What is common between Praveen Tagodia, the Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, musician Raghu Dixit and the multi-talented and good friend Meiyang Chang?
First Dr. Tagodia, I always thought he displayed an honorary doctorate to be honest. His radical views and his path of advocacy of his ideologies have been noticeable in the media. Some condemn it, some endorse it, but my opinion on Praveen Tagodia is " like him or hate him, you cannot ignore him". Something about his personality intrigued me and wanted to know his life a little more clearly. And as always, Google came to my rescue and I happened land up in the non-curated encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. That’s where I was struck with the fact that he is a "Cancer Surgeon" by profession. That totally beat me, and not only that, I was totally impressed. But knowing Wiki, where one can pretty much post anything he or she likes and if no other user objects or edits the facts, the myth can be the total truth. So head off to some more references, and yes..... the same facts reiterated. Bookmark your thoughts right there as I have another example for you.
I have been an ardent fan of an Indian rock band called Antaragini, now rechristened as the Raghu Dixit Project with some tweaks in their composition!! Hailing from Mysore, a gold medallist in Microbiology and a proficient Indian classical dancer is known more for his self taught musical skills than the ones he was formally trained and academically excelled in. I was extremely fascinated by his work in a regional kannada movie I watched recently and I thought Raghu has displayed his brilliance again.
Lastly but in no means the least, good friend and my senior in university, Meiyang Chang. I know him best as the bubbly, friendly and multi-talented student in dentistry. He used to always be a stage performer and a creative guy. But now is famous not for his root canal treatments but for his clinical singing and acting skills.
That said enough, you must have figured the point I was trying to make at the beginning of this blog entry. I have quoted examples of persons whom we know very well, yet very little is known of their background qualifications. What I think puts personalities like them in a league apart is the daring quality in them to do something outside their comfort zone and stand by their choice with integrity. The passion and integrity within automatically propels them towards excellence. They have been successful in defying the odds and proving our very stereotypical society wrong. This is an eye opener for everyone at large where we draw our boundaries and limit ourselves since we are bound with our university degrees. Don't despair if you are unable to find that perfect job, maybe you are here to achieve something larger than just writing code or crunching numbers.............
"Hey mom, where are those papers that were on my desk yesterday?"
Mom - "threw all the clutter out"
"Wow mom, that was the draft copy of my first attempted book" Sigh
