What I wanted to be when I grew up (…and what I have become) :)

When we are children, each of us gets asked this question, "What do you want to become when you grow up ?", and, depending on whatever has taken our fancy at that moment, our answer changes.

Just like everybody else, I went through a lot of 'things I wanted to be when I grew up'…and for sometimes funny and sometimes strange reasons.

My earliest wish, if I remember correctly, was to become a teacher. I would always gather the children in the society and make them students and teach them all I had learnt at school that day. Naturally, in that phase of mine, I wasn't a very popular girl :) So sometimes I had nobody to play with and yet I taught…to an empty class…such was my dedication :D

In one long phase I wanted to become a veterinary doctor (remember Dr. James Herriot ?) and cure all the little doggies. I wouldn't have minded being a conservationist either, like Gerald Durell. I was even serious about being a zookeeper…or in the least a caretaker of elephant babies or chimpanzee babies. (That, I think, I could still do…ahhhh…some day…). I simply love animals, especially dogs, elephants and chimpanzees. So these wishes were driven by that love.

The longest standing desire was 'being an actress'…in fact, even when I was too young to know that there was such a thing as 'being an actress', I was quite the actress.

At one point of time I wanted to become an air-hostess. Guess why ? To serve people ? To earn money ? Naaah ! So that I could travel the world over.

In relation to that desire, there was one more occupation that I was totally enamoured with and would have loved to take up…that of a travel show host. You see so many different places, meet different people, experience different cultures and all this while there are some people who pay you to go there, stay there, eat well, look good, say things they have researched and written…I mean, this is the life, isn't it ?

For the longest time I wanted to 'go to office'…and do what, I didn't have the faintest idea…but the whole idea of getting dressed, wearing a watch, rushing out of the house while stuffing breakfast in your mouth saying, "I have to reach office early today…I have important meetings" presented the most attractive picture to me :D

I wanted to be a spectacular dancer…to 'enthral' the audience with my performance. I love the grace and flow and spirit that a good dancer exudes.

I wanted to be a fabulous singer…to move the audience with my singing.

And what have I become now that I am grown up ?

I do go to office, decently dressed up, not wearing a watch (the mobile phone serves the purpose), not stuffing breakfast in my mouth and very rarely spouting filmy clichés about meetings.

I have become an actress…in theatre. I am so glad that this desire fructified :)

I also have become somewhat of a teacher…I conduct theatre workshops and I have taught French.

I have developed a good ear for music and I can hold a tune, but I'm far from 'moving' any audience :)

I have yet to travel and care for animals, to learn dance, but I haven't yet given up on them. After all, tomorrow is another day…and, here's the secret…I'm still not grown up really ;)