One of our professors shared his life story with us in bits and pieces. Connecting them gives us a glimpse of ups and downs on the way to a success story called India.
Born in a small town, he went to a school where the medium of instruction was the regional language. Every morning, he walked up to the school carrying two things inviting curiosity of his classmates: his half-pants which had a distinctive flared cuffs/ends and a bag in which he used to carry notebooks in the morning and household items / vegetables on the way back to home…
And then one day he found himself admitted to an English medium school in a city. Life was challenging, as he couldn’t even speak either of Hindi and English! When he had to borrow a pen from a colleague, he used to utter, “Tumhara pen, mujhe pen” :) Finding an interesting ‘item’ in their classroom, the students made him a popular punch bag. Ridicules were naïve; but then they used to call him by a name that was insulting. And he didn’t even understand its meaning! One day when he asked what the word meant, they replied, “You are such a ‘good boy’, so we call you that with love”. The teasing got more innovative day by day. Until one day, when he called it quits: in his own way.
As he was having his lunch, some boys threw dust into it and he couldn’t take it any more… He being physically much stronger beat the blues out of the ‘bad boys’. From that day onwards, whenever someone created troubles for him, he would wait for him outside the campus and make sure to send him off on shoulders rather than on legs. This way, he survived his school days…
Seasons changed, birds reached home, and time flew like clouds. He passed his engineering and joined an automobile company. Then he did his post graduate degree in management and rejoined the industry. By this time he had got to understand a market gap and started his own business by procuring parts and selling them at higher margins. Very quick by any standards, he had all that his parents would wish him to possess. But his punishing work hours and passion for ‘more’ resulted in him having some undesired ailments and one day he vomited blood. Having survived and now convinced by parents to stick to a ‘comfortable’ job, he came to teaching as a profession. At the same time he offered his consulting services to the industry. Today, he also owns a medium scale industry with turnover in crores. And then the next: he has adopted a village near his native place and has set a target to build a school; a hospital and the entire infrastructure that is needed there to make their life comfortable and safe…
Until there is mutual trust, respect and love between elders and the younger generations, our India will remain our India.
Born in a small town, he went to a school where the medium of instruction was the regional language. Every morning, he walked up to the school carrying two things inviting curiosity of his classmates: his half-pants which had a distinctive flared cuffs/ends and a bag in which he used to carry notebooks in the morning and household items / vegetables on the way back to home…
And then one day he found himself admitted to an English medium school in a city. Life was challenging, as he couldn’t even speak either of Hindi and English! When he had to borrow a pen from a colleague, he used to utter, “Tumhara pen, mujhe pen” :) Finding an interesting ‘item’ in their classroom, the students made him a popular punch bag. Ridicules were naïve; but then they used to call him by a name that was insulting. And he didn’t even understand its meaning! One day when he asked what the word meant, they replied, “You are such a ‘good boy’, so we call you that with love”. The teasing got more innovative day by day. Until one day, when he called it quits: in his own way.
As he was having his lunch, some boys threw dust into it and he couldn’t take it any more… He being physically much stronger beat the blues out of the ‘bad boys’. From that day onwards, whenever someone created troubles for him, he would wait for him outside the campus and make sure to send him off on shoulders rather than on legs. This way, he survived his school days…
Seasons changed, birds reached home, and time flew like clouds. He passed his engineering and joined an automobile company. Then he did his post graduate degree in management and rejoined the industry. By this time he had got to understand a market gap and started his own business by procuring parts and selling them at higher margins. Very quick by any standards, he had all that his parents would wish him to possess. But his punishing work hours and passion for ‘more’ resulted in him having some undesired ailments and one day he vomited blood. Having survived and now convinced by parents to stick to a ‘comfortable’ job, he came to teaching as a profession. At the same time he offered his consulting services to the industry. Today, he also owns a medium scale industry with turnover in crores. And then the next: he has adopted a village near his native place and has set a target to build a school; a hospital and the entire infrastructure that is needed there to make their life comfortable and safe…
Until there is mutual trust, respect and love between elders and the younger generations, our India will remain our India.
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