News Magazine -2009 - Chemical Engineering Department - IISc

Why we like the color green?Well other than the fact that the best basketball team has thecolor green (for the people who don’t know it’s the Boston Celtics)and the US dollar bill is green in color, why do the best of thebest all around the world leave their family, friends and most ofall their identities to go to the United States? Is it because ofthe world class education, “research facility”, life style or is itbecause of the “obvious” interest in the fairer opposite sex?I have given it a lot of thought and I have realized that it isbecause of the “American dream”. The dream that we see in themovies, we hear about in success stories of how people who come with5 $ and end up being the CEO of a billion dollar company. It’s ourinner belief that we are all rock stars and fame is our destiny.Don’t we all go sit in our bathrooms and dream of becoming rich andfamous? This dream is what drives us to USA because we all believethat we are going to make it big, so we all go there and toil ourback off for the green dollar bills, work for half our worth for 6-7years… all to get the green card because we all believe that somedaywe will get that big break there. And I don’t blame anyone for thatdream, that’s a great dream to pursue, but dreaming less and doingmore is what we need to do. Didn’t Mr. Ambani come from filling gasto being one the richest man in the world and he did that in India,there are so many other examples out there in different countries.Japan has the most success stories after the USA. My advice to allfellow “green” followers (I confess to being one of them) is stopfollowing and start taking charge and get out there and be the bestyou can be. Don’t wait for miracles to happen, make it happen, forcedestiny to change because you are good and no one can take that fromyou. Love what you do, not ‘plastic love’ but the kind of love thatmakes you do it despite all preconceived notions. It is tough toknow what you want to do because we have all been brought up to bethe number 1 in the rat race, the toppers in our class…we all wantto get the highest salaries, get into the best universities and bethe most successful man in the world.6