53. Some Guys Have All The Luck!

“When I discovered I really have no talent in writing I had been a writer for 15 years!”

“Then what did you do? Gave up writing?”

“How can I? By then I had become a popular writer.”

   

     Though this is just a joke I have heard, it has something common with my situation.  Though I’ve been a teacher most of my life, teaching is way down in my career preference list. Or in other words a list of cool jobs.  Come to think of it! Teaching is not there at all.

     Just take a quick look at this very concise and censored list: This is not necessarily  in order of preference.

Photographer, Photo Journalist, Journalist, Travel Writer, Writer, Artist, Architect, Civil Engineer, Draughtsman, Landscape Artist, Horticulturist, Pilot, Aircraft Technician, Rally Driver, F1 Driver, PTI, Doctor, Surgeon, Seaman, Computer Dude, Computer aided designing , Fashion designer, Advertising, Guitarist, Engine Driver…

 

     This, by no means suggest that I’m an unpopular teacher. According to the critics, I’m supposed to be one of the best, ever, if this doesn’t sound like blowing my own trumpet. But I hate teaching so much, I’d rather be anywhere else other than the classroom on a  Monday morning. I’d wake up in the morning to go anywhere else other than to the school!

     My ambition had taken different perspectives through the passage of time. Sounds familiar, huh? Each time I visited a circus I had wanted to be an acrobat and  I thought it would be an awesome thing to be an ice cream van driver because I would be the center of attention of all the kids and also I had the chance to park under a shady tree and eat my merchandise  if I pleased.  So time and time again it switched between fireman, bus driver, jack hammer operator, crane operator, engine driver, miming artist, drummer, girls’ school bus driver and so on.

      I became a teacher because I happened to pass an entrance exam I wrote while I was job-hunting. Teaching, a thankless job,  lost its attraction due to the extreme stress it entailed and lack of freedom. You had to live up to the expectations the society set for you.  And too much was expected of you. Job satisfaction was some mythical thing. You are rarely appreciated, but more often criticized. It had long term goals most of the time depended on luck and the effort of someone else. A baker had a better chance, because if he bakes bread he gets bread in a few hours. 

     I always thought playing the guitar would be cool, which I used to do in my free time.  Well, at least until the day I met Dhanushka, a friend of mine who worked in the army band.

"Hey, you are one really lucky bastard",I said giving a light playful buddy punch on his chest.
 

"Why are you saying like that Henry Aiya?" Dhanushka asked. 
He always had a pleasant smile.

"Dude. Our jobs have a hell of a lot of stress. Whenever I get some free time, I love to play the guitar. It really unwinds me. I’d be doing that that all day long if given a chance than to teach a bunch of unruly kids.  But I have to return to reality."

"So?" 

"So you people on the other hand, get paid to do a cool thing like playing a guitar. Aren’t you lucky? I feel so jealous about you guys.  Some guys have all the luck and some guys get all the breaks! 
   

“Ha ha ha!!!”  he snickered in obvious amusement.

"What’re you laughing at? What’s so funny?" I asked.

"Hey dude, listen. I also used to love playing guitar before I joined the army band. Now that I have to do it as a job, I started hating it. Do you know in my free time, I don’t even want to touch a guitar.  I’d rather dig a hole in the ground than playing the guitar in my free time, oh yeah!"

I watched him letting what he just said sink in slowly.

"And do you know" he continued,  "these city schools ask for our service to train their school bands. We guys in the army band really fall over each other to grab a chance to train school bands? We love working with children, dude." 

Oh, Come on man! Gimme a break!!