Happiness

August 20, 2003. The Institute of Engineering and Technology had just opened its gates to warmly welcome the new batch of 2003-2007. Shruthi, with an excitement, nervousness was sweating a little and her heart beat was rising as it was the first day of her College. After a Key Note by the Principal, Shruthi followed the Queue and moved towards the Freshers block where their names were displayed with the corresponding sections. As it was the First semester, various department students were shuffled. Shruthi was put to Section C. She moved towards her class and sat on the second bench.

The staff had not yet arrived and the students were getting introduced to one another by themselves. Shruthi was happy to meet her primary school mate Ruby whom she had last met 7 years back. She was talking to her and few other girls about where they were from, etc. She now felt relaxed that she could make good friends here.

Professor Balaji, Head of the Department of English entered and gave a Key Note to the class. He then wished the students and handed over the session to Assistant Professor, Chandresh Baliga. Classes commenced from Day 1 and the Class in charge was Professor Krishna Murthy from the Physics Department. A month passed and Shruthi was quite comfortable with the College. She had also made good friends by then. However she was a calm girl and still had some fear in mind.

Professor Balaji, intimated Shruthi to meet him in his cabin. He stated that he had observed her presentation skills, and would like her to make a presentation on “Learners Challenges” and present it in the Inter Departmental Symposium held within the College. Shruthi was hesitant, however could not deny his request. There were 2 weeks for the event and she had put in her efforts to collect information by talking to various students, organizing some interviews between the students from other language Medium of instruction and also gathered information from schools and Arts colleges.

The Big day arrived. Though it was a smaller event for others, it seemed very big to her. There were a number of Seniors presenting the sessions and she was the Junior most of all. She was very nervous but swallowed everything and started the session. As the session started, she gained confidence and explained all the metrics that she had collected and ended it boldly. After all the sessions were complete, the Professor announced the results ranking from 5. Shruthi expected that she would atleast fall into the 5^th Rank but in vain. Rank 2 was also announced and Shruthi felt a little disappointed. As the Professor paused, he announced the Rank 1 of the presentation and called Shruthi to the Stage. She did not expect her first session to become so successful and she was all in tears. The HOD also stated that her article would go into one of the Journals that was going to be presented to the English Department in a prestigious University. She was overwhelmed.

Post the session, she met Professor Balaji and thanked him for having given her, the opportunity to explore the skills which she did not know she possessed. Professor Krishna Murthy, had intimated his class that a seminar needs to be taken on “Engineering Physics” on Smarter Materials. This time, Shruthi wanted to give an attempt herself. She volunteered herself and the session had to be given in a week’s time. She prepared thoroughly, doing some research by herself. While she was practicing and doing some calculations, she found there was a minor mistake in the book and recalculated to find she had the right answer. The day of the seminar arrived. As she presented, Ramesh, her classmate, pointed out that her calculation was wrong. She then bravely told the Answer in the book was wrong and she explained in detail how she arrived at the answer. Professor Krishna Murthy applauded and came to the dais and stated that her calculation was right. He also remarked that she could turn out to be a good teacher. She was honored hearing his remarks.

Months flew. Inter Departmental Symposium was announced and the whole college was talking about which Department will win the First prize. Shruthi was glad to send her paper on “Computer Assisted Surgery” to the Department as her proposal. Her proposal was selected and she prepared for the Finals. She was very happy to win the First prize this time too. The HOD from the EEE department, Professor Ramalingam, this time highly appreciated her which boosted her confidence. She started looking eagerly for the Inter college symposiums and attended a few of those too and won laurels. She was recognized within the college as a bold girl who had good teaching skills.

Her favorite Professor was Dr.Divya, Head of the Department of Engineering Chemistry. Every time she had an idea, she would meet her favorite Ma’am to just talk about it. Dr.Divya would warmly welcome her and spend time for her listening to her idea. She would encourage her and Shruthi would continue on working on her idea. Dr.Divya always encouraged her to become a good Teaching professional. In no time Shruthi was in second year of Engineering. She still continued to look forward for Inter college symposiums and presented various ideas on “Nanotechnology”, “Robotics”, “Medical Engineering’, “Data Mining in Hospital Management” and a number of other papers. She was not looking forward for great names or prizes but found happiness whenever she delivered a session.

June 2005 – Shruthi stepped into third year of Engineering. It was time of placements for her Senior batch. Surprisingly, one of the US based company this time had announced interviews for the Third year students. It was a combined placement program, conducted in another campus and about 15 colleges were called for it. Shruthi was short listed and went ahead with further rounds of interviews. Finally she was interviewed for the final round on 20^th August 2005 and got her Offer letter. She was privileged as she was the first from her college to get placed in the Third year. Her happiness knew no bounds. Meanwhile, she still continued presenting papers at various symposia. At the end of her 4 years of College, she had won 12 First prizes, 4 second prizes, 2 third prizes out of the 21 attempts she made.

