The roads I have taken...

I may not have topped every class since I could spell A for Apple and B for Ball.

I may not have cracked the IAS.

I may not be an IIT graduate.

I may never have won a gold medal.

My picture may never appear in the newspaper for outstanding achievements.

And the only thing I know about Quantum Mechanics might be the spelling.


But I had wonderful parents and a sister.

I had a cheerful childhood.

I had an apt adolescence

I had a turbulent teenage, just the way it’s meant to be.

I had a life outside of classrooms and tuition centers.

I was given the option to read things other than textbooks and study materials.

I was given the option to dance to not just the tunes of an education system.

I was allowed to learn by rote poems and stories and not just math formulas and theory of Relativity.

I was learning about the solar system in class two for the joy of learning- not as a preparatory for the entrance exams 10 years later.

I was taught that ambition is important, but I was allowed to choose that ambition.

And that has made all the difference…*



*From The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.