“It’s
been two months now since I came here.” I said
“Seriously
man. Time passes by so quickly” said Anirudh
“Yeah”
I said
“What
do you think about this part of your life?” asked Anirudh
“I
call this small part of my life ‘Happiness’. You know, I was quite bad in
meeting deadlines. And now after being able to do that and live up to my
expectation, it feels great. If this is how one feels when dreams start turning
into reality then yeah I am living my dream and most importantly, enjoying it.
Despite the workload and working over-time every day, I don’t complain.
Although, I have no weekends to spare for myself, I am happy.” I said
“Man,
seriously. I can feel that energy. It must be a great feeling.” He said
I remember throughout
my life, I have been so undisciplined. I never managed to do things on time;
except for a few that I loved to do. I remember how I used to get scolded from
everyone, and how I used to just let it go with a smile on my face. But when I
landed here, I knew there was no turning back. Doesn’t matter how tough life
gets, I have to survive it.
I still can’t forget
the final review of my project. The day when everything possibly went wrong and
how I managed to survive that. The day, when I had to borrow formals before
giving my presentation as I was unaware of the fact that we were supposed to
come in formals. The day, when in the middle of our final presentation, my team
mate’s phone started ringing, not once but twice. The day, when during the demo
suddenly something happened and our software stopped working. Despite of
everything that went wrong, we managed to perform things which we were not sure
about.
At one point I thought
I am not gonna make it. But when we showed the demo of our project, that one moment
saved the day for us. The way we managed to pull it off left me in the awe of
that moment. I regained my confidence which was shattered the moment I entered
the conference room. And that day I felt there was some supreme power above us,
which actually saved our ass. There was someone sitting out there who kept a
close eye on us.
I remember the moment
when our guide told us that she can’t do anything to help us. She had to
approve our project before we give the presentation. If she doesn’t approve it,
we fail. Three of us were sitting in the corridor while everyone was busy
preparing their presentations. We looked at each other and didn’t utter a word.
Things started flashing in our head, what if we have to repeat this project
again? One more year.
That very moment I got
up, “Where are you going?” asked Pranav.
“I can’t sit like this
and do nothing about it.” I said
“What we can do about
it? Whatever we did, everything has gone in vain. There is no use of trying
anything now.” He replied
“I know things are not
in our favor. But we got to try till the very last moment. Can you think of
spending one more year here while everyone will be loading their bank accounts
with cash?”
“What can we do?” he
asked me
“Do things that we have
never done before in our life. Beg for one chance to show our project, from
there we can take it to a new level.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” He
said
Had he not supported me
that time, I wouldn’t be here, living my dream, as what I love to call it. I
would have been stucked in that college for one more year with no justification
to give to my parents. In short, my life would have been screwed.
We entered our guide’s
cabin again, she refused even to talk to us. She pretended as if she was very
busy. It was quite frustrating, yet we were supposed to be patient. We tried
thrice to talk to her, she didn’t. Left with no other option, we were about to
leave when she called us back in.
“What you want me to
do?” asked our guide
“Ma’am I know we
couldn’t meet few deadlines, but we have worked really hard for this. I can’t
think about spending one more year here.” I said
“I am not going to
correct your reports; it will go to the authority the way you guys have made
it. I will sign wherever you want me to but do not expect any sort of help from
my end. Whatever happens in conference room, you guys have to pull it off. If
you manage to impress the board with your project then well and good, or else
you will have to spend another year here. And believe me; I am not going to
make this easy for you guys once you start with your presentation. I don’t have
any personal grudge with anyone of you; it’s the fruit of your deed. Are you
ready?” she said
“Yes ma’am” we said in
unison
She signed our reports;
we came out and started preparing for our presentation. Every other group’s
reports were corrected by their guide, ours not. Their presentation was
corrected by their guide, ours not. We knew we were at disadvantage and they
will try their best to bring us down. They need just one reason to screw us up.
