Defn.

God's a poor man and earth is his begging bowl.

What now ?

This is a question that I have been asked so many times that if i start counting, i would spend as many days as there are in a week (that's still a lot). The first time i asked this question to myself was, when i had beaten the record of the top guy of my batch in primary school in all subjects. The answer i gave to myself was "Keep Going".

I kept up with my own stupid idea and "kept going", until others started asking me, "My boy! What now ?". I said, "Medicine", I wanted to keep up the family tradition of hydrogen peroxide, antibiotics, cough syrups, hot water fermentation, fight against homeopathy and raising the allopathy flag. By 1990's somehow i developed an antipathy towards medicine, the number of years in study, and the mindless rote method of studying and delivering the knowledge fueled my (insensible) antipathy.

At the next given opportunity i said, "IAS." These are the three letters far superior than 'ILU' in the large expanse of our country. If God ever takes the form of human, he would be a civil servant (paradoxical !). Their power is unmatched, their stature is unparalleled and their general knowledge is sweared by. One could probably collect a handful of civil servants and run them in a GK race, this might generate a lot of money. But then regretfully dawned the era of political subordination of the civil servants and it seems what remained of them was just the latter word.

By now i was at a stage where the seriousness of "What now ?" increased hundred-fold and my seriousness had taken a flight of its own. With the world domination by Walmart and Pepsi and other multi multinationals, I had decided to join the bandwagon and ride the wave. It was "MBA", "IIT" and consequences. Two years of toil and sweat, going through the books because they were being published. But of course my seriousness and ambition had just begun its flight and so i managed to chip in a lot of fun and weekends off during the two years, with life saving results.

"What now ?" St. Stephen's came to my rescue and said to me, " Son, no need to rush through anything, just take it easy and take your time to decide what now. " So i went on with a whole list of "What nows ?", "Film Making", "Writing", "Journalism", "Advertising" and other trivialities.

And so I took my time and his time, and here I am in my last year of PhD. The only thing that kept me going through these years was Mathematics. This was one true friend i had and the only reason i could keep up with "What nows ?".

"Anyways, seriously arjun, What now ?!! "