THE LETTER

This post is an article that I submitted as a former student of my school, CMR National Public School in Bangalore for the latest edition of their magazine.

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Dear seventeen-year-old-me,

I am writing to you from my present, your future – I’m writing toyou from law school. Yes, I know for a fact that this was never the future youimagined for yourself. Believe me. I’ve been there, done that. When I was you,I’d imagined going to an engineering college along the coast of Karnataka or inGoa. You’re imagining passing out with flying colours and driving an Audi A8 –yes, a black Audi A8 with tinted windows and a spoiler – along the long,winding, mountainous autobahn in Germany. Seventeen-year-old-me, if you havethe same dreams that I did when I was you, let me advice to swallow them, orbetter yet, have a mental earthquake that rattles the foundations of yourdreams: let this earthquake cause the towering dreams of the autobahn and thatblack Audi to bite the dust. Trust me. It is good for you.

Now that we have established that you cannot even remotely thinkabout engineering colleges and black Audis and autobahns, let me tell you whatyou can think about. You can thinkabout law school, starting up your preparations for the grueling entrance exams(the smelly CLAT and the stinky AILET) and hear from the propreitors of thevarious coaching centres that you attend how these exams will change your life.Believe me, those exams will change your life.

The true life-changer at the end of the day, however, my dear me,will be CMR National Public School. This school will sense that you aredifferent and allow you to make the conscious effort that will prove that youare not just another brick in the wall. This school will never try to bend youto the social sanctions and norms, and instead will release you into the sky,giving you the wings which bore Dedalus out of his island prison. The schoolyou are in, my dear me, has one great asset and that is the faculty. All thegood that you will get in law school will ultimately have come from them, theirhard work and dedication. I would appreciate it, dear me, if you took thisopportunity to give the faculty of CMR NPS a hearty thanks.

I would like to give you a “Small Messagein Verse”, seventeen-year-old-me:

TheWorld is a cold, hard, cruel and wretched place

Wherethere is an eternal battle between the Devil and Divine Grace;

Youwill be pitted and be constantly claimed by one and then the other.

Attimes like these, look back upon your life and with humility find your mother,

Identifyyour father, embrace your brother and stand with folded hands before yourteacher

Foryour family gave you your life, and the teacher your knife

Withwhich you can cut and carve and make this World a much better place.

With those words I should like to conclude this rather long letterto you and acknowledge and appreciate from the future, my past that was myfamily and my school and my teachers. May God bless us all, and give us thestrength to surge on with life until the time is ripe for us to embark on thenext big adventure.

Lots of love

Balaji HarishIyer