against you, you won't make it. You go ahead with your plans thinking they're wrong, trying to have confidence in yourself, and believing that nothing can defeat you. Fresh from the break after the boards, you feel you have a good idea what u want to do with your life, eager to change the world and make a difference, your mind full of idealogical beliefs that you believe will govern your life. Eager to make it and make it big, you think you can face any hurdle without wavering.

You arrive in school , the teachers welcome you and you feel that now its just a matter of time before you taste success. And it is just then... that infinitesimal yet defining moment that changes you...unfortunately for the worse.

You begin school confident that your school preparation and IIT coaching will blend and complement each other, and it does for some time. But sooner or later reality begins to dawn on you. You find yourself trapped in between the growing workload of school and the mounting pressure to make it through IIT. Then, disaster strikes.

You find yourself dazed and confused in all the maddening rush that surrounds you. Applying to the student council, participating in extra-co-curricular activities and the startling indifference of the teachers begins to sink in. But at this point, the days of you wanting to change the world are not far behind. You still feel that if you work hard you will definitely attain success. It is this feeling that stays with you for a year or so before you realize that the brimming level of enthusiasm you once had is now parched, the world u sought out to conquer is now playing with you, like the game between the puppet and the puppet master... and you feel a sense of betrayal. You feel that god somehow betrayed you, teased you to take this path and just as the time came to cross the river, left you drowning in the gushing flow of water. Add to it all the taunts that teachers constantly give on failure... whether on being provoked or due to something happening in their personal lives, none of it withstanding, you feel lost and fed up with life. The choice of being with friends or giving preference to studies lies heavily on you.

It is at such times that experimentation starts, just to get away from it all. People may say what they like, but what i wanna know is, can you blame him? Teachers always just wanting their work done, without bothering even remotely what the kid is going through. We all realize that its our last year in school, we all want to make the most of them, leave back cherished memories to remember for the rest of our lives....

But instead what everyone, and in particular, what society demands from you is to stay buried in your books. It makes no difference to them whether your last memories of school are a blur or painful.... society will only recognise you if you are rich and successful.

So where does it leave that energetic and ideological part of you that wanted to make a difference in this world? It is still there....damned but not forgotten...still believing in God... and leading the way in its own unique way.... inspite of all thats going around you. It is not dead and God forbid, never will be.... but its upto us to resurrect and revive that small little part that believes that we can still make it. Its doesn't matter what people say and think, whether they label you as a rebel or a freak, but what matters is what you want from your life and how you are going to get it....Inspite of how bad things may get, I will never stop believing in destiny, God and life.