Monday, December 29, 2014
“I want to be a cook”
The words were met with complete silence when a son broke
the news of what he wanted be in life. Anxiety could be seen on the mother’s
face who tried to hide her emotions, and just smiled brushing it off as another
one of his fantasies of career choices. His earlier fantasies made the father
proud as he wanted to be an Astronaut, an Aeronautical Engineer, designing
Aircraft interiors, designing Fighter Jets and even a wild life enthusiast,
thanks to Discovery / Animal Planet, and no thanks to cookery shows.
Worrying aspect was that he is in the final year of
school and career choices need to have some direction. Not that many kids in
India have any direction besides herd mentality driven by other’s choices or
parent’s deciding where their kids should be. Sometimes it is parents in much
esteemed career positions, who feel their kids should be better than them or
their kids should follow their footsteps as doctors, engineers, lawyers, CEOs,
CTOs. Etcetera like them. Nevertheless as any (ab)normal parents, aspirations
were always high for their son. So would flood him of success stories of
children from challenging and deprived backgrounds becoming CEO and
entrepreneurs, not realizing that he was anyways cooking his own plans of what
he wanted to be.
Not wanting to sound like a discouraging parent and
wanted to prove ‘dignity of labor’ of any profession an individual would
choose, reluctantly the father kept a normal and plastic smile plastered on his
face. Though discretely and indirectly he tried to display his ultra-microscopic
knowledge of stock markets and nudge him with stories of stock market investors
who made zillions, but the child’s interest was learning names of food in the
market places, and the exotic names of spices and herbs. As the child showed
interest in Church activities tried to talk of priesthood as a vocation and
achievement of spiritual people socially, but it seemed if spirituality was the
way to a man’s soul, he would prefer the way to a man’s heart which was through
his stomach.
Then suddenly ‘Eureka’ an idea struck the father that since
the child was a black belt in Karate, at a very young age, so why not try to
sell him the idea of the armed forces or the police or being a politician and
contribute to the nation. The father being a marketer thought this idea would
sell, but all he got was a customer with deadpan face (read frying pan) and
making him wonder with the child’s silent question would all these guys not
need to eat. That’s beside the point most in these professions eat much more
than food, as their insatiable greed has eaten so much into the wealth of the
nation that many have no food to eat, and many die of starvation.
Not wanting to give up, thought why not talk of creative
fields of professions or sports. Since the child was addicted to tennis,
thought he has finally bitten the bait, then alas his dreams was what he could
cook up for people to bite. Anger was boiling inside the father and the child was
thinking of what dishes he could boil. Here the father was trying to serve him
success stories of other professions and the child was keener to know of food
served on a program called ‘Food Street’. Tried to sell him the idea of sports
as an option and how fit he would be, the child was keener to know of food that
could keep people fit. Enticed the child with jobs that could take him around
the world, when he was keener towards the world of a kitchen that would cook cuisines
from around the world. Tried to show him celebrities of other professions and the
son showed the father, chef celebrities.
The father finally gave up and thought if he cannot drive
anything into his mind, why not try getting into the child’s mind. As he walked
into the well illuminated alley of his mind only to realize how dim was his. The
child’s aim was so simple that he just did not want a life of his father, where
he was always boggled with work and carried it home. He just wanted to be happy
doing what he felt was best. When the father tried to talk of bankers,
financial professionals and the life they have in the US, the child knew
somewhat what scams meant, and he replied, “Dad I want to be a cook and not a
crook”.
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