In love with operas!

Growing up in the times of Hindi pop music and the likes and, I still found time to listen to Ravindra sangeet and Bengali folk songs. Later on I also developed a liking for country music while I was in Sir's tuition.

Recently I came across another genre of music that I knew existed but never bothered to experiment with. And now I am in love with operas!

Opera is a form of art which is a beautiful blend of music and drama and appeals to me immensely. I am an amateur when it comes to this particular genre of Western classical music. But the four operas I have had the opportunity to listen to, namely "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart, "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi, "Carmen" by Georges Bizet and "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini, have left an indelible impression in my mind.

"Carmen" is a French opera the story of which is set in Spain and revolves around Carmen, a gypsy girl with hot temper. "La Traviata" is again a French opera based on Alexandre Dumas' La Dame aux Camelias. "Tosca" finds its place in the list of the most popular operas of all time. It is based on Victorien Sardou's drama "La Tosca".
The Marriage of Figaro or the Day of Madness is a comic opera based on Pierre Beaumarchais' "La folle jourenee".

I consider myself fortunate to be born in a generation where search engines like Google gives you all the answers to your queries. I have never been to an opera but that did not stop me from pursuing my passion. I hope I will find readers who share a common interest towards operas and acquaint me with new ones.

My career miscalculated...

Recently I saw a movie - 3 idiots - where one of the lead characters said - "Paanch bajkar pandrah minute pe main paida aur paanch bajkar sollah minute pe mere papa ne keh diya ki main engineer banunga aur main engineer ban gaya. Kisi ne yeh nahi pucha ki main kya banna chahta hoon." (I was born on 5.15 am and at 5.16 am my papa decided
that I will be an engineer and I became one. No one bothered to ask me what I wanted to become).

The few lines above summarize my present condition. I am not a student of any of the hot shot schools or colleges of India. I did my ICSE from a decent school in Durgapur. I was very confused when it came to choosing subjects for my plus two. I liked physics immensely. Biology was never my genre. The only option that I had was Statistics as my fourth subject. And before I even knew I was in love with it. Like all science students do, I too sat for the different engineering entrances examinations. But somewhere or the other I had a feeling that I was not made for it. I wanted to study Statistics. I was on cloud nine when I saw my name on the list of candidates selected for Statistics honors in St. Xavier's College. Unfortunately I managed a decent rank in every entrance examination that I had appeared. My family dragged me into an engineering college. I was too timid to protest. And here I am now facing hell everyday studying matrix educare. I guess I was not meant to be on cloud nine for long.

I know there are millions of people like me. Studying something they don’t like and feeling down and out whenever they can’t meet their parents’ expectations. Study 24 hours a day and still you can’t please them. Results come and the first things parents ask is what the highest mark is and who got it…

I am now preparing for Common Admission Test. After doing an MBA (according to my father’s wish of course), I wish to prepare for the civil services, something that I want to do and I won’t give up.

I hope that for some of my readers it’s not too late. I hope they won’t be timid like me and fight for what they want to study. If they make the same mistake that I did, they will go through college hating every moment of it and inwardly cursing their parents constantly.