I wanted to be an archeologist

It's funny how as a child there are just so many things you want to become...But after school, before joining university, there are hardly any choices left! I just remembered I wanted to be an archeologist once. I was in sixth grade then. We had just started reading History in school, and as you would imagine, history in India begins with Indus Valley Civilisation, as much in books as in reality. So the chapter began...In 5000BC, there flourished a civilisation along the banks of river Indus...to how the cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were discovered, and so on. I think I was caught by the romance of it. The spirit to explore, to discover, to venture into the unknown is strong when you are that young.

In my seventh grade, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. I read a Readers Digest book section that year, in Hindi, which read...'Kaise Bana Main Neurosurgeon'(How I came to be a Neurosurgeon). It was a brilliant piece - an account of one man's determination to specialise in a science as complex as that and take on one complex case after another, and the price he pays for his commitment to work in his personal life. It was touching. In my eighth or ninth grade, I wanted to become a Forest Ranger. An officer in an olive green Mahindra, khaki uniform, driving through dirt roads inside the forest at dusk and dawn, checking if everything's alright everywhere. I guess that was the closest I was to my true calling. I wish I was serious about it then. :)

I wanted to be a Coast Guard, I wanted to be a detective, I wanted to be a professor, I also wanted to be an astronaut! Its funny how I became a software engineer...

Anyway, feels good to be out. There is no end to possibility. :-)