Back in 2007 I was quite ambitious, as far as my education was concerned. I wanted to get into a good MBA college, which would promise a decent paying job and an interesting role to keep my brains occupied. I was doing well in my CAT classes but the problem was my Bachelor's in Commerce scores were not good enough. I took PCM in school which taught me the cause and effect theory i.e. every thing happens for a reason and the reason was not, "that's just how it is done". Therefore, any kind of accounting principles or style never lived long enough to reproduce it self on paper. That was just accountancy and the others should have been a piece of cake, right? No! My University believed in supporting the brutal massacre of trees so that its students can write 25 page essays which they called answers, and that too for a mere 5 to 10 questions. I never got the logic of writing the same point again and again, and explaining the same rotten examples time and again, just to add weight to the stack. The problem with me was, I never wrote answers longer that seven pages in my life. The results were not good enough to be eligible to appear for CAT 2007. Strike one.
So, here I was sitting in my room, waiting for my agent's call. I had with great courage decided to purse MBA, in Singapore. My friend Romey was with me. We were watching a movie to kill the time and I was killing it the 3rd time that day. We were watching 'The Pink Panther'. It just cracks me up when ever I watched. Finally! My agent called at 4 PM. He told me that my VISA was approved. I thanked God for approving it! Finally I will get to leave my city and move into a new country altogether and study of course.Romey wanted a brick ice cream, well I thought it was reasonable then, we hadn't graduated to boozing yet.
I went shopping the next day; formals, casuals, laptop and especially the stuff that I wont get in Singapore.It took me three days to get all i needed. I could see the hole in my Dad's pocket now. Who would have thought it was 16 times smaller than it would get by the end of the course. Like a normal India I had taken a loan.We had calculated the expenses at "Rs.26 for 1 Singaporean Dollar", it went to Rs.34 per SGD.Which shot up the expensed by 26% more than we had estimated.
We had to take the train to Mumbai the next day,as the flight was from Mumbai, it was an early morning flight. DAD was coming with me. Dad, is a very silent simple guy, until he gets angry. We never spoke much, in other words we only argued when we spoke. It was mostly one sided, him yelling and me saying "No". I had started using sentences instead after 10th standard.
The train journey was like one of those boring art films with no background music or people talking. That was my idea of having fun with dad, at least I was happy. Dad always spent time worrying and I didn't want to bother him with all the foreign education thing going on.
We decided to put up at my friend's flat in Malad. My friend is actually 4 yrs elder to me. We freshened up at his place and went out to buy a few things that I missed,mostly stationary. We came back in an hour and took some rest as we had to be up all night.
We took an auto at night to the Airport. It didn't look like the ones I saw in Hollywood movies, it was like any government office in India. I stood in the que to check in, when my turn came the official had an issue believing that my visa was valid.I couldn't blame him it was an 'on arrival visa'. He might have thought it was only for tourists. He made me wait for 40 minutes. Then I was cleared to board the flight. Finally!!! Plane!!!
Well it was not much fun but clean and white. I was a little nervous. It was my first time, didn't even know where the seat numbers are written. Finally an attendant helped me find my seat and tucked my duffel bag into the overhead cabinet.It took off and I liked the way it did and started floating in minutes.
From the sky Singapore looked like the one of those miniature replicas of cities, clean well designed and really tiny.It was much more beautiful than it looked from the sky when I came out of the airport. So peaceful, no dust, all green, well planned less people more space. It was so quiet there no car horns, clean trees that was new.
I went shopping the next day; formals, casuals, laptop and especially the stuff that I wont get in Singapore.It took me three days to get all i needed. I could see the hole in my Dad's pocket now. Who would have thought it was 16 times smaller than it would get by the end of the course. Like a normal India I had taken a loan.We had calculated the expenses at "Rs.26 for 1 Singaporean Dollar", it went to Rs.34 per SGD.Which shot up the expensed by 26% more than we had estimated.
We had to take the train to Mumbai the next day,as the flight was from Mumbai, it was an early morning flight. DAD was coming with me. Dad, is a very silent simple guy, until he gets angry. We never spoke much, in other words we only argued when we spoke. It was mostly one sided, him yelling and me saying "No". I had started using sentences instead after 10th standard.
The train journey was like one of those boring art films with no background music or people talking. That was my idea of having fun with dad, at least I was happy. Dad always spent time worrying and I didn't want to bother him with all the foreign education thing going on.
We decided to put up at my friend's flat in Malad. My friend is actually 4 yrs elder to me. We freshened up at his place and went out to buy a few things that I missed,mostly stationary. We came back in an hour and took some rest as we had to be up all night.
We took an auto at night to the Airport. It didn't look like the ones I saw in Hollywood movies, it was like any government office in India. I stood in the que to check in, when my turn came the official had an issue believing that my visa was valid.I couldn't blame him it was an 'on arrival visa'. He might have thought it was only for tourists. He made me wait for 40 minutes. Then I was cleared to board the flight. Finally!!! Plane!!!
Well it was not much fun but clean and white. I was a little nervous. It was my first time, didn't even know where the seat numbers are written. Finally an attendant helped me find my seat and tucked my duffel bag into the overhead cabinet.It took off and I liked the way it did and started floating in minutes.
From the sky Singapore looked like the one of those miniature replicas of cities, clean well designed and really tiny.It was much more beautiful than it looked from the sky when I came out of the airport. So peaceful, no dust, all green, well planned less people more space. It was so quiet there no car horns, clean trees that was new.
2 comments:
You somehow managed to put into words all those feelings that leave a person inarticulate..The part that touched me the most was where you talk about your dad..I would like to read some more of this stuff!!
peterpan! keep posting buddy! :)
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