As I would like it

If I were to somehow have a say in high school education policies, it would be one of my first experiments to introduce a 'shadow month' in which each student would pick four professions and shadow them each for a week, just to know the nitty-gritties of actually living life doing that job. It would be a fascinating month, I think.

Even though I don't actually want to be doing a million different jobs, there are so many people I want to follow around, just for a day or maybe a week. Its my way of saying " Come, tell me how you live!" as Lewis Carroll so neatly put it.

So here are four kinds of people I would love to watch:

1. Music directors : I cannot think of a time when I have not wondered how these people do what they do. So, if a song has to be composed, who does their bit first? The music director or the lyricist? If a song has been written, how is it possible to put it into music without sounding forced? The same way, how can a tune just be fitted with lyrics? In addition to all this there is also the problem of actually conveying the message in a convincing, novel, manner. It has to be a fascinating study.

2. Archeologists: Everyday, these people get a peep into the lives of men and women who lived hundreds to thousands of years ago. The scope for imagination would be tremendous. In addition to physically reconstructing ancient pottery, they have the opportunity of reconstructing, in their minds, the lives of their contemporaries of another age. The conferences and debates between archeologists would be the most interesting thing to watch. Plus, carbon dating is cool!

3. Presidential body-guards: Being alert for twenty minutes in a row is a challenge. What skills do these people have to develop, that they stay that way for hours? How do they get trained in presence of mind? Also, what I really want to know is whether everyday is eventful and interesting for them or does it get trying to always be on the lookout and more often than not, have nothing happen? I also really really want to know the number of them that develop paranoid behavior!

4. Ball boys and girls at Wimbledon: They come and go like magic. They seem to have a system of continuously recycling and supplying players with tennis balls. They also always roll the balls straight. Sometimes, I have felt they read the player's mind somehow! It might be an exhausting business to follow these quicksilvery people, but I would love to try.

There are so many more questions on so many more professions that I hesitate to put them down, for fear of raising more queries than I can ever hope to answer. On second thoughts however, even if a few of them get answered, life will be more interesting. Also, sometimes, like in the middle of a rainy day, thinking of the questions is a lot of fun too!

So,one more of my pet castles in the air. Whether this one materializes or not is probably going to make no difference to my life, but it sure was fun to build it!