There’s a particular kind of fear that only a parent knows. The fear that comes watching your child choose a life you can’t quite protect them. Vinayak is an engineer by education. He was in product, good at his job, well liked and adding value. Everything about it looked right from where I stood: Security, salary, work place etc. But he felt that he didn’t fit. Not as a complaint but a quiet truth. He didn’t like the closed spaces, the stillness and the daily routine. On a family holiday, he took to deep sea diving. He went back again, to the same diving site. He learnt. He trained. And he started interning with them and helping tourists. He would check the oxygen cylinders, give demos, instructions. And he soon got certification as a deep sea diving instructor. And one fine day, he announced that he is quitting from his corporate life. He went abroad and learnt more. And more. And more. He trained. Got every certification - On diving, surviving etc. He is now a deep sea diving instructor, working in Indonesia. He earls less than half the pay, carries cylinders, spends long hours underwater, lives without the comforts I spent a career trying to provide. No AC room. Not even a wash basin in his room. No safety net. He is happy. Underwater, undercompensated, and, by every real measure, more himself than he ever was in that office. My fear hasn’t fully gone. I don’t think it’s meant to. He didn’t need me to protect him from this choice. He needed me to trust that he knew himself better than I did. That’s the harder thing to learn, as a parent: sometimes love means stepping back and letting someone be honest, brave and trusted. I am proud. He had the courage that I didn’t have. He gave up comforts and chose what his heart said. He trained. Learnt. He was happy to be a subordinate than be the promoters son. He chose the difficult path. The not so treaded path. He is happy. And I am proud. Happy birthday Vinayak.