Most of us are caught in an endless cycle – waking up late, driving like a maniac in a mad rush to reach the office before the clock strikes nine, slogging all day long, listening to the endless rebukes of the boss, heading home late only to be received by a dejected family upset by your neglect. In this race of life, it’s easy to forget ourselves, our dreams, our passions. When growing up, many of us loved to paint, to dance, act, write, sing... But as we grew up, the realities of life took over. Very few of us allow our creative side to dictate our careers and most of us opt for professional degrees that lead to beefy paychecks. But what if we could enjoy the best of both worlds?
There are people who work five days a week and on weekends they pursue their passions. For example, Dramatech, a 25-year old group, was founded by three alumni of IIT Delhi in 1984. “While at IIT, we had a very strong dramatics club wherein we used to call a director from the industry to direct our annual plays in Hindi and English, and because of that grounding we had a very strong interest in dramatics, which carried on even when we passed out of the institute. Later on, Dramatech grew to attract other students from Delhi University, IIM etc. It became a place for the transient population, the young population in Delhi, to go and do theatre. This is an amateur group and nobody is paid anything, neither the director nor the actors. Everybody is mostly working or studying in college or even school. People do it entirely as a hobby, but we do try to put up a good level of theatre, near professional standards you may say,” says Ravi Raj Sagar, who directs plays for the group and otherwise works as a Marketing Communications Manager with Hewlett-Packard. Most of the people in Dramatech are working with renowned companies like Pepsico, HP, KPMG etc. “The kinds of people we draw are people who are working professionally as executives and now many of them are senior managers, corporates and in the government, so the remuneration motive is not present in their case,” adds Ravi. The motivating factor for them is their passion and not money, which is why they don’t mind taking time out every Saturday and Sunday. Hello Dolly (in Hindi) is their latest production, which debuted on 14 November 2009, and its shows are also being held in December and January at the Sri Ram Centre in New Delhi.
Chetan Bhagat worked with Deutsche Bank for eleven years and gave it up for his dream to become a writer. Dr. R.K. Pachauri left his job of a railway engineer when his interest in the environment took precedence. Since 2002 he has served as the Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has also gone on to win the prestigious Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards. Ravi Subramanian, however, is the Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Finance with HSBC, and is also working on his dream to become the John Grisham of the banking industry. As of now he has penned three books. One doesn’t need to leave their jobs to pursue their passions. With a little time and plenty of initiative, one can live the life of their dreams, a life with no regrets...
There are people who work five days a week and on weekends they pursue their passions. For example, Dramatech, a 25-year old group, was founded by three alumni of IIT Delhi in 1984. “While at IIT, we had a very strong dramatics club wherein we used to call a director from the industry to direct our annual plays in Hindi and English, and because of that grounding we had a very strong interest in dramatics, which carried on even when we passed out of the institute. Later on, Dramatech grew to attract other students from Delhi University, IIM etc. It became a place for the transient population, the young population in Delhi, to go and do theatre. This is an amateur group and nobody is paid anything, neither the director nor the actors. Everybody is mostly working or studying in college or even school. People do it entirely as a hobby, but we do try to put up a good level of theatre, near professional standards you may say,” says Ravi Raj Sagar, who directs plays for the group and otherwise works as a Marketing Communications Manager with Hewlett-Packard. Most of the people in Dramatech are working with renowned companies like Pepsico, HP, KPMG etc. “The kinds of people we draw are people who are working professionally as executives and now many of them are senior managers, corporates and in the government, so the remuneration motive is not present in their case,” adds Ravi. The motivating factor for them is their passion and not money, which is why they don’t mind taking time out every Saturday and Sunday. Hello Dolly (in Hindi) is their latest production, which debuted on 14 November 2009, and its shows are also being held in December and January at the Sri Ram Centre in New Delhi.
Chetan Bhagat worked with Deutsche Bank for eleven years and gave it up for his dream to become a writer. Dr. R.K. Pachauri left his job of a railway engineer when his interest in the environment took precedence. Since 2002 he has served as the Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has also gone on to win the prestigious Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards. Ravi Subramanian, however, is the Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Finance with HSBC, and is also working on his dream to become the John Grisham of the banking industry. As of now he has penned three books. One doesn’t need to leave their jobs to pursue their passions. With a little time and plenty of initiative, one can live the life of their dreams, a life with no regrets...
