A Photo and Its Story ...

Not sure why, but this snap is a very special one to me. It is the view of my HALL in my apartment. I don’t know if any other moment in my life would have given me such a great pleasure, other than the moment I got this huge flat in Bangalore. I was all excited about my first big house which I got out of my earnings, though the amount was quite high when I bought this flat compared to the salary I was drawing at that point in time, but I could see the happiness in my dad's face and also a sense of pride, well, I have a story behind that as well ...

I was never a great kid during my school, I am not that good at studies and I always used to fail in all the subjects, well, that is what is my potential at that time, what can I do, my mom and dad used to fight over this and my house would be more like a war zone on the day I show my report card to my dad, he was terribly worried about my future, though I did not pick up any bad habits or bad company of friends, I was still a problematic child to my dad and mom. When other kids in my locality and in my family used to get 1st rank and lots of prizes in school, they would have felt very bad that I am a dumb idiot, yes, seriously I was an idiot till my 12th standard (believe me) and it does not mean that I am a genius now, I am still an idiot, that's a different story.

God only knows when he injected the responsibility in me, may be after my mom's demise, I changed completely, I used to be a talkative kid, who blabbers nothing other than nonsense, I had lots of bad manners like stealing something and hiding it somewhere inside the house and enjoy the scene of the entire house searching for that (quite cynical rite?) and I used to tell lots of lies, for every cheap thing, but I changed completely, may be the shock of my mom's death left me speechless, well quite a heavy loss though, but that brought in a world of change in myself, my attitude, my behavior, my speech everything, I became extremely silent and I would hardly utter a word to anyone, that energy was diverted into studies once again in my college, but again, I could not shine, I was a very average student, I struggled a lot to complete my B.Sc. I too lost hope on myself and my future.

That was the time when "computers" were the buzz word, it wat that time where NIIT's and APTECH were minting money like crazy, I would say that I got curious to know what a "computer" is, I asked my dad if he can join me to a computer course, and during that time the fees for NIIT was 45,000 (in 1994), my dad was not earning that much, he would probably be earning 10000 a month, not sure, he hesitated a lot as he knows that I am a stupid when it comes to studies, and he was not ready to invest that amount of money on me (even I would have done the same thing), but later he changed his mind and this "mother less child" sentiment kicked in, and he told me that he will pay the fees for NIIT, not sure where and all he begged to get that money, and me without knowing anything about that happily joined NIIT and that's the real turning point of my life.

God did not shut all the doors for me, he actually made me a whiz kid in computers and today I am an Architect in a leading product company, have travelled length and breadth of the globe. I have got my dad everything he asked for, I am now taking care of him in every possible way I can. I know he sacrificed his entire life for me and I felt it is my duty to take care of him. Whenever I see him sitting in that big HALL and watching that LCD TV and listening music in that BOSE music system, I feel so proud of myself and I thank GOD for every bit of happiness he has given me, so this house is so special to me and it always gives me a sense of pride that I have achieved something in my life. The so called friends who were actually studying well at that time would probably be earning peanuts, when compared to my income, I am not saying this out of head weight or over confidence, I am saying this to emphasize a point that "GOD knows what to give and when to give to an individual" so just believe in him, and accept whatever he gives, things would automatically fall in place.

I thank Amrita for giving me an opportunity to speak my heart out here.