Had the most nerve wracking conversation with a nineteen year old.

He has done four years of coaching from Kota and given his JEE mains.

Now he wants to know what to study in order to make the best possible salary.

Notwithstanding the obnoxious nature of the question, because this is a kid, I spent a long time explaining to him that he needs to identify what he will love doing for the rest of his life. What he is willing to do undergrad, postgrad, and many decades of work in.

We kept having this verbal dance. I kept explaining that life is highly unpredictable. You can either have predictability by taking a government job, or take risks and chart your own course. Most of what is "hot" these days was considered fanciful a decade ago. Electric cars, food delivery, AI...

He kept saying that he doesn't want to leave his life to luck. He wants to make sure that whatever he studies will get him a high paying job, and then he will keep earning very well for the rest of his life.

I finally asked him if he had considered being reborn as Anand Mahindra. That guarantees success. Mostly.

Just how pathetically scared are the children we are bringing up?