The Sword is Mightier than Irrationality

Here's what I wanted to be doing at seventeen:

Reading about my own work being read

Here's what I ended up doing at seventeen:

 Reading others' work (being read)

Arts? they asked. Why Arts?

From the three functional streams in India of Science, Commerce, and Arts, it seems to me that yes, I do need Arts.

I have tried out Science, of course, and loved it. But I can't make a career in writing with it. (You're nothing without a degree, though there are a few Indian 'writers' with 'bestsellers' which make me question their education at all).

'Arts?' says a close, middle-aged relative. 'I know you like drawing and painting, but was it this much?'

(Yes, Your Honour, this actually happened.)

My grandfather still points out to me MBA courses in the newspaper (though it's considerably reduced to maybe once a month; earlier it was a few times a week).

'Arts will only require a handful of marks for admission,' one laughed, as if buckets of 42-percent-marks were hovering in like termites.

Old-timers are stubbornly still old-timers. They cringe when they see mobile phones, the Internet, atheism, or inter-caste marriages. Can't really blame them. That's the whole purpose of a generation gap.

Well, who cares, I'm doing Arts.