I have been a student of Mathemetics though Mathemetics or the Sciences never interested me. Doing anything else other than engineering or medicine is considered a mark of incapability in my part of the country. Though music is popular, local fine artists are looked down upon. Though people like to talk about politics, they beleive that sanity should always prevent one from being part of politics. Economists are best known to teach in local colleges and are understood to be incapable of finding good jobs and people who pursue the Arts, Social Sciences and specialize in the languages are considered nothing but fools of the nth order digging their own graves. In such an environment, it was a crime even if I said that I loved the study of history, I liked the languages, I loved music and heavens began to fall apart when I said I wanted to become a journalist. Well, society dictates terms by way of criticism and peer pressure of course played its role too. Though I didn't like the Sciences and hated Math, I did my engineering with all the possible heart. Chemistry was OK. I could understand a little bit of it. Physics was always a maze. Physicists always spoke of the world a few million years back and a few million years hence. But I felt that problems of day to day life were more important. I always felt that a fortune teller who can say with a certain degree of accuracy about the events in my life in the near future was better than a Physicist. But none cared for my thoughts. So what if the fortune teller is better than the Physicist? Newton's laws were the ones that governed Mechanical Engineering. I compromised and worked hard to understand the concepts and did a good job. However, all through my course of engineering I kept thinking of things other than technology and was constantly looking for opportunities that could help me get rid of Mathemetics and Technology. I hated Computer Science from the bottom of my heart and writing codes in languages so logical was a nightmare always. I could never understand how A could equal A + 1. I always felt that those people who designed these languages would some day be proven wrong. But then, there was no respite. I realised that the cancer of Computers was infecting every other branch of engineering and the Mechanical Sciences were no exception. So my friends and I decided to learn C, VB, Access and what not. I found the learning really really irksome, but it was the demand of the day. To top it up, I chose a software project for my engineering degree and I still do not know what I did and how it worked. I knew after engineering that I would be a miserable failure if I chose a software job - that intense logical thinking that it demanded always scared me. But then, there were several of my father's friends who told me that I should also do some courses in JAVA and what not. I told my Dad I knew two types of JAVA - 'Mar JAVA' and 'Mit JAVA'.
Good riddens said I and joined Praj industries in a role that did involve some Computers, but certainly not coding. I worked in the Purchase department chasing vendors for deliveries and running away from chasing vendors who wanted payments on time. and then came a stint with Hindalco, where I was handling engineering activities, managing projects, negotiating orders etc. But still, there was quite a bit of technology that I was dealing with and I wanted to completely erase the traces of technology that were there. I thought that the MBA degree was the degree that could help me liberate myself from the drudgery of technology and Math. And so with great courage and great pride, I joined the MBA programme at IMI, Delhi a prestigous B School. On the first day, my professor there said that one should know at least 12th Standard Math well to be successful. I said to myself that Math was required merely to complete the course. Post MBA, I could certainly do something completely different without Math having to bother me a lot. I did well in the course and then I was hired on campus by HSBC for my skills in Math in the role of an Analyst who had to crunch numbers. I do not what made me accept the offer though I knew that I was required to know a good deal of Math and the job did require me to crunch numbers to some extent. Here I am today, crunching numbers and waiting to get rid of Math....I can't and I no it for sure....I can't; unless there is a miracle and something happens that makes me do something radically different. So here is a guy who has been cornered into doing what he hated most - Math. With time, I learnt to think logically, I learnt a bit of Math and now I am not surprised when I see A equalling A + 1. That's the story of an accidental Analyst !!
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