It is June and I am getting the most awaited chance of winning my first wish from the tooth fairy, on the 10
th of the month, after my tenth birth anniversary on 23
rd May; while many of my cousins have either lost half their milk teeth or have a full-grown permanent set, this is just a beginning for me and a voice inside chirps, “Better late than never!” Days passed and so did June, every year.
Another such year was 2015. It was the 12
th of June and I was in the college campus, in huge bold letters was written, “
National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal,” on the giant gates that leads to the main building. Promising a new beginning packed with the best of experiences. As the first semester classes began with the boys counting the handful of girls in their section, the classes swing from the Hi-Tech computer labs to the traditional mechanical workshops. Evenings were meant for club events, swimming, sports, Maggi,
chai and
sutta. The potpourri of events organized by clubs kept the first years engaged while having fun and chill. The sea beaches and lighthouse were no doubt the icing on the cake (a birds' eye view is provided as cover picture). One can spend hours counting the ships arriving and departing the ports of Mangalore. Growing and disappearing in the horizon like stars in the sky. Carrying cargo to faraway lands.
While the priests at the temple at the foot of the lighthouse would participate in evening chants; in the backyard, there would be volunteers from college teaching local rural kids science, mathematics and astronomy. Life at NITK felt so rekindling and giving. The four years felt like life being spent in heaven.
Life moved to the next gear when I joined work to serve as a maintenance engineer, mechanical engineering being my core competency. It was not a bumpy joyride rather than one with learning and experiences. Experiences of life – real problems, intuitive solutions, human relations, and management. But then something didn’t seem right. As if a key piece, missing from a jigsaw puzzle.
This led to another turn in the course of my life and as it seemed that the month of June was calling me up. I resigned from the organization and right on the 1
st of June, I landed in Delhi to about to experience the most wonderful one year of my life. The calendar turned and the earth completed one revolution. It was time for a good news – I had made it to the
Mecca of Supply Chain – NITIE, Mumbai.
June 6
th at 6 in the morning I enter the campus welcomed to the city with a light drizzle, I become the first person of my batch to the campus. I had boarded off a train in the morning, completely unaware of the fact that I would be thrust into another very soon.
Yes, as you rightly guessed, came the instructions –
GROOMING SESSIONS!*
*terms and conditions apply.
And whatever I experienced can be expressed well in the lines below,
When the day is night,
and the night is day!
Time and tide both fade away.
Finish, The
Goal, whatever may.
This was the instructions, but neither for the month nor for a week. We were supposed to do it every day. With every succeeding rotation of the earth, either the gravity seemed to be doubling in intensity or it was the increase in the pressure of the SIP preparation. I chose to believe in the former proposition (as if I had a choice).
Having dealt with the deadlines, joked around with jargon, grumbled with the GD, and crunched with the current news for over a month life began to seem more organized, disciplined and routine. Soon the knowledge began to transform me from within. I felt a sense of responsibility and began to take the utmost pleasure in whatever I was doing. I felt like I have grown a little and there is a long way to go. There was something very magical in this period of transformation, in this collaborative, co-operative approach practised between the senior-junior batches. I was marvelled by the butter-smooth flow of processes, and the professionalism, ethics and code of conduct at work. This gave me an essence of how top corporate function. Receiving assignments in emails by professors and getting LinkedIn invites from college alumni, added to the enchantment even further.
At this point, I recall this famous quote by Sir Isaac Newton,
Although I have got plenty of opportunities where I had experienced life like this, as is depicted in the quote. Yet it was completely novel this time. Life in MBA so far taught me to live unrestrained, to break free, to live unlimited, to think big and dream high, broaden my outlook and look beyond. The leadership talks that I get a chance to attend to, also inspire me to live for a bigger purpose and strive to contribute to humanity, to make this world a better place than what I found it.