20 August 2008: Shruthi joined a Multi-National company and continued working as a Software Engineer. She had a passion towards writing and presenting sessions. However, her job role was out of scope for the same. This did not intrude her anytime and she continued working as per her assignment. In a few months, she was asked to take a session of a cross product to her team and she did it with all her interest. Her Manager appreciated her presentation skills. After 2 years, she had a chance to present a session to the other teams remotely and she did it with great interest. This time too, she was appreciated by her Manager. Although she knew that this will not contribute anything great to her growing career, she felt very happy on delivering such sessions. Personal happiness and satisfaction was all that she had in mind. She would quickly return back to her routine without a second thought of “What was the use of doing such sessions in her career?” Her career discussions were not that great always, however she got back to her routine as always.

Five years flew away before she could realize the same. One fine day, she got introduced to a team of Learning Developers from the US and she attended sessions handled by them. For the first time in her career, she got the opportunity to take a session for experienced Professionals. When she was announced as one of the trainers, she was too happy (even happier than when her promotion was announced). She started putting in all the effort preparing herself for the session and also came up with her own material for the same. As this was an additional job that she had taken upon out of her own interest, she did not expect any great credit from her Management. She stretched and worked on this and completed the session. She felt that the day she took the session was a milestone in her career.

She was travelling back home by bus. She couldn’t resist calling her dearest friend Smrithi. Smrithi meant everything for her in office and she had no greater friend than her. Shruthi expressed all her happiness to this great friend Smrithi and Smrithi, being a well-wisher felt very happy for Shruthi. She also messaged her sister and brother about the happiness she had in just taking a session for a day. That was the day which made her so happy in her five years of her career. In fact, she did have a Question in mind this time “Why am I overwhelmed though this is not going to fetch me greater credit in my career?” Although she did not have an answer, she still felt the happiest.

There was an Emerging Technology from the Multi National company and teams were busy spreading it through social media, conducting events and tech talks. Shruthi was not a part of the team which was responsible for this. However she was very interested, the moment she heard there was an opportunity to give a seminar. With a great enthusiasm, she continued to gather information on the same. With the help of one of her friends, she could contact an Institute and got a date for the seminar too. She proceeded with all her dreams and continued to the location where her session was going to be held.

After seven years, she is here, standing on the dais, conducting a seminar for about 200 students. She got reminded of the first stage experience. The same nervousness, the same heart beat rise, the same tension struck her. However, as she started the session, she was calm and composed and casually took the students through the session. The session went on well. Towards the end of the session, she conveyed,

“Dear students, I’m standing in front of you as an employee of the great MNC. However, this was the first stage where I delivered a session around 7 years back. The memories are still green in my mind. I still respect and remember my Professors who encouraged me and made me realize the skills I have. Yes, I’m an alumni of this Institute. I salute this stage and hope to do many more sessions. I’d like to wish all of you, my Juniors, a successful career ahead!” and she calmly wiped the tear that strolled down her cheeks unknowingly. The surprised students, stood up and applauded which made her feel extremely touched. Her Professors and staff still remembered her and were talking of the days of her batch in College. She had a great day and left.

Later, that night, she was returning back to her place with all wonderful memories. That overnight journey made her mind Question her. “Why are you so happy today?”, “Have you ever been so happy in these seven years of your career?”, “Do you feel that you may need a change in your role?”, “What was that which made you feel great today?”, “Are you going to earn any credit for this session you took today?”. Shruthi’s mind voice was questioning a lot more than this. Practically, she knew that there was a single answer in this. TEACHING AND WRITING. This was all her interest and passion. “Did it take seven years to understand what was my passion?”, she questioned herself. But she had no other choice rather than saying YES to herself. It indeed has taken seven years for her to realize her interest.

Unknowingly, many times she had done that job and though it did not add on to her career recognition, she had felt happier. She remembered the session she took for cross teams, the training for experienced professionals, the session for students. She recollected the happiness she found in each of these. She never had any complain over her company anytime nor did she ever complain on her job role. She always had a passion and love towards her company. Maybe this masked her passion towards her interest. However she understood that doing a job that one is passionate about makes them the happiest and makes them feel the richest.

She did not regret for not having chosen the career of her interest but rather started thinking of how to work towards it. Shruthi was practical and knew that she may not afford to change her entire role very soon but decided to take up such role additionally. She knew, it would obviously have no reference to her current job role nor would it fetch great credits for her but she was least bothered about it. For her, it was the personal satisfaction and happiness that meant a lot rather than other benefits. With this clear picture in mind, she decided to continue performing such roles periodically. She told the same to her dear friend Smrithi who encouraged her as always!!

Many a times, we all are like Shruthi, getting used to the routine work we are into. However, there would be a time which would make us extremely happy. We may not be able to completely transform to a new role, due to personal and professional commitments. However, we can definitely afford time for doing the least we could in that area. In such cases, it may not be any monetary benefits that we may drive but the extreme happiness. In fact, it’s a stress buster too which keeps us going!! Do what you love!!