to BE or not to BE...

It all started when I got my X standard results.
"So, are you going for engineering or medical?" asked my class teacher.
"I am taking up Commerce... ", I replied, a bit meekly.
"Why?"
"I don't know. I don't think I can do science..." (frankly, I had no idea why I took up commerce... all I remember is that I convinced myself that Physics and I don't see eye to refractive eye... and Biology was something that I hadn't evolved enough to understand.)
"You have such good marks. Why do you want to waste it all doing commerce? I suggest you prepare for IIT-JEE."
"No ma'am, I have made up my mind. I am taking up commerce."
She had a resigned look on her face, a look which said "If you want to screw up your life totalling numbers on the left and right side of a page, who am I to convince you otherwise?"

The above dialogue was repeated at every instance, with every known and unknown neighbour, sundry uncles, friends etc... I suspect even the street dog stopped barking when I cycled past it, thinking "I wouldn't want to waste my bark on this commerce nobody." And, I kept thinking, "What's so great about engineering?"

I came to Mumbai, joined a commerce college, and did reasonably well for myself at studies. But the questions persisted... "You know, you could have taken up Engg.", someone or the other would remark... and I would think, "What's so great about engineering?"

I did an MBA, and met some of the brightest engineering graduates from the premier institutes of the country, people who could do calculus in their mind, people who said "beautiful ^ n" when they saw Aishwarya dance, people who I actually believed could heat up a cup of tea by just concentrating their thoughts; but when it came to the Accounting course, the same people could only muster up something, which I would politely describe as an 'Imbalance Sheet'. And, I would think, "What's so great about engineering?"

Then, I got this job, and encountered strange, incomprehensible variables like gross calorific value, heat rate, p-i-n junction, ZnO coating, electrons, holes, joules, watt and watt not...

Slowly, I stopped asking "What's so great about engineering?"

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PS: But, at the end of the day, I can still balance the Balance Sheet...