Dream Job

I remember as a kid, my answer to the standard question, "What is your aim in life?" changed at different phases of my life as my heroes, idols and circumstances too changed. I think my first dream was to get married cos' I really used to enjoy playing wedding ceremonies where I was always the de facto bride. My first kiss also supposedly happened at one of these ceremonies, which I found out only this year on the wedding day of a childhood friend when my now “ex-husband cum first kiss” reminded me about it. I don't remember enjoying weddings as much as I used to do back then, being a flower girl and all, seeing the bride in a beautiful gown and singing, "Chhei raw kha  a lawi dawn e" ( a song that was meant to celebrate the bride's entry into the groom's household). While in kindergarten, our kind and loving teachers inspired me to become one myself someday and around middle school, "Miss Universe" took over. I remember proudly proclaiming, "Juhi Chawla!!!"when asked what my horoscope was at a Miss Project Veng contest that was held among the resident children of Agriculture Complex in Kolasib. The questions in such contests used to be as simple as, "Which soap/ shampoo do you use?" and winners were mostly chosen on a rotation basis. Then I grew up, stopped growing at 5 foot something inch, acquired a lot of scars due to my accident prone nature, got attracted to the glamorous lives of IFSs (Indian Foreign Service) which eventually led to the abandonment of my "Beauty Queen" dream. Since then, I've switched to "Doctor" (mainly because it was mom's unfulfilled dream), followed by "Scientist" etc. Then, one day as I was watching friends, I came across this episode where Rachel got a job at Bloomingdales as an Assistant Buyer. For the first time I learnt that I could be paid for shopping and just like that, a new dream job was born. Unfortunately that time, the Indian retail industry was largely unorganised and the buying function was not that prevalent. I was clueless as to how to go about chasing this dream and like the others in the past, it has only remained a dream. Whether it becomes a reality or not depends on a lot of factors and who knows, I might just find another dream job along the way!