Note to a Brother

Little Man,

As you are about to turn Sixteen in hardly another 24 hours, I've penned down few things which I feel you should go through. Your Wonder Years begin now, it is from here that the Blossoming of You begins. Let me start by telling you that it is quite tough to be an older sibling. You are quite lucky that the job of being a "role model" is thrusted on my shoulders, and I have to admit that I have done quite a shitty job so far. We elder siblings are a kind of "prototype" for the younger ones, whatever screw-ups we do is termed as "Things not to do when growing up" and you are suitably programmed to not to make the same mistakes as we do. Yet I say make mistakes, and live your life. Had I been living a life wanting to please others I probably would have compromised with what I wanted. I've made tons of mistakes, yet never have I woken up any morning with a feeling of repentance for whatever I have done. Every mistake or decision I took has taught me a new lesson.

People may say that you are at a decisive phase in your life with twelfth standard, board exams, tuitions, future, college, degree, career. All of this must have started busting your balls already. Every Tom, Dick or Harry you meet on your way to school would be counseling you over what degree to do and from which college. Screw their opinion, no matter what degree you study you are gonna end up in the rat race fighting for survival eventually. You gotta face your responsibilities some day, atleast till then live the life you want to live and do what you want to do. Here are few things I want to share with you, these are the same complex crap which I had gone through when I was blooming.

1. Getting an Engineering seat in any college is quite easy, be it a B.E student from the IIT or a B.E guy from some Kaliappa Engineering college, in the end they all end up sitting in front of a computer punching buttons having no clue about what they are doing. You are a friggin' natural, and scoring more than 80 % is no big deal anyway, all you gotta do is puke what they teach and the marks shall follow. Its not as tough as these folks are making it out to be.

2. If you think that the degree you choose is the first step to deciding your career, then you ought to think again. The jobs we do has got nothing to do with what we study at college. We are lucky to be born in an era where we can choose our job on the basis of our strengths. In this age of computers and globalization all you need to know is how to type, and you got yourself a swell job.

3. When choosing your college degree, use your head. Don't get emotional and get into something just because Aamir Khan sung "Papa kehte hain bada naam karegaa...." more than two decades back. Aamir died in the end of the movie. Do what you know you can do. Every week a new "career option" is thrown at you, if it was Marine Engineering last week, then the week before last it was Mechanical Engineering, and God knows what new branch of "Engineering" is gonna come up next week. Use your head, not your heart. Be selfish. Don't choose a degree just because some one else could not do it. Don't burden yourself with other people's expectations. Live for yourself. At the end of the day, we just want you to be happy.

4. Open a blog for your photos. Make it well known, you are real good at it. Let the world know how good you are at something. Make a short video and post it on you tube, write some stuff, open a blog, tweet your one-liners, make sure the creative side of you stays alive.

5. Fall for some girl, its okay to get your heart broken. First love seldom works out, be silly and take a chance, it may work out, you never know. And if you need to take her out or need some dough to impress her, you know who to come to.

6. Stop fingering your guitar and learn to PLAY it. Chicks dig someone who plays musical instruments, and guitars are as good as any babe magnets that is ever known to man. Its the guitarists who get laid a lot, not the guy singing in the chorus.

7. No matter how big a mistake you make, always remember that its not the end of the world. Near perfect lives are never talked about, nor are near perfect people. Just love what you are doing, and that only happens when you are doing what you love.

8. The friends you make in these few years will be the ones with whom you will share all your memories, crushes, heartbreaks, pranks, dreams, ambition. Treasure your friends, treasure these moments. The next thing you know, you will be 25 and in a job which you have to do because you got no other choice and all that you will be left with is memories of your Wonder Years, so hold on to these days tight, these years pass with the blink of an eye.

Thanks for being the faithful keeper of all my secrets. Have a great time growing up, its been a real fun to have you as a brother, and its gonna be great fun watching you grow up. I could never be the "role model" people wanted me to be, but Iam glad that I could be your friend, and for me that is a bigger achievement than anything else.