Knowledge is Great... Especially When Your Dreams Come True

I've always wanted to become a writer. I started writing when I was seven or eight years old and just never stopped. Somehow, I believe I would never have had this dream if Harry Potter hadn't existed. I can't say I was a big Harry Potter fangirl, but J.K. Rowling had everything I wanted. At the time, my father teased me, said I just wanted to make billions like Ms. Rowling, but the money or fame was never really the point. The fact that she told a story, made her life out of it, created a fantasy world that millions escaped to- I'd die to have all of that. I didn't care if people knew me, I just wanted people to read what I had to say. Eventually, my fascination with J.K. Rowling faded, but I never stopped writing. Not when time became scarce, not when people asked me to write things different from the things I wrote, not even when a lot of agents told me my works couldn't be published. I didn't care if I was a good enough writer or if I ever got published. All I wanted was to be with books and maybe write some of them.

But you want to know the truth? Even the seven-year-old me knew my dreams were probably meaningless in a country where being a doctor or an engineer look like the only feasible option to any student. I mean, even Chetan Bhagat had to go to IIT first, didn't he? I knew that becoming a writer- or at least the kind of writer I wanted to become- was impractical in India. I'm not saying India hasn't given me enough stories to write; it really has. But my dream? I could never imagine myself completely immersed in the world of books, thinking about Tagore, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald and Hemmingway. Everybody around me studied 'practical' subjects and had 'practical' jobs- engineer, doctor, chartered accountant, banker. At some point, my dreams became immature and whimsical even to me.

Looking back, I wish I could have done things differently. And I wish I could've gone somewhere where I could study the subjects I wanted to without being judged about whether or not I was being practical enough while making a choice. I would have loved to read books from every corner of the world and learn something from them, maybe write a few words myself when the time came. And so, if I wanted to study literature  across borders, across time periods, across languages, across genres, and if I wanted to do it where my role model J.K. Rowling started her fantastic life, I'd study Comparative Literature in the UK.

 

For those of you who are not familiar with what Comparative Literature is, here's a definition from Wikipedia: It is 'literature without borders'. Basically, it's everything I've ever dreamed of. The fact is, that writing is never just for writing's sake. It's a reflection of our experiences, feelings and expectations. To study writing thoroughly and passionately, I'd need a good faculty, state-of-the-art infrastructure and an opportunity to interact with students, and higher education in UK could offer me these things.

Of course, if I had to choose colleges I would have to go for SOAS, University of London. You see, I have recently found myself very interested in the ways of living in Asian, African and Middle Eastern cultures. It would be a dream come true for me to delve deeper into these cultures through literature. SOAS is a remarkable institution. Uniquely combining language scholarship, disciplinary expertise and regional focus, it has the largest concentration in Europe of academic staff concerned with Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It has students from over 133 nations which would help me interact with people from diverse backgrounds.

The truth is that even though I’m happy with my life and education in India, I would give it up for studies in the UK. Hopefully, maybe in the future, I will have an opportunity to get some experience with UK higher education.

(This post is for ‘Knowledge is Great’ contest. www.knowledgeisgreat.in)