When it comes to career choice, most of the time irrespective of gender we assess career opportunities on the basis of how a particular job fits in to our comfort zone rather than how we can fit into a particular job. Many a times we consider a “job” and not the career and then spend our whole life between ‘Monday Morning Blues’ and ‘Thank God it’s a Friday’ terms.

Whenever we need to step out of our comfort zone and take up challenges at work place, as a guard against our insecurity and risk averse personality we have a long list of excuses, which further stops us from taking up challenging and exciting career.

There is nothing wrong in making a career choice which gives you a steady income and further a steady life but if that career choice is made at a cost of your own dreams, liking and value system which in turn makes you wake up early morning with an expression of “Oh God! One more day to office!” and at the end of the day it doesn’t give you that feeling of fulfillment.Though you have everything you feel as if life is like a jigsaw puzzle where all pieces are joined correctly but still it doesn’t give the complete picture correctly and something is missing. This feeling is a high time to replace one wrongly added piece with the right one, which is called “Career”.

Yamin Hazarika and Sanjukata Parashar, IPS officers from Assam are an inspiration for many as they have opted for a challenging job without surrendering to any excuses. They have broken career stereotypes for women. Yamin Hazarika was deputy commissioner in Delhi, who passed away in 1999 leaving behind a husband who is also an IPS officer and two children.

We always think in terms of safety which can be physical  or psychological, we become overly cautious and don’t want to come out of the safe cocoon which comes with a hidden threat of never letting us to learn the art of flying freely. These women have rendered some inspiration to us. The women who have made similar choices as us in their personal lives but they have never made those choices an excuse for not taking up the challenging jobs.

In case of Sanjukta Parashar, An IPS officer from Assam who could have easily opt for the job of IAS officer but instead she took up IPS. The reason for her choice to become an IPS officer is that she can now provide instant help and aid to victims. She led Anti- Bodo Militant operations and she gunned down 16 militants and arrested 64 of them. In one of her interview she said, “Gender is in the mind. There is never any constraint anywhere. So long as the mind and body are in sync and you know where your heart is, the concept of gender does not exist. We are all officers who are required to do a job. If the job is tough, then just train yourself to get tougher.”

Apart from being an IPS officer, Sanjukta is a mother of a five year old son and wife of an IPS officer whom she manages to meet once in two months.

Next time when you think about your dream career and your mind or the society gives excuses just think of these women who followed their passion fearlessly and broke the career stereotypes.

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