Dreams do come true!

I do not exactly recollect the year when the dream of doing an MBA got into my mind. What was quite interesting was the fact that, it was not just the course, but even the campus where I should get it done was crystal clear like the waters of a pristine lake where you could see tiny pebbles resting on the lakebed.

During my BCom days, I chanced upon a brochure for the MBA programme offered by Christ College, one of the most prestigious campuses in a city that was then called Bangalore. Was it the course structure or the image of the campus, I still am not sure, that attracted me more, to that magical temple of learning. An opportunity to visit the campus during my BCom final year as part of a college tour added more feathers to my dream.

Growing up in the late 90s in Changanacherry, a small town in Kerala meant, limited aspirations and even lesser exposure to career opportunities. A fact that was contributed by not having enough mentors or resources to guide you on your career path and an equally responsible lack of self-driven initiative. All these manifested for me as just two options for higher studies post my graduation. Either get a master’s degree in management (MBA) or delve into the world of technology with a master’s degree in computer application (MCA).

Not wanting to miss out on either, I did apply for both. Those were the times when colleges had separate entrance exams for professional courses. I applied for MBA admission both at my dream college Christ and at Rajagiri college in Kochi as a backup plan. Meanwhile applications for MCA were also given in a couple of good colleges in Coimbatore. As destiny would have its say, I did not clear the entrance exam for Christ. I had to look at the next best options, with my dream shattered. I sat along with my parents at the MCA admission office of PSG College of Arts and Science in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, the day before entrance results were to be announced at Rajagiri. Little did I know that life was to take me on a twisted roller coaster ride that day.

Though I had good marks to get an admission in merit, the rule those days was that if you were a student from a different state, you had to pay a considerable amount as a non-refundable deposit fees. My dad asked me to choose between MCA admission which would be closed that day or take a chance and wait till the next day for Rajagiri MBA results. I did not have a Plan C, a mistake on hindsight. It was one of the most challenging decisions in my life till then. 

I weighed my options and finally opted to join MCA. A hefty amount was paid as fees, and my fate for next three years was sealed that day. You live with the weight of the choices you made through your life. By noon next day, Rajagiri announced the results. I was selected for their MBA programme. But since the fees paid for MCA at PSG was non-refundable, I burned the feathers of my original dream. 

Life in Coimbatore started. By the end of first year, my struggle with C++, Java and the dreaded Data Structures led me to have a heart-to-heart conversation with my dad again. I told him how I did not really see coding as my cup of tea. Full credits to him, the response he gave me, drives me forward even today, though he is no more physically with me. Such are the powers of genuine love of a parent. He addressed me with all the affection a dad has for his son, 'Da mone, you can study whatever you want, as long as I can support you. Do not worry. I will only suggest you complete what you started, especially since it had a considerable investment involved'. 

I listened to my dad. While I skimmed through my MCA days, I started to stick new feathers back to the wings of my original dream I had burned earlier. By that time, individual entrance exams for management institutions were a thing of the past. I had to compete at the national level with exams such as Management Aptitude Test (MAT). While a bit intimidated, I went ahead with the preparation. Dreams have a unique nature to power you forward, while your reservations may try to pull you back. It is absolutely a mind game where the power of your resolve will determine who wins at the end.

I was in Bangalore for my MCA final year project. It was a Saturday, a few days after I had applied for MBA admission at Christ college again based on my MAT score which was not bad for those days. By noon, I met Father Paul, the Director of MBA programme at Christ then, at his office, to check if I got the admission.

Father checked the list and looked at me. Two pairs of eyes met, one which seemed to have absorbed all the peace of oceans across the world and the other owning up all the tempests that raged across the planet! He told me, 'Jerry, there is one last seat left. It is currently assigned to a girl from Punjab who is expected to confirm her willingness to join by 3 PM today. If you want, there is a church behind the college where you can pray till then. Come back to my office after that. If she does not confirm by then, the seat will be yours!' 

I felt like the only man floating in the middle of Atlantic after a shipwreck, clinging on to a tiny life jacket, the last hope of survival, only to realise with horror that it has a hole which can be mended only by a glue called time! I felt the feathers of my dream starting to burn, again.

Those 180 minutes were one of the most intense experiences of prayer in my life. The church was closed, but I knelt outside on the steps and prayed in whatever form of prayer I knew.

By 3 PM I was back at Fr Paul's door. The only thing that was faster than my legs that took me back to the college from church was my heartbeat. The palpitation was quite high, that I literally had to try hard to keep my heart from getting out of my chest!

Father Paul saw me and asked me to come inside his office. He looked at his watch, checked a paper that appeared to be a list of names and wrote something on it. He then looked up and said, 'Welcome to Christ College, Jerry.'

Dreams do come true!

 

The Fragrance

This was a few years before India started to hear words such as globalization and liberalisation. For a school going kid, a visit from an NRI uncle and family in Gulf had the excitement similar or even more than the annual feast at the local church.

Starting from preparations to receive the family to getting up at odd hours and waiting impatiently to get into a Tempo Traveller to head to the airport, obtaining the pass to the visitor’s gallery at the airport, rushing to find a suitable spot in the gallery, the anticipation of arriving aircraft, opening of the doors, counting the passengers getting down one by one and finally sighting the familiar faces of uncle and family, all contributed to the greatest experience of the year!

The icing on the cake was seeing the number of large bags uncle brought with him since everything about those bags was new to the pre-globalization eyes of a school going kid. As soon as we reached home, the baggage were promptly taken to the room that awaited their visit. Soon enough the whole room will have a very unique fragrance, the likes of which only comes with an NRI Gulf family of those times!

