What next?

Tired of trying to answer this question! I have never been able to come up with a convincing answer everytime the question was posed...I am of the opinion that people who ask me this question are either jobless or pondering on the same question themselves (they'd surely need 'hints'!)

The first time I found this question completely disturbing was when I was in 10th std. There were countless people who asked me 'What next? Science group or commerce..' Everyone felt the need to know the answer...even the newspaper-wala!

The next time it came back with many times the intensity was after 12th Std. It somehow feels like you are part of some sort of an experiment..everyone wants to know what you do next, so that they'll 'know better when their kids end up in 12th!' That goes down as the worst logic I've ever heard! I am not a sample of the huge Universe! There are sooo many other factors!

After a few years of apparent non-intrusion, the question finds its way back again.... 'What next..? job or higher studies...' The fact that whenever the question is posed it's followed by 2 choices never ceases to amuse me! The 2 are the oft-taken paths...ssttilllll.....

'What next?' seeps down to everything in life...Everyday I come to my office and it's 'what next?'...There is a meeting with the manager...One peculiar thing about these meetings is that it always begins AND ends with 'what next?' It's weekend and again it's 'what next?'. A little respite in the form of semester hols and again it's 'What next?'. And the cycle continues...

It's not that this question is always irritating...It becomes so only when it is asked while the answer is only a vague inchoate idea!! Once that idea crystallizes, what next?!