Last night I went to watch movie 'Guru' with my colleagues here in Toronto. My first movie in a hall outside India :-) The hall was pretty much at par with our Indian multiplexes. The only appalling difference was, there was no interval. :-) Our Indian mindset was anticipating a break and the movie went on and on and on. Finally we inferred there are no 'Intermissions' here :-(. We watched whole movie in a single stretch. Glued to our seats bearing all those 'out of the blue' kinda songs!!
Anyways, I am writing this post to share one of the turning points in my life. When I completed my bachelor's degree in 2001, I was on a junction which had many ways. I had always been in top 5 until my +2 but lost the momentum during college. I had appeared for CA foundation examination while doing grad but didn't get through. May be I was not much interested in commerce. After graduation, I had limited options. Either I could directly do a accountant or clerk kinda job in some local financial firm/bank for some 2-3k bucks or do post-graduation. My dad left that decision entirely on me. And I decided to go with the former. :-) Throughout my grad, I was somehow feeling myself as being landed in something which I didn't want to pursue. So, I decided to not go for post-grad in commerce. I started job in my native town of Nadiad, in a CA consultancy firm just to gain some experience. I was kind of enjoying there as one of my college friends had also joined with me. Few days passed, and I started foreseeing my future. I wanted to do something else, but was very confused.
One night, my dad's colleague came to our home to see us. His daughter had also completed her commerce graduation that time. My dad asked him, what she had planned after grad. He replied she was planning to appear for MCA entrance examination in July. My brother had appeared in MCA entrance examination unsuccessfully some years back and I knew it required a lot of hard work. However, I made up my mind that very moment. I didn't want to continue with the accountant job. I will start preparing for MCA entrance exam which was due in 2 months. Computer programming had always amazed me ever since I was a child. My dad was a manager in Mafatlal Mills and he was given a PC at home. That time, computers didn't have Windows. All they had was DOS OS, some console programs and games which we used to play all the time.
I started commuting to Ahmedabad daily for classes. I had never commuted daily in my life. I had done all the schooling, +2 and college in my hometown. I was not used to commuting and the summer time heat was exacerbating the things for me. However, I was not alone. We were some 7-8 folks from Nadiad. After initial struggle, I started loving daily commute as we were a bunch of people having common interests. We used to kill the time in train, solving puzzles, asking weird questions to each other, sharing jokes and savouring "special samosa of Barejadi". In July, We all appeared in some colleges in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Nadiad. I did reasonably well in some colleges. However, I was a bit apprehensive considering the stupendous number of candidates who appeared in all the colleges.
Finally came the doom's day. I will not forget that day ever in my life. It was 9AM in the morning. I had just finished my morning chores. Our phone started ringing and my dad picked it up. My dad's friend who was working in DDIT (Polytechnic in Nadiad) was on the other end. "Your son had wasted the examination fees which you had paid for him." My dad looked quite disappointed. I was more nervous as I had worked hard during 2 months of rigorous prep work. And after a while I saw an expression on my dad's face which I was not expecting. A big smile on the face and glitter in his eyes amazed me. He hanged up the phone and congratulated me. He told I was listed 17th in the merit list of 100+ candidates in DDIT. Uncle who called up from the college was trying to kid my dad initially saying I wasted his money and all. :-) I was quite contented with my performance. That was one of the happiest moments of my life which made me feel relishing the fruits of hard work.
I would tell it my good fortune that I had a chance to do MCA also at my home. 3 years of MCA were filled with joy, enlightenment and varied experiences which I am going to share in my next post.
1 comment:
Dear Maverick--this is in response to your comment on my blog.
Having seen your profile and your blog, I can see where you're coming from. It's sad to note that most Indians do tend to focus more on their linguistic, regional and religious identities when abroad, instead of focusing on a broader Indian identity. There is also a tendency to ghettoize, and to focus on the most retrograde forms of Indian "nationalism".
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