"...I had to go see about a gal..."

Anyone whose Dad was or is still serving in the military would tell you the importance of true bonding amongst all ranks of the unit. However, there is very little that a group of hundred or so men can do to keep the feeling of camaraderie going than to...drink together. "Rum Punch" is the name given to this monthly "official" affair in the military. A stag night where the liquor flows and the one with the dirtiest joke wins the day...errr...night!

That is one night when you don't want to argue with your Dad when he comes back from the party. Even if he is convinced that he should talk to Sachin Tendulkar personally to help him with his form. You just nod. If he says he can help Sachin...he can. Period. The discussion is either closed or you are in it for a good part of the night, trying to convince him that Sachin is asleep right now plus you somehow accidently deleted his number from the phone book and can't get through to him. Hence, we must call on him tomorrow.

One such "Rum Punch" night, a couple of years ago, my Dad asked me about the career move I had decided to make. Mom was at her parents place for a marriage in the family for which I and my Dad couldn't get leave from work. I could clearly hear traces of Mr. Johnny Walker in his voice. Protocol said. Just nod. Don't argue!

It wasn't easy for him, a simple military man, to understand the move I was making by leaving a cushy job and taking up an MBA. Starting all over again. He still hadn't quite got over the fact that I didn't even appear for the armed forces entrance examinations. I simply had no intrest. I could no way have ended up doing something where I don't even have the freedom to say "I quit" and just leave. Signing a 20 year bond for full commission and a minimum 5 year thing for the short service was just not acceptable to me.

I can't help but talk about one of my all time favorites here, Good Will Hunting. In one scene Robin Williams tells Matt Damon that one time, though he had the tickets to the best game in the history of major league base ball, he chose to stay away and chat up with a girl who he later married. He did that, just because he wanted to. No rocket science. No nurological patterns but just the desire to to do something else or be some place else and the balls to go ahead and do it. It has a cost...but what the hell! Everything does! That's the freedom I am looking for...being able to do what I want to, when I want to. Not be bound by anything. That may mean not being "successful" the conventional way but look at it this way. There is only one person I need to convince about what I wanna do. Myself.

After all, I can only imagine what it must've felt for Matt Damon's character to have bunked a $250,000 job interview simply because he had to meet his girlfriend. That was something more important to him than anything else at that point in life. He excused himself with a note saying...

"...I had to go see about a gal..." Simple. Ain't it?