Doctor, Who???

I still wonder how, why, and from where did the idea of becoming a doctor get into the head of a four-year-old me. Desi folks have an inborn obsession with doctors and engineers. Some hold the professions in such high regard that they do not want anybody from their future generations to become anything but those. There are women in my distant family who believe in Doctor Brides for the doctor sons. That's right - they are breeding a race of doctors. I am guessing something affected my subconscious mind and made me think D-O-C-T-O-R. Even though I was found with pen and paper in quiet corners, I said doctor and not writer. I did not know what writers did but I knew what doctors did - they administered injections, bossed people around with prescriptions, and adults did what they said as if in a hypnotic trance. Yes! That's why I wanted to be one. 

I stuck to that answer whenever adults prompted me as a kid. And as if on auto-pilot mode I signed up for "Science" in middle school. I loved biology, I loved chemistry, and I loved saying "I am going to be a doctor." The whole deal of roaming around with a stethoscope around my neck, wearing a white coat, and operating on the human body was super exciting. The adventure overshadowed the flair for writing. By the end of school I was defining my profession more comprehensively - "I Want To Be A Gynecologist". Oh, and I had even created my first email address to include "doctor" in my name. Da-da Da Dum!!!

And then reality hit me - in the gut! In college I realized that my family's lifestyle was not suited to entertain a doctor daughter. The city that I lived in had turbulence happening every now and then, and that triggered my parents' phobias about me getting shot, or kidnapped, or something along those lines. I cannot bring my mind to decide whether I was lucky that my parents were so concerned about me, or I was the unlucky one girl out of hundreds who actually continued becoming doctors. Anyhoo, I had changed my life's philosophy to accommodate a "No Fuss" lifestyle. I was working overly hard on maintaining A grades, Physics was slaying me brutally, and greedy teachers were draining all my money for extra tuition. I began to lose interest and I grew out of "Doctor". Doctor, Who???