I remember heading to school on a rainy day in Goa in my small black crocs and black umbrella in a perfectly ironed shirt and shorts with my elder brother dressed up the same, looking like a slightly larger version of myself. I remember sitting vacantly in the class waiting for the recess bell to ring so I can quickly grab my delicious Nutella sandwich wrapped in Hindalco Freshwrapp Aluminium Foil. There I am, heading to the common area to sit with my friends and dig into that delicious sweet sandwich only to realize that instead of oozy, chocolaty, brown Nutella, I see red between the slices of bread. “Oh! Ma gave bhaiya my sandwich!”, very conveniently forgetting that my brother would’ve had the same reaction and must be hungry waiting for his jam sandwich. We were both pretty adamant about it. Nutella for me, Jam for him. No questions asked. Luckily though, I always knew where to find him. So, I head down, cross the playground hurriedly with what I had left of the 20 minutes of recess to the senior block. You knew you were in the senior block when instead of pavers, you’d find yourself walking on cement powder which would stain your shoes and mark your tracks for the rest of the day. “There you are!”, I saw my brother waiting to exchange sandwiches beside the neatly stacked pile of yellow Ultratech Cement bags at the foyer of the unfinished building. We exchanged our sandwiches and knowing we had only a few minutes left, we had to rush back to our respective classes ultimately having to stay on an empty stomach due to our foolish stubbornness of Jam versus Nutella. Well, boys will be boys! On heading home, we’d rush to hug our mom and tell her about how our sandwiches got exchanged and that we were starving! Just then, the famous Nokia ringtone from Francisco Tarrega’s ‘Gran Vals’ would sound from my mother’s cell-phone indicating Dad has called to ask about us. This, simply, would not have been possible without the cellular technology provided by Idea Cellular. On hearing about our experience at school and tuition lined up for the rest of the afternoon, Dad would let Mom know that we’re going to head out for dinner tonight to give us something to look forward to! Delicious Kebabs and Tandoori Rotis and Naans satisfying our every craving! You might find that there is central theme of food in the background of this article. I happen to be a chef, and happened to work in the very same restaurant I visited so often as a young boy with my family. I am incredibly passionate about cooking and the food industry as a whole I have a special interest in Food Safety Compliance which, in the restaurant industry specifically has a lot to do with the safe storage of prepared food where again, we encounter the trusty Hindalco Freshwrapp range of products. It is not only important in storage but, really helps in many cooking techniques requiring conduction to cook the food product quickly and evenly.
There is another aspect of my life at the restaurant I would like to share, and this is very personal to me. I was initially set to work in the UAE. I happened to fracture the knee in my dominant leg and had to come back to India to get treated due to lack of access to medical facilities in the UAE. During this entire situation, someone whom I looked up to alleged that I faked my injury to come back to India. That comment struck a nerve and I took it upon myself to finish my training at the restaurant with or without my injuries. At the workplace as well, being a newbie, there is always a lot of resistance to growth. People seem to dislike it when a young person outperforms them and there were many attempts to subdue me. There was a time when someone even drove a food-service trolley into my knee and made it look like an accident. I remembered the words of one of my idols, Winston Churchill. He said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going!” During that trying time, I managed to attend various culinary competitions and even bested professionals and managed to bag the gold. I realized very late that the people to whom I was trying to prove myself to out of spite were simply not worth my time. It was an incredibly juvenile decision to throw my health out of the window for a few moments of feeling superior. However, those times did get me far professionally, and there’s nothing more I’d rather have! I ended up signing up for higher things. I represented our institute along with one of my colleagues at the national level. I even presented a paper at an international Food Science and Technology conference! I ended up getting certified by the US Food and Drugs Administration as a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual thereby acquiring a feather on my hat as a food professional. I was now fully capable of designing and overseeing operations compliant with the best international standards in food safety. It allowed me gain traction and head confidently towards my business education. I now have a direction in life and, it seems that I have found my purpose and my place on this planet. It was my father, who told me, “If you want to help people, either be asked for advice, or put yourself in a position to be able to give advice.” Ever since that day, I have been trying to put myself in a “position to be able to give advice.” I am incredibly excited to be a part of the PGDM program at the Goa Institute of Management and intend to make the most of it so that I may give back to the society that has pushed me so far ahead in life.