Unexpected Support

Source: quicken.intuit.com

I’m pretty sure my parents must be ruing the day I was born. Of course I have never been a wild kid or a teenager but it’s just that I like to have my own way as much as I can. And generally, it’s bit more than the normal. For example, until secondary school, I refused to study. I even refused to appear in exams and every three months there used to be Mahabharat at home for that. I never saw the point of studying the subjects that I hated. After I passed my 10th standard with decent marks, my parents wanted me to become a doctor. I went for commerce. Than my parents wanted me to go for C.A., I went for management. They wanted me to get married when I was in mid-20s. I’m in my early 30s and single. And these are just the highlights.


To be honest, I’m scared of having a kid who takes after me. I mean, I am not that intelligent, that talented or that ambitious. I just want to do what I want to do. So I guess now you must be able to imagine the kind of reaction I usually get from the family whenever I do anything. Although now I’m used to yelling and scolding I get for my decisions, for once I got an unexpected support from them.

Few years back, I was working for an MNC and as it’s the case with most of the huge companies, my company too had too much of politics and work pressure. Initially I was able to handle it just fine but as months started passing by, the level of patience started going south, and then there came a point where I was so full of rage that I couldn’t sleep. Finally, I got tired and just quit. Despite of working for 5 years in that company, I quit without a notice period. What was worse, even I didn’t know I was going to resign until mid-day on that fateful day. It was just one small thing that triggered my temper and I walked away. Without another job on hand.

The funny thing of being unemployed when you are single is, you aren’t worried where your next meal is going to come from. What you are worried is, what are you going to tell your parents? More importantly, how are you going to justify your career moves?

I was surrounded by the same problem. Here I was in my late 20s; without a job, without a husband. I wasn’t concerned about what my relatives or friends will think about me. Only one thought ruled me: will my parents think I’m a total failure? Will I lose all their love? Alas, looking at my history, these questions weren’t far-fetched. Everyone has their limits and I think I have pushed all of theirs.

Expecting the worst reaction, I went home. Initially, I had thought to tell them about the job after few days but then waiting for the axe is more painful than dying. So I just blurted out the resignation stuff as soon as I entered the house, and you know what happened next? Everyone screamed with joy and hugged me! They actually hugged me!!! For few seconds I thought either my family has gone crazy or they must have heard promotion instead of resignation. Later on, my mom told me how they were worrying about the stress I was going through since last few months and how they had wanted me to quit long back. They just weren’t telling me because they knew I won’t quit before I was good and ready for it.

Isn’t it wonderful that sometimes your family knows some things better than you? Like they knew I needed to resign to live peacefully? And isn’t it awesome to get strong support from your loved ones when you least expect it?