Tis the season of graduating high school and hunting for the perfect college. It reminds me of the story when opportunities were scarce and expectations were low.
When Thatha was in high school, he travelled to a school at a nearby town which meant that he had to bike/walk 6 miles each way to get to school. He was the only one from his village traveling, so the ride was lonely. Thatha says he got good at Math as he used to think about the math problems and different ways of solving it on the ride to and back from school. He tells this story which used to make me laugh so hard when I was a child - one day it was pouring rain and the wind was blowing so hard in the direction opposite to his destination - home. So after struggling for quite some time trying to ride his bike in the wind and the road that was soon becoming all mucky with the rain, he gives up, turns his bike around and just rides it back to school. Imagine you going to school and not able to come back home due to heavy rain and sleeping in your classroom!! Now thinking about it, I don't know why I laughed every time my father said this story, but he made it sound so much fun and adventurous!
When the results came out for high school, it would appear in the newspaper and you need to look for your exam number.
Thatha's brother lived in a town where they had access to newspaper and he checked the number for thatha. The results were categorized into first class, second class and third class. Thatha's brother first checked the third class and was disappointed to not find his name, then he checked the second class and knew for sure that Thatha failed his high school as he could not find his number there either. Imagine his surprise when Thatha's number was among the first class students!
It didn't matter if he was in first class or third, Thatha's father gave him only two options - either get into an engineering college or stay home and help with the family business (small grocery store connected to their house). He would not let Thatha apply to a college in any other subject such as Biology or language as the prospects of jobs were scarce. Thatha applied for engineering school and got through the first step of the process and was called in for an interview to the big city!
Thatha and his father set off to the big city and on the day before the interview his father took him to a shoe shop and Thatha got his first ever pair of shoes. Its sort of like how you and Baba go shoe shopping, Baba is so big on right fit, space for your toes etc etc. Well, it was sort of the opposite for Thatha, he had no clue what he was looking for and he is super scared of his own father, so he pretty much nodded his head to the pair that was presented to him.
The next day he wore it to his interview and felt very uncomfortable. He figured it was because he was not used to it. When they reached the bus stop, on of his father's friends noticed that he was wearing the shoes wrong - right pair on his left foot and left on his right foot!! His father was so mad at him for his ignorance! Poor thatha was so stressed out about his shoes, but guess what... he aced his interview.
One coincidence in this story is that one of the interviewers during his college admission was Abdul Kalam who later became the president of India. He was also the same president who bestowed the Presidents award for science and technology to Thatha all those years later!
Who would have thought the boy who did not know how to wear shoes, the family who thought that he failed his high school, soaked in every opportunity he could get, travelled multiple countries, helped people along the way and became a beacon for science and technology!!
It is easy to judge people who don't have the right clothes or the perfect shoes, they may not know how to use a fork or talk in a polished and elegant way. We need to remember that every one has their own story, different backgrounds and the things that matter the most are not how people look or their material pocession.
Happy Father's day to the man who taught me to tie my shoes and made sure that I always had the best of everything in my life!!
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