67.4 Firmness in Action

 67.4 Firmness in Action

Question:

              How to achieve what we wish?

 

Answer:

Men of resolute minds will surely achieve whatever

they wish for.                                                                               (Couplet – 666)

எண்ணிய எண்ணியாங்கு எய்து எண்ணியார்

திண்ணியர் ஆகப் பெறின்.                                          (குறள் – 666)

Explanation:

          To achieve what we wish, we should be serious about our wishes. Wishful thinking alone will not help to achieve anything. When I was about three years old, one of our neighbor’s sons-in-law, who was in Iraq, visited the neighbor’s family. When he visited the neighbor’s family, he brought gifts to all the family members and some of their friends. The neighbor’s family was very excited to see him. He was treated like a celebrity. Their relatives visited them and greeted the son-in-law. His visit and the associated activities made a lasting impression on me. The same scenario reoccurred when he visited the following year. I assumed that the man was very rich and the reason for his celebrity status was that he lived in a foreign country. Since my family was poor, this incident created a lasting impression on my mind. I thought living in a foreign country was very special, which was why he had his celebrity status. I decided that I should also live in a foreign country when I grew up.

The thought of living in a foreign country had become an obsession. I used to tell my mother that I wanted to go abroad and live there. My mother was a very mild-mannered person and never used to get angry. When I repeatedly told her that I wanted to go overseas, she was visibly irritated, and at times, she would say, “Go anywhere you want; do anything you want. But don’t tell me about it.” Despite her dislike for my going abroad, I continued to cherish the idea of going abroad. My father thought I was immature and did not know the consequences of living abroad. He thought I would get over my fancy ideas as I grew up. On the contrary, the thought of going abroad grew stronger each day.

When I finished high school, I wanted to join the merchant navy, thinking that would be an excellent way to go abroad. By then, two of my elder brothers had completed their college education and were in good positions in government service. Another brother had joined the medical college. So, I knew very well that my family would disapprove of discontinuing my studies and joining the merchant navy. I gave up the idea of joining the merchant navy. When I was in the senior year of my undergraduate studies, I wanted to join the Indian Navy as an officer. Though I scored very high in the entrance examination for the selection of officers in the Indian Navy, I did not do well in the interview and was not selected. I ended up pursuing my graduate studies. After two years of study and graduating with a master’s degree in mathematics and statistics, I wanted to join the London School of Economics and pursue further studies in Statistics. My family did not have the necessary financial resources to send me to London for higher studies.

Though I had failed in my attempts to join the Indian Navy and pursue my studies in London, my desire to go abroad did not disappear. Instead, it grew stronger. I kept thinking of various ways of achieving my dream. One of my elder brothers was a very successful officer in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He encouraged me to appear for the examination for the selection of officers in IAS. Those who score very high in the IAS examinations in India used to be appointed as Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers. Since the idea of foreign service was in line with my dream, it naturally appealed to me. Although I liked the idea of joining the IFS, I could not meet the requirements for a job in the Indian Foreign Service.

My dream was still alive despite my failure to become an officer in the IFS. I joined as an Assistant Lecturer at The College of Engineering (now Anna University) in Chennai, India. I liked the teaching job. But after two years, I got bored. I felt that I was teaching the same things every year. A new set of students come each year. But the subjects to be taught are the same. I wanted to pursue higher studies either in London or in the USA. I contacted the American couple who were visiting professors in the college where I was teaching. I asked them about studying in the USA. They encouraged me to apply to American universities. But my problem was the lack of financial resources needed to go and study in the USA. They suggested that some of the universities in the USA might provide financial assistance.

After three years of teaching at the College of Engineering in Chennai, I got a promotion as a lecturer at the Regional Engineering College (now the National Institute of Technology) in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. There my boss was a man who had studied in the USA and received a Ph. D at the University of Minnesota. He encouraged me to go to the USA for higher studies.

At that time, one of my elder brothers, who was a Major in the Indian Army, was sent to the West Point Military Academy in the USA for higher studies. Since he was in the USA, I thought he might help me to get applications from US universities. He responded to my request and sent me applications from several US universities. With great excitement, I applied for admission and financial assistance to all the universities for which my brother had sent me application forms. But to my great disappointment, all the universities where I had applied rejected my application except for one of them. When I told my boss, who had studied in the USA, that I had been rejected by all the universities where I had applied, he told me that the Universities where I had applied were all Ivy League universities, and it was very difficult to get admission to them. Then he suggested a few smaller universities. I applied to a few of them. Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, gave me admission and a full tuition scholarship. At first, they did not give me financial assistance.

I wrote to the head of the department of Ball State University that I badly needed financial aid, without which I could not pursue my studies there. One of the students to whom the university had offered Teaching Assistantship was drafted by the US army and sent to the Vietnam war. Instead of him, I was granted the Teaching Assistantship. I finally arrived in the USA. Though I achieved my dream, I had less than five dollars with me when I arrived in the USA. I was unsure whether life in the USA would be like I had dreamed or a nightmare. It turned out to be more like my dream.

Despite the many disappointments and failures to achieve what I wanted, I finally succeeded in what I wanted. I attribute my achieving what I wanted to my perseverance and determination with which I pursued my dream.

I am not the only one who was able to achieve what they want. Most successful people have achieved what they wanted because of their perseverance.