I completed my engineering and got selected in Infosys, Wipro and CTS, like so many others. The only thing that really excited me towards joining an IT company, despite being an electrical engineer (am one of those rare ones who absolutely love circuits and wires and everything to do with them!!! :-p) is the amount of traveling we can do in a short period of time (well, I always wanted (and still do) to put on a rucksack and go around the world like crazy. :-)). But then I realized that I do not have to sit in front of a computer all my life and type codes (which am not a fan of, no offense please!) to travel the world and that I can postpone it a little in order to find my calling in life (dramatic huh!:-p) in terms of what I want to do. It was by chance that one of my friends told someone who was running a coaching center for Msc. physics students (for CSIR UGC exam), that I am really good with a subject for which he wanted a faculty. And so I was approached and hired. The first day I stepped into the class of 200, to my horror I realized that 90% students sitting there were above 23yrs of age, and I was 22 and also there were only 8 girls!!!! I had no idea how was I going to manage the class full of oh! so tall guys with long beards and mustaches staring right at me. I was scared, nervous, uncertain, doubtful and I had every other synonymous feeling going on inside me! I was almost sure that I am going to forget the subject as soon as I step on that stage. And so I did not step on it! To make myself familiar with the class I started by introducing myself while moving around the class. By the end of the introduction I was a little relaxed but then I realized that now they knew I was younger than most of them! And I was back to stage1!! :-p I can never forget the expression they had on their faces! It was like they had almost decided that I was a waste of time and most of them had closed their notebooks and slouched against their seats. And then….I had an Einstein Moment!!!!!!!!!!!!:-p

I announced in the class “Ok!! So you do not look like you are in a mood to study hence close your books and pack your bags!!(most of them had already done that and I knew there was no point shouting at them because I did not know how to and also obviously they were not going to obey me, so I went with the flow!!)We are going to learn different form of physics!!”. They were confused but the whole idea of no notes was too luring for them, even if they were out of their teens, to remain slouched and give no heed.

I have been fascinated by physics since my childhood. I absolutely loved it, to an extent that if it were a man I would have married it! (That did not make any sense did it! :-p) It was not just formulae and numbers and weird laws, but it was magic for me. Though there are other subjects like bio and chem, slowly I discovered how without physics they cannot exist. And so on that day, the first class of my life dealing with physics I realized, that it was time to reveal its magic and aura to people around me. So what if they have completed masters in the subject, I was pretty sure they would not be able to answer a simple question, which was “What is physics? Who discovered it?”. And I was back with a bang, confident and sure that these 200 students were going to love me all their life for letting them know how lucky they were to take up the subject for graduation! 1.5hrs of attention without a blink!!

That day was not a revelation just for those 200 people about how beautiful physics is but also for me! Now, I knew my “calling”. Teaching!!!! I wanted to free people from the traps of “competitive education” and make them fall in love with their subject.Till today(am 24 now) I have dealt with students ranging from age groups 12-30yrs(almost 2500+ in number) many of whom have made it to IITs, NITs, etc., and most of them remember me, love me and are still in touch with me. Teacher’s day is like a festival for me. ? I have traveled to various cities and I have been earning pretty good(You can call it lavishly good, its a lot lot more than any company would ever pay me) :-). I am satisfied, content and happy. I am planning to start my own institute and I have a head full of ideas to implement and so much more to achieve. I have so much more to give out and so much more to learn.

I am a small but a wonderful example of doing something that excites you every morning before going to work. I have no regrets that I gave up the offers from so many MNCs. In fact am glad that I did. If I wouldn’t have, I would have been among the 1000s who have no idea about what are they up to sitting on the chair in front of their systems everyday, waiting for 5pm to swipe their way out of office.

I want everyone of us to realize that, each and everyone of us has a gift, we just do not acknowledge it. Sometimes, on some days, you get that gut feeling of leaving everything and chasing what you want, right? But we don’t do it due to so many factors!! I say, follow it for a change! I did! Now, its your turn! ?