All we had was few hours,
six reports and a presentation to prove ourselves. We entered the conference
room, I saw my guide sitting there beside our project coordinator and the main
guy, in whose hands our fate rested.
We submitted our
reports and then our guide and coordinator started bitching about us to the
main guy. It seemed as if they were not our guide and project coordinator. It
seemed more like they were someone who wanted three of us to fail. They tried
everything to break us.
“You guys don’t want to
pass?” asked the main guy
“Can we start with the
presentation?” we said
“Okay. Let’s see what
you have done.” He said
We started with our
presentation, it was decided Pranav would start the presentation then I will
join followed by Anirudh and then I will conclude it. But that didn’t happen.
The moment Pranav started with the presentation, his phone started ringing.
Immediately he put it on silent and I covered his slides so that there was no
break. After a while, his phone again started ringing and this time it pissed
everyone off. I asked him to switch it off and again our project coordinator
and guide started ranting about it.
Somehow we managed to
finish off our presentation and then they started firing question at us which
we tried to answer in best possible way. Few we knew, few we didn’t. But we
didn’t tell them that we don’t know; we figured out the answers and told
whatever we knew about the subject. The problem was, purposely they were asking
us questions which we didn’t know.
“Good enough. Show me
your demo.” He said
We showed the demo of
our project. He asked few more questions which we answered easily.
“Do one thing, I want
you to make few changes now in your project and then show me the demo. If it
works, you pass. If it doesn’t then I don’t need to tell you anything more.” He
said
He told us what he
wanted us to do. I took the laptop and went out. We started working on it. We
were able to make those changes but it didn’t work. We got panic. We tried
once, nothing happened. Twice, still nothing happened. And we kept on trying.
But nothing happened.
Pranav and Anirudh sat
on the floor distressed. I kept on trying. The feeling of failing again started
enveloping us, it was scary. Mind started wandering to different places, sweat
appeared on my forehead, head turned heavy and I choked. I was close to tears,
cursing God for making our life hell. My hands were shivering with fear; I was
planning to switch from engineering to journalism. If I fail today, then that
will never happen and life will be doomed. I kept on trying and then suddenly
it worked. Whatever I did, I don’t even remember what it was but our project
worked.
I took the laptop and
ran inside the conference room with full speed. Anirudh and Pranav followed me.
We went inside, kept my laptop on the table in front of them and started
showing the demo.
They were shocked to
see us. They tried asking innumerous questions again but this time I had
regained my confidence and answered every question with ease. They tried
everything they could have to restrict us but they failed.
“Nothing can stop you
guys now. I am happy with your work.” He said
“You guys made it.”
Said our project coordinator
Goosebumps, sweat beads
and tears. We came out, screamed, shrieked and yelled. It was party time. Now
we knew nothing can stop us. It wasn’t easy as it seemed. But we did it. In a
moment, things changed quite dramatically. A moment before we were not sure
whether we will pass or not. And here we were. We held our head high and chest
pumped up with joy. Everyone congratulated us. They knew we had no one to help
us and we were showered with tough questions yet managed to pull it off in
style.
Finally before leaving,
we met our guide and undoubtedly she was impressed. She seemed satisfied now.
She gave us few tips for future and wished us luck. Things started falling back
at its right place. The project coordinator seemed happy too.
When I recall this
moment, I feel happy and satisfied. Time is the best teacher and it teaches us
everything which is necessary for that moment. Four years in engineering I
enjoyed a lot, and life was really easy. Now I work every day, in past two
months I got just two days as a leave. Every day I chase deadline, go out to
cover some story, try to master the art of photography, design newspaper and work
my ass off. I come back quite late at night and all I do is sleep. I feel sleep
deprived at times, but I am happy with the way life is going. I have no
complains now. N fact it feels as if time is less and there are lots of things
which I have to do.
After all this, I have
realized one thing. If you want to do something big in life, you have to make
your own path. You cannot wait for the opportunity, you have to jump and grab
every opportunity which comes your way.
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