My Ambition

Dear viji maami, as usual your post exudes positivity and contentment. Stay blessed!

 

I always seen in your post always being grateful for good hearts who helped you in your early life.. your child hood friend,your aunt, friends...good people find good persons around them all the time...

 

Dear sister @iyerviji

Namaskaram. Your statements here are in the nature of “ down The Memory Lane”.

You have the knack of putting those gratitude moments in a cogent lucid manner which deserves all accolades & appreciation.

It is good but seldom one know the people who helped us even holding out hand to the top to the ambition sought for.

But then i observed as we grow and age, our ambition too take myriad paths deviates changes and gets altered by the association we keep and some extraneous circumstances.

At age 10-12 accompanying mom to Bank ( not nationalised yet in India) looking at the teller counting huge cash manually, i thought i must study B Com & get employed in Bank.
BECAUSE of this ambition, I took commerce UNDER part III .

But during graduation studies i found physics is too good. I wanted to become scientist. After graduation with First Class, i applied for post of probationary officer in SBI/canara Bank and also applied for admission to MSc in atomic physics

And engineering seat in MIT. HAD I JOINED in either of the banks in 1964.....my initial ambition probably i would hv achieved. My master in economics - cousin brother - advised my dad to study engg in MIT WHICH WOULD take me to four figure salary in ten years ie. By the year 1977.

I think i had talents for engg. Seven years career was in Automobile .

One Sunday day morning i returned home with groceries and veg and tiffen for spouse. It was few months after our wedding. She opened the parcel made up of recent news paper of TOI. INSTEAD having the tiffen she carefully unwrapped the parcel and began reading upsc advertisement for a position in London Embassy.

She said “the post advertised is taylor made for you & you must apply” . It was looking my ambition of reaching a salary one grand. I applied and got selected. But then what happened? You read it already in the link

Spouse, Son & I Are Off To London Via Airindia Boeing 747

After retirement, i desired to start Tutorial for +2 & engineering aspirants. But spouse said “ we hv enough & no need fir you to struggle”.

That is a short (!) note on my Ambition on education & career front. On domestic front Ambition .... see succeeding response box. (I shall post it little later)

Thanks & Regards.

 

Dear Vijiakka,

No matter how many times, I read about your young age struggle, I can't stop admiring how much you have accomplished later despite your early struggle in life. Not everyone is born with silver spoon but what we make out of our lives is entirely in our hands. You are such a great example for this.

I was also born in a middle class family except that my family had 3 generations of engineers including my grandfather who was the principal of Guindy Engineering College. My uncle and father both became engineer and so are my cousins and my brother. My brother studied instrumentation engineering in MIT during the year 1970-1973. My father decided that I should not become an engineer and directed me to become a CA. I studied B.Com. and later did articleship in Chennai with a CA firm. Even though I did well in science and math, I decided to just listen to my dad and fulfill his wishes. Luckily, I finished both intermediate and final CA exams in my first attempt. The year I appeard for the CA final, the question papers leaked out in Mumbai resulting in the exam cancelled out (after we wrote 3 papers) and restarted 15 days later. In that particular year, in the entire country, only 5,000 students appeared for CA final and only 192 were declared successful. I was one of them.

Like any youngman, I had ambition to work overseas but all my attempt to go to Gulf countries or any other country for that matter were all turned down by my parents. But technology continued to be my passion even though I became a CA. I practiced CA for 7 years and later joined Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation in the Cybernautics Division. I learned a lot about computers and software besides learning about execution a joint-venture project with a French company to implement Automatic Fair Collection for Calcutta Metro. I also worked for Medical Electronics. Later I joined a premier R & D firm called Center for Development of Advanced Computing initiated by K.P.P. Nambiar, Department of Electronics Secretary and Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Technology Missions. I worked for this project for 4 years and later joined Information Technology company in 1992. God has his own way of mixing one's passion with work and I feel blessed that I continued to work for so many technology companies even now as an Investment Banker buying and selling companies.

I remember many of my elders advising me that I was making mistake by changing career so often and instead should choose a government job and stick to it until my retirement. Well, My brother stayed in one job BHEL since 1974 until his retirement.

 

A

An Interesting read indeed.
I found during my engg, vocational summer training at reputed manufacturing & service units men & women working in diverse field in great contrast to their field of studies or specialisation.

In many cases, I observed it eventually did good to their balance sheet.
I had opportunity to meet those guys after a decade or so. A BCom graduate in TVs mount road was employed in a machine shop doing turning job in capstan lathe. Decades Later when I met this Brahmin woman, she was enjoying status of line foreman in a huge truck manufacturing plant in Hosur. A chemistry graduate was seen tightening the huge hexagonal nut over the changed rear dual tyre of heavy truck. He had become senior works manager. Likewise I studied physics and then auti engg.

Initially I was happy for seven years because I loved the job that was closed to my field of specialisation. Later I landed with a higher status job but it has nothing to do with automobile or engg. I had to learn the new job from clean slate. It was all about shipping clearing in customs and forwarding where each consignment would be any thing like handable to huge drilling rigs cranes and even elephants to zoo.

During stevedoring a huge African Elephant was urinating from high altiude in solitude!

But in the long run it all stood in good stead. Am happy that I executed tasks for which I was never trained in any manner during my academics or in office. It was more of management by common sense.
In India, particularly in government - people are employed not that it will match to their studies or talent. It looks many special or esoteric learning simply wasted. A college discouraged a budding classical singer and was told as long as she is student of the college shouldn't participate on public stage programme or give public performance. Ms Magadhi a spinster then - left the college midway and joined in another college - graduated and to day she is a greatly accomplished csrnatic singer, a mother and internationally acclaimed.

Take the case of Sundar Pichai. His specialisation in IIT K was IN metallurgy. He joined foreign university for doing his MS. But he discovered metullrgy or engg is not that good. He specialised in a field totally different and he excelled in it. Today where he is? India lost many talented men and women to other Nations due to her stupid regulations. Even today at sd school, Students can not change midway once they had chosen the stream.
Chandrasekar Nobel laureate did chemistry in madras university but in us he did research about space for which he was awarded Nobel.
But the all these boils down to the quantum of blessings from near and dear, parents, well wishers or non- wellwishers or challenged by hostile friend or friends as by the lion dates man in link
Lion Gone Wild In Dates Empire

 

Hi sister @Rihana seems preoccupied with other pressing professional & domestic matter as well; fag-end if the month your appearance here understood. You are under Huge pile of nominations by sister @iyerviji & others.
Thanks for awarding a 'like' here for "Ambition". I just remembered your awarding monthly FP trophy for my last birth month Aug, '22. Sarvam krishnarpanam!

Regards.