Those Jacaranda Blossoms

I remember the heat radiating of the newly tarred roads, empty but for 2 of us walking down the sun bleached road, expectant of what lay ahead. The entire road was lined on either side with trees ablaze with yellow Jacaranda blossoms. Somehow the stillness, the blue sky, those yellow flowers and heat remain imprinted on my mind even 20 years from that day. We , Pankaj & I were going to school to see our board results. Life then, looked back through a prism which is now twenty years thick, was so very different. I was just stepping into adulthood and there were now so many choices which lay open in front of me. Those black printed nos. against my name, on that sheet flapping in the breeze, seemed to hold a key to what lay ahead. Those marks would define where I could apply, how well I had done & would be the gateway to what lay ahead. They were in a way & they were not. Brought up, upto that moment to believe that this exam would mark my destiny, I didn't know how naive I was (or still am for that matter). The real key has always lain ,where those who have unlocked their future, know it lies, in our brain & in our will to do what we want to do. I wish someone had told me that then... that it is not the marks that matter but the knowing of what you truly want to do that matters. What you truly want can only be revealed to you if you are given the time and space to find that out for yourself. Instead, we were herded and shepherded into believing academic excellence is all that mattered. So I strove hard, did well, the marks came but the knowledge of what I wanted to do or dreamt to do, didn't. Do I know now ? Perhaps. Do I dare to do what I want to do now ? Haven't tried it..yet. Will I ? I hope so. This.... is one step in that direction.