French, Yeats and Life Reloaded

So what does a guy do when he is at home and the cable connection is out? He goes to a book store and buys `Teach yourself French'. That is exactly what I did yesterday when boredom reached unprecedented levels. French is a beautiful language, very musical in nature and soothing to the ears. Very much like Yeats poetry. I just cannot get over these lines I read a couple of days back :

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

The other day I was thinking about how we have constrained our thought process. 11th and 12th went into preparing for JEE and dreaming about coming into IIT. The last three years have gone into worrying about CGPA requiremnets, apping and GRE, CAT and MBA and worrying about the future in general. And all this so that one day we would be out there working in some big company and earning six figure salaries, driving a BMW and living in a three bedroom apartment. All this is so stereotypical, so run-of-the-mill.
I always thought that we were destined for greater things. I see my friends around me and I see so much talent. But all seems to be going to waste. Not that we don't have time or resources for doing other things(artistic or intellectual). But the moment I try doing something new, something out of the ordinary I start thinking about its use to my future. I have started looking at all things through this screen of materialistic instincts. I miss the time when I could do something just for the heck of it. Now everything has to be a part of this larger master-plan. All this makes me think -- Where did I go wrong? Maybe these issues will sort themselves out.

On a more cheerful note, read the reviews of Matrix Reloaded and saw a one hour preview of the movie. Amazing, simply amazing. I was reading Orwell's 1984 again the other day and I could see some parallels with Matrix.