Sometimes in life when people get off the right path
they head in the wrong direction for a long duration, especially when you are a
teenager. Something similar happened to Abhishek Kumar Srivastava, a promising
student when he saw Anita(name changed)
on first day of standard 11 in DAV Gandhinagar, Ranchi.’Struck by cupid’s arrow’ he proposed her within few days after which started a
sequences of YES & NOs, indirect dating and everything else which happens
in any routine ‘confused teen love story’.
One thing was sure that this lad was heavily distracted which not only affected
his grades but he was also not able to crack any of the engineering entrance
examinations.
After the 12th result he took admission in
one of the reputed colleges in Pune in
August 2005 by paying a hefty sum as ’Donation’
where a shock was waiting for him. Sometime after taking admission, he and
Anita started talking on phone which continued for a few months after which she
snapped all her contacts with him. Unable to digest this shock he started
smoking and drinking but one more ‘super
shock’ was still to come.
The ‘broker’
who got him admitted in engineering had taken him for a ride. Instead of ‘Electronics & Telecommunication’
what he got was ‘Instrumentation &
Control’ as his engineering branch. Even after lots of efforts he neither
got the girl back nor his desired branch. He felt like a looser and his
interest in studies reduced drastically. He was now more into alcohol and cigarettes
and to satisfy his ego he created a ‘bully’
out of him. His contacts with local goons increased and many times he used to
forcibly sell ‘Fresher’s Bash’ passes
to fresher living near college. All these self-destructive activities showered
upon him when he got a ‘Year Down’ in the second year of engineering.
As it is said ‘old
habits die hard, especially the bad ones’, Abhishek took many resolutions
to stay away from cigarettes and his bully friend circle but one day he stepped
on a ‘landmine’ destined for him. On
the repeated requests of a junior who had organised a’ Fresher’s Bash’ he went
for selling the passes forcefully but this time fed up of such forced ‘Fresher’s
Bash’ students and the landlords had some plans. In one of the buildings he was
surrounded by students and local residents who planted some tight slaps and
bamboo stick blows on him, later on they handled him to police from where he
was rescued by the chief local organizer financing the ‘Fresher’s Bash’. While
he was being beaten all his so called bully friends were hiding in the same
building and when he asked for revenge from the people who thrashed him, they
started talking about ‘wisdom’.
This was the time when he realized that it’s high time
to correct his lifestyle. By this time his eldest brother came to live with him.
Under strict supervision of his bhaiya(eldest
brother) he tried to improve but unfortunately he again failed in the third
year, but this time he was hopeful that he will pass in revaluation. This was
the time when nobody around him counted upon him, scolding from bhaiya and other family members was a
routine affair and all he was able to see ahead was a ‘dark future’.
On one day he got so frustrated that he decided to commit
suicide. He headed towards the dam in Ravet village just behind his college and
on the way he called his mother to say his ‘final
sorry & goodbye’. When he told his mother that this was the last time
she is talking to him she was shocked up to her soul. She started crying and
somehow managed to stop her ‘broken son’
from taking his life.
Having faced almost everything he decided to ‘shutdown his ears’ to any criticism.
With a stubborn attitude he took a ‘provisional
admission’ in final year of engineering which paid off when two out of his
four ‘backlogs’ were cleared in
revaluation. He was now happily in final year and he cleared two remaining
backlogs and all regular papers in the first semester itself. Later on he
completed his engineering with a 4 year’s aggregate of 54.54% in June 2010.
Although he was technically sound but he was unable to
sit in majority of ‘campus recruitment
drives’ by companies due to his low aggregate of 54.54 and a year down. His
past was pushing him back and he ended up without any job. At last his brother
offered him to join ‘Sukrut Systems’
(company in which he was working) as a software engineer but this time he (Abhishek)
was in no mood to compromise or taking any ‘shortcut’.
He told his brother that he want to excel in his core field of ‘instrumentation & control ‘but the
idea was to do something without any support, it was about self-esteem.
This one brave decision brought his life back on the
right path. He went to Ranchi and worked for ‘Meditron Ltd’ for one month after which he came back to Pune and toiled
harder at ‘Calitron Calibrations’.
After one month he was selected by ‘Johnson
Controls’ as an operator at ‘Hyatt
Hotels’ where he worked for 6 months. At present he is working for one of
the most reputed company in his field called ‘Honeywell’ for last 9 months where recently he was declared ‘The Best Performer’.
At last but not the least he had found a girl who
deserves his love and he is no more a habitual smoker and drinker. He is
grateful to his family especially his eldest brother and his few close friends.
His mantra for life is ‘Never
underestimate yourself and concentrate on work in hand instead of worrying
about distant future ’.
I Love Failures wishes him ‘All The Best’ for a prosperous future hoping that he will never
forget his ‘hard earned lessons’ and
will keep smiling & learning from his future failures because
“Our
greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
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