I plan to.... Naaa !!!

“If you don’t know where you want to go, every road will take you there”

So, what’s wrong with that? As I skim through the list of ’64 best interview questions’, I see that one omnipresent line… “Where do you see yourself ten years from now?” And that makes me wish… wish that I had the ability to project myself into the future. But Alas! I am no Nostradamus. And the time machine I almost built while in school (there were always those dormant talents!), is playing victim to the cancer of rust somewhere in the backyard of science fiction. So, here I am, stressing whatever grey cells remain in my head, trying to deduce where I’ll be from where I am.

Logic tells me I need a plan to answer this one. But, history deters me. I’ve always been good at planning… there’s always been a plan for everything – be it the course of my academics or a simple evening with friends. It’s the implementation where things start to go awry. I planned for three years to get into IIT. Never happened. I planned to work as a mechanical engineer. Never happened. I planned to do my MBA from a famous B-school in Hyderabad. I got an admit, but still… never happened. What did happen were things I never imagined or wanted in the first place. For example, the college I did my engineering from, was low down in my list of priorities when I sat home with my IIT dreams for one year. But this is where I met friends who today are some of the most important people in my life. Would I trade my days in college for say an IIT experience? Never.

I almost never got what I planned. And I’ve done well. Maybe better than if the plans had worked out. So, why plan? Why submit yourself to the drudgery of working day-in and day-out to achieve what you think is your destiny, but eventually turns out to be a figment of your imagination? The answer, I realized, lies in the age old scriptures…

"Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani

Meaning: Do your duty and be detached from its outcome,
do not be driven by the end product, enjoy the process of getting there.
- SRIMAD BHAGVAD GITA"

The plan is a roadmap. We’re all headed on the road trip called LIFE. As with any road trip, there’ll be crossroads, diversions, bumpy gravel paths, smooth highways…. the works. A diversion might lead one away from a plan, but into a wonderous, beautiful terrain never imagined before. The key is to enjoy it, live the moment and move on. ‘Coz the day you reach the destination, the joy will not be in where you are – it will be in what you saw, where you were and what you learnt in the journey to get there. You might not have seen all that you set out for, but whatever you did see, did you enjoy it and live it the fullest? Or did you keep searching for the lost trail, all the while ignoring what lay in front of you? If the answer is the latter, you’d still be searching when your time is up. If it’s the former, you’d be satisfied wherever you are – and that would be your destination.

And so I plan. I plan my moves, coz that gives me direction. But I try not to expect. I try not to fret if my plan doesn’t work out. There’s always a new plan to take me in a new direction. Ten years hence, wherever I am, some will say it was my destiny. Some will say my hard work (or lack of it!) led me there. I would love to say… I happened to be there because whenever I saw a fork in the road of life, I chose the path that looked more fun and more challenging, and not where the map in my hand led me. The journey was my destiny and every moment of it was my destination.