Even before I could tell them what I really wanted to become in my life, I was already sitting in the classroom flipping the pages of a book which I don't even remember now. The girl who was topping her higher secondary had to miserably fail in the first week unit tests. The little hope I had within me was slowly vanishing as I attended test after test after test. And all I could do was to helplessly endure.

“Speak up”, she kept screaming but I couldn't. “Speak up”, she screamed again, yet no words came out of my mouth. I was mute - how could I tell her I didn't want to go to college to study medicine, that I wanted to become a youth counsellor? She would kill me. She worked tirelessly day and night for me. How could I break her heart by not doing the one thing she really required of me?