Friday, April 17, 2009

Degree of Freedom

In profound hilarity, I am reminded of a scene from DDLJ. SRK is surrounded by the huge life size pictures on the wall, pictures of his forefathers who in their various stages of academic life, had failed in school, which in itself was an achievement. I don’t know why I am reminded of the scene though.

And then for the umpteenth number of time again, I open the envelope and look at the contents inside. I walked the graduation ceremony almost a year ago, but without a degree. Earlier this evening, I received my degree, after waiting almost a year. I read my name printed boldly on the degree. My second masters degree and my first US degree. I am reminded of those number of people I should be thanking otherwise – an advisor who gave me a hard time and literally made me choose between going to school or jumping off the building, parents who were dead against me leaving the city (and not just the country), a set of horrible people I met these last two years who added to the difficulties in life, and so on. And then there were friends, well wishers, motivators, who in their own way inspired and encouraged me. This is a special day indeed.

A degree is nothing more than a piece of paper, with as much credibility as a marriage or birth certificate. But this is the piece of paper that everyone is struggling for. I cannot remember a single chapter from the signal transduction pathway, but I have a degree to show that I know it all. There is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

sunshine

8 comments:

Urv said...

Yayyy :)

Cheers!! :D

Pavi!!!! said...

Congrats !

Things never have the same value when one posseses them!

PS: Can you please do away with the word verification?i never seem to get 'em rite like for atleast 5 times...n most of the time..i check blogs at work..so its hard u know!

Alpine Path said...

Congrats!! I've got a long way to go to write my post on this!

Lady Godiva said...

Congratulations :)
dont know why, I just wanted to let you know that I was in the city of joy last week, and while there, I thought of you, and your post in which you had written bout your school and college when you never bothered how you looked in front of the cam. And also of some petrol pumb or something where you'd been to take some readings for your experiments... something to do with the level of pollution in the air thing.
Congrats on your second and first foreign Masters Degree.

Ree said...

Lolol. I know exactly how that feels.

JS said...

congrats !! I am happy for ya !!

~jaya

Yankee Girl said...

Congratulations!

I found you by doing a random google search and wanted to say hi.

I look forward to reading more!

Tuppence said...

Hi Sunshine, I have been reading your blog for over 2 years now and would like to review your blog on mine :0 Is that alright?