Life seldom works in isolation. Several key
moments in our life appear to be so because there is a build-up to it. The
build-up happens because of our actions that were further derived by the
choices we made or didn’t make. Let me give you one fantastic example of this
that happened to me in my Life.
It was the year, 2002, a year that saw many
dramatic changes in our lives. The year started on an extremely discouraging
note when we found out that my Mothers kidneys had failed. Add to this my
unemployment woes compounded. I was officially broke and without a job for over
8 Months. I had attended several interviews. Everyone said the same thing. The
boy has potential, but we can’t hire him now. If that weren’t enough, I was going
through personal hell. A person very dear to me chose to dump me at the most
vulnerable period of my life. But then a series of events unfolded that changed
the course of my life permanently.
It was a typical Hot and Sultry day in
April. I spoke to mom who had just resumed office after her transplant. All
seemed well and I told her I was going to check out the British Education Fair
at the Taj Coromandel. There was really no way in the world that I was going to
be able to afford an international MBA at that point in time. We had already
incurred a huge cost in Moms surgery, my brother’s wedding was to follow in
August and as I had said before, I was stone broke. But hey, it doesn’t cost to pay a visit. I
was wrong there again. It did cost me Rs.100 to enter.
As I strolled aimlessly from one stall to
another, I visited the Warwick Business School. Not a chance. 600 on the GMAT
(I was in the mid 400’s) plus the course and accommodation would cost me close
to Rs.20 lakhs. I moved on. Middlesex Business School. Had an extremely cocky
guy for a University which was ranked so low. Didn’t like him or the
University. By now, I began to wonder what life had in store for me. As I moved
towards the exit, I heard a friendly voice call me by my pet name ‘Olly’. I turned
around to see the friendly smile of a person I had met only once in my life.
His name was Vijay Naidu. He ran a Student Admission service for 3 or 4
universities across the UK. I had met Vijay briefly during my visit to Nagpur
in 2001. I had gone to meet my cousin Atul. Atul and Vijay were very thick and
often socialized together. Back to the
present, Vijay heard me out patiently and simply said to me ‘tooh Southampton
jaa’ (Go to Southampton). I wasn’t optimistic. Even if it did cost a fraction
of Warwick, the course would still cost me at least Rs.10 lakhs. At best I
could muster up Rs.2 lakhs.For that too, mom would have to stretch herself.
Again.
In May, Vijay
came back into town with Nabil Nour, the admissions officer of The Southampton
Institute. They both assured me of any support that I would require and made me
an unconditional offer. I was surprised to say the least. Kindness did exist in
this world. I was ecstatic. Felt like a new lease of life. But now the hard
work started. Vijay advised me to check with a few nationalized banks on their
policies. I visited several ranging from ICICI to HDFC to HSBC to Canara Bank
to check what they had in store for Students. I finally stood at the entrance of Central
Bank. I was greeted by Mr Narasimhan,
Branch Manager. Our conversation didn’t last very long. I told him that I had
Rs.2 lakhs and needed another Rs.4 lakhs as a loan. That would cover my
boarding costs and the fees for two terms out of three. He asked me how I would
arrange for the 3rd term fees. I said I would work hard albeit
part-time try and contribute as much as I could. The rest I would need to leave
to God. He asked me to provide whatever security I could as collateral. I said
the only thing we had were a few LIC policies but that too would not suffice.
He asked me to bring my Mother.
Our next meeting
happened 2 to 3 weeks later. In the meantime, I had organized for my mark sheets,
bank statements, employee references, etc. Narasimhan was candid with my
mother. He said that it was indeed rare to see a student walk into a branch
managers office all by himself, and request him for a loan. He was more
accustomed to a silent student accompanied by his/her parents wherein the
parents would do all the talking and the student sat silently. He said it
didn’t matter that the value of the security was half of the loan amount. I
also had with me one of our very close family friends Kamal Asher. Kamal uncle
came in as a guarantor for the remainder amount. My loan was cleared.
Narasimhan looked at me and said “I am confident that I will never have to
invoke either the securities or the guarantee. You will not let any of us
down”. That was again two acts of kindness (Kamal Uncle and Narasimhan, a rank
outsider).
My dream
materialized in September 2002 when I finally left the shores of India to
pursue my MBA at Southampton Institute. What I would like to highlight is this.
Had I not met Vijay Naidu in Nagpur, I wouldn’t have known him. Had I not known
him, I wouldn’t have had that offer letter. Had I not visited every bank in
town, I wouldn’t have met Narasimhan. Had I not met Narasimhan, I wouldn’t have
gotten my loan. On a more moral note, had I not a good reputation with my near
and dear ones such as Kamal Uncle, he wouldn’t have been my guarantor. If I
were to add more, had my break-up not happened at that critical point in time,
I wouldn’t have left the country. I would have lingered on and probably faded
into an abyss.
This entire
series of incidents that led to my going to UK, changed me many ways. It
changed my thinking, my beliefs, my actions and therefore my outcomes. It’s not
to say that I do not question when things go bad. I still do. There is an
occasional burst of anger followed by moments of depression. But what has
changed is that I have learnt to cope with every setback and recover quickly.
Because deep down inside, I believe that Life will find a way out. And it
always works in tandem with someone else’s. Never in isolation. J