The days ahead will be filled with surprises after surprises. The joy of receiving a gift, the happiness of seeing things beyond your imagination and the overall experience of being with someone who crossed the proverbial seven seas were all adding to the experience.

A month will fly by and soon it will be time for uncle and family to return to their NRI status. I hated the trips to airport to see off someone, nevertheless I did go many times. Through tearful eyes we bid goodbye. It was a heart breaking moment to stand on the same viewer’s gallery and watch the aircraft take off.

You return home and try to relive the happy moments in the now empty room. All that remains is the fragrance from the bags that were in the room.

James Mukkadan, my uncle, who gifted me all those priceless moments is no longer with us as he joined the Creator earlier today (27 Nov 2019), for a well-deserved eternal life. He leaves behind a great legacy.

I now realize something more important. Uncle, what you left behind in that empty room was not just the fragrance from your bags. It is a whole lot of memories that you created with your genuine love and care. You will be deeply missed and remembered forever! 

The Purple Carrot

Mia, my four year old, called it a day and closed her colouring book. She was quite fond of the book and experienced the bliss of giving life to the black and white images by doing her magic with the bunch of colour pencils she has. The book she was colouring, had a lot of images with jungle theme including a few rabbits and carrots.

Keeping aside the book, she jumped on to the bed and snuggled under the blanket and hugged me tightly. Then came the default demand for a bed time story. Since she was colouring a few rabbits and carrots earlier, I decided to tell her a story of a rabbit searching for carrots through a jungle. Even before the story got over she slipped into a sweet dream where she found herself following a cute little rabbit in a jungle that was known for its bright orange carrots!

Eddie, just like any other rabbit loved carrots. He was out on a stroll searching for the sweetest of the carrots the jungle could offer. He searched and searched the various locations where he could possibly find carrots. Finally Eddie came across a large area where he saw countless carrot plants. He jumped up and down with joy!

Mia followed Eddie as he dashed across the garden of carrots. As soon as he found a plant that seems to carry ripe carrots he dug up the earth and promptly pulled out the carrot bunch from the soil. He gave out another cry! But this time it wasn’t a cry of joy. He cried in surprise to see a bunch of carrots which was purple in colour!

Mia saw the colour of carrots and was totally taken aback. She was equally confused as Eddie about the purple colour carrots. Carrots ought to be orange in colour and why are these purple?! That’s when it dawned on her. 

A while ago, before she closed her colouring book, the last picture she was colouring was a bunch of carrots. She looked for the bright orange colour pencil. Since she couldn’t find it, she made an announcement, “Dad, I can’t find my orange pencil and so I am going to colour the carrots purple!” I remember asking her to find the orange colour pencil since carrots cannot be purple. She didn’t bother to find the orange colour pencil, instead coloured the carrots purple as she said.

“Goodness! What did I do?” thought Mia. “I turned all the carrots in the world purple!” She had a very disturbed sleep and woke up the next day with a heavy heart. I had never seen her with so less energy levels in the morning. I asked her what was wrong. She said nothing except that she badly needs an orange colour pencil. She pestered me so much that I had to find the orange colour pencil for her and only then she let me head to my office.

As I was starting from home, she gave me a hurried kiss and saw her heading to the colouring book. Since I was getting late I didn’t ask any further.

It was evening soon and I returned home. I had a grocery bag in my hand. I placed the bag on the kitchen table and started taking out the groceries. As soon as I placed the carrots on the table I heard a gasp followed by a cry of joy behind me!

Mia was standing right behind with a beaming smile holding her colouring book and looking at the carrots on the table. She held the page open where I saw a bunch of bright orange coloured carrots!

I had a dream…

Three decades back when I was a little kid, someone presented me with a tiny working model of an aircraft. Guess that sowed the seeds of this beautiful dream I’ve been carrying with me. The fascination for these flying wonders have been deeply embedded that I distinctly remember running out to my backyard every time to catch a glimpse of an aircraft that flew tens and thousands of miles above our small town.

Years went by and my career started with Mindtree as a Business Analyst with Staff Operations. The Emirates Group was a customer for Mindtree at that time. Even when I allocated people to Emirates account I’ve always wondered how interesting will it be to associate with that brand. It remained a dream.

Couple of years later I was fortunate to be part of the Travel & Transportation Industry Group in Mindtree. Airline domain became my area of interest. While I worked closely with the big names in the industry, Emirates still eluded me. Three more years later, it was time to move on from Mindtree. The big break came with Computer Sciences Corporation offering a dream job at Emirates, though as a consultant. It was half a dream come true!

With every passing day, I was inching closer to my dream or so I thought. There was tremendous learning where it was no longer a distant education; instead I was part of a larger plot that made this mammoth organization work like a-well-oiled machinery. Something was still missing. Being a consultant I felt like an adopted child even when you live in the same house. The connection was still missing though you could say a bond was getting formed.

A year went by and an opportunity presented itself to be a part of the Emirates family. Try I did, but destiny had other plans. Guess the fruit was not ripe yet to be plucked. My wait wasn’t over yet. Couple of more calendars got replaced. Renewed hopes were in the air. Another opportunity showed up, but it almost died as soon as it was born. Organizational level changes that were happening were to be blamed. My patience levels were now getting tested. Yet another possible opening came but it got shot down due to lack of budgets and hence no promises were made. I was fast losing it and almost decided to pack my bag of dreams.

That’s when it struck! Out of the blue, the long awaited invitation arrived, to be part of the family which I’ve been so longing to be with. I looked up and thanked Almighty. An Emirates flight with the UAE flag as the livery flew past reminding me that dreams do come true!

Today, the second day of August 2015, I’m officially part of The Emirates Group.

I live my dream.