Monkey is the only Passionate Animal - Do you agree?

I am sorry but I find it ridiculous when people say you should make your career into the domain you are passionate about... what we do for living cannot always fit into the vertical of passion....

Lets be practical... some of my friends here ... who are loan sanction officers at banks.... they are told NOT to give loan to someone pursuing his/her passion and to give loan only to business that has a certainty to bring back the money, the more boring the better.

When someone asked me about my passion... I was like... err ... grrr... ummm... I couldn't find one... I felt I had passion for multiple things and I was afraid, as soon as I would say the 2nd thing, people will either interrupt me or laugh at me - you have to have ONE passion. else you are not passionate about anything. In my college, one day one of my professor got annoyed with us. He was a great scholar, had done a couple of PhEds apart from all other studies from the MIT and other prestigious institutions. He believed that all the students of our college were not only duffers but also without any passion. He started asking everyone one by one "What is your passion" and with every answer he would fire a question which would prove that he/she is lying. I remember one of my friends who had received a national award in Sitar a few days back got lashed because he said music is his passion and the question followed - which music - the answer was Jal Tarang and the next question was whom do u listen to and he out of nervousness said "Pundit Bhimsen Joshi". And that was it, he was lashed like anything.

I was praying that he doesn't point at me next and you know it works, when you try to avoid something it surely comes to you and bang I was in the spot light. I was anyways confused on this from the time I was 5, whenever people asked me what do you want to be or what is your passion and I never had less than 6,7,8 things in my mind. I had to give an answer and I thought the best is to say I do not have one thing that I can say I am passionate about. Oh man, I committed a blunder. This is the answer he was looking for. and he said, see this is the problem with you guys. You are not passionate about anything. Its okay you do not like engineering papers, but you must have a passion. If you do not have passion, either you are ZERO or your are Paramhans (teacher of Swami Vivekanand who knew everything). And the next question to me was, so what are you? Paramhans or ZERO? I did not have an option to skip the question and I had to say, I definitely know I am not Paramhans and ZERO being the only other option, I should fall into that.

As per him, I was a ZERO good for nothing, but I think I am the zero which increases the value of anything 10 times with each appearance and that the zero can go with anything and everything. Yes, I think I can adjust to & with anything/anyone and everything/everyone. Let us help others understand that there are people in this world like me, who are different, they are not the best but they definitely are not worthless.

I do not believe to the theory that passion is a must to excel. Do you think the the best glass cleaner of your city is best because he has a passion to hang on a rope and clean glasses the whole day??? Or the sweeper in your company who keeps your office neat and clean has a passion towards cleanliness - I do not think so. He/She has to do it to earn the livelihood and being best in that is again to keep his job safe and that he/she thinks its what he/she is getting paid for so lets do it in the best possible way.

I am from a family of engineers, if someone is unable to do anything in life, he/she will default to being an engineer. I wanted to be anything BUT an engineer but I ended up being one. I am definitely not passionate about what I am doing but does that mean I cannot excel in it? I have proved to be, at least one of the best in what I am doing, if not the best. I have a list of accolades, awards, rewards and appreciation which speaks in favor of my claim.

I cant remember the name of ONE Car that I love and I wish I had. I do not remember the name of one Hollywood actor (not that I have seen more than 10 english movies in my whole life). I am not able to remember the name of those 5 movies that I loved most and I can watch n number of times. I do not know the names of different wines and types and which is sweet and what is devils share and which one is made in wooden barrels. I always get confused if its Principal or Principle. I do not know the difference between Thai and Chinese food. I cant sing more than 2 lines of any song, I just cant remember songs. I am not able to remember the names of places I have been for vacations. I can remember faces but I am so bad at remembering names and numbers. I haven't read many books, I do not like reading. I cannot stick to one passion. I develop passion for new things, learn that, do that and then I start feeling bored of it. I develop passion for new thing, entirely different from the previous one. Does this make me insane? in-consistent? erratic? unstable? One who cannot be trusted to complete a job???

Doing something; something with perfection or with your mind and soul into it and making it happen should not be tied to being passionate about it. I am not saying it should not be or could not be, but if it is, it might be a mere coincidence. Let us understand that there are different types of people in this world let us NOT force everyone into street. I remember a cartoon on some social media, where an examiner is sitting below a tree and different animals are taking the test. The examiner says I am not going to favor anyone, rules are same for everyone and there will be no relaxation. Now the test is everyone has to climb the tree :) :) :) . This way you will always prove that the Monkey is the Best. Are we doing that ;)

Passion is not a Job, a Sport or a Hobby. Do not be obsessed with passion, you might miss out some great opportunities.