Everyday has something new to teach

August 8, 2007

The day I decided to opt for NCST Kharghar instead of NCST Bangalore as my first preference, in spite of having both options before me and my hometown being Bangalore was a great day! I’m not a guy who believes in fate and destiny and stuff like horoscopes and forecasts, but I do get the feeling every now and then that sometimes, things really happen for a reason. Like the ‘Maqtub’ that Paulo Coelho writes about in his best-selling book ‘The Alchemist’, sometimes, fate, if you may call it that, conspires to help you. Had I not made that decision to move to Mumbai, C-DAC Pune would never have happened. And even before that, had it not been for a chance conversation at my cousin’s place where I was talking about my future prospects, I would not even have taken up the CST exam, the gateway to the FPGDST course. It was my cousin Sanju’s wife Divya who told me about CST. The forms were on sale at Alliance Business Academy in Bangalore, where she was working. She brought it to my notice and I jumped at it. Having gotten an option to choose the centre, something told me that it would be a good idea to opt for Mumbai. Having spent all my life in Bangalore, I thought that an experience of outside home-turf would be a good idea.

A couple of my friends even thought that I had made a blunder and that I was stupid to give up the comfort and security of home and hometown, but only one of them, a really close friend, really understood that it was that very sense of security and comfort that I wanted to be away from. I wanted to rough it out and be independent. My parents were of the opinion that I could never do anything for myself and that I would be doomed, but I managed to prove them wrong. One might argue that the staying conditions in the NCST hostel were too cushy and hardly tested my resilience and they would be correct in that, but it is something to be away from home and hometown for extended periods of time. Such are the times when a person’s character has maximum opportunity of making itself visible. I survived and C-DAC Pune happened. Work seems to be very challenging and I think I will enjoy myself immensely here.

Today is a special day for me. I had casually told my senior Ajit that I was planning to buy a cycle and he told me that I could borrow my boss’s cycle, as he was not using it. I asked and he was only too happy to give it to me. I got it yesterday itself but the incessant rains made it impossible for me to go out to get it serviced, but I got it done today and I now have my favorite mode of transportation, at my disposal! Cycling brings back very fond memories. I was passionate about cycling and was really fond of going out on long expeditions, the most notable being my trip from Bangalore to Mysore (150 Kms) and during my one year at Kharghar, if there was one thing that I missed the most, it was cycling. I now hope to get back to my high levels of fitness using my cycle. Who knows! I might even pedal my way to Mumbai sometime in the not too distant future!