Between FOMO and Faith: The Indian Struggle for Opportunities Abroad
Prayers, Priorities, and the Path Abroad
Weight of FOMO
I feel FOMO.
Sometimes... when I see the "big guys" achieving big things…
A friend, a dada, just got into Caltech, and here I am, sulking.
I just feel like… Nah, what if it doesn’t happen?
What if I can’t make it big?
What if I can’t get into any university with full aid?
I’m seriously scared.
Because if it were like I’m an American guy, then, there would have been plenty of need-blind universities and a decent well-measured GPA scale and yup things that generally & genuinely separate the Americans & lower middle class Indians.
There’s a huge gap of opportunities which Indians don’t get access to.
Take for example… About NSEA… most of the students (roughly 90%) in Kalyani might not even know what this exam is. But when Sahil Akhtar got into MIT with gold medals in IOAA, suddenly people knew it as "that astronomy thing." It’s not lack of talent; it’s lack of information.
I’m praying. For some things …
Not praying for awards or recognition, just praying that my content on YT & blogs could reach to the ones who need the most.
Not praying for money, I’m praying for the freedom that money brings.
Not praying for having a breakthrough, I’m praying that I could level up no matter what.
A lot of supplemental essays for colleges mention starting the non-profit AFBF. I don’t know why I did that. I never intended to monetise it. It’s not even monetised now.
I just started the WhatsApp group and suddenly after almost a year, we are having over 80+ members all across India. The last words are what make me WOW.
Because I never reached out or cold-emailed these people.
My YouTube reached them and yup, they filled up the form and our board took the decisions to let people in who have a burning desire to get abroad and help them for free.
Because somewhere I see a huge potential in Indians.
Just the mere blood of Indians…
And as an empath, I see myself in them.
I see that urge to get abroad in their texts.
I can feel that desire to get beyond India & its society and give them & their families a better life & opportunities.
I don’t think I want to go abroad for the same reasons anymore.
At one point, it was an obsession: I must get abroad. I have to leave. But now, it’s more about connections, opportunities, and building something meaningful.
And yes, it’s about getting back to her.
Sustaining a relationship that is halfway LDR already and we are thinking of making it an 8-year-long LDR is just crazy. And I really don’t know.
I have faith in us, but I won’t lie—I don’t know how the future will turn out.
And that uncertainty, clings to me.
Sometimes, I think a lack of information is a blessing.
When you don’t have all the facts, you can still hope.
There’s a good thing when you don’t have enough info in life…
You can hope.
Hope, after all, is what keeps us going. Even when the odds feel impossible, when FOMO hits hard, when I feel like I might fail—I hold onto it.
Because maybe the real dream isn’t just getting abroad.
It’s about building something big & sustaining this relationship against all odds.
Maybe it’s about knowing that no matter what path I take, I need to find meaning in it. That even when the information is incomplete and the future feels uncertain, there’s room to hope—and that hope will guide me.