DARE to live Your DREAM…

DARE to live your DREAM…

Though many a times we love to advise the above statement to others and sometimes to our own self, but how many times we actually translate this into our own life!! Following a dream becomes more difficult when someone has to come out of a safe and stable zone to chase an uncertain hope.

“If you want it, go for it. Take a risk. Don’t always play it safe or you will die wondering.”   — Quote

This is a real experience story picked from my own old rusted diary. I was planning to write this since long, and finally decided to make it a series of posts. This is the first post of the series “DARE to live Your DREAM”.

It was 22nd Feb, 2007, the HR team of WIPRO Technologies declared my name as selected candidate in the interview process along with the other 106 student’s names. At that particular moment, the emotion within me was undefined, as the happiness within me had its existence only for the reason that I cracked an exam, which I had been doing for last 22 years of my life at different levels. But did I actually grow up as an engineer; was I really ready to take an engineering job, or was I actually an exam cracker rather than an engineer. Well, I did not have time to analyze all these bare truths at that moment. It was fun time… celebration time 😀 . After all, I had the offer in my hand on the day one of the campus recruitment. What else is needed when you grabbed the opportunity which your friends could not, and about which there was always a discussion form the day when you stepped into the engineering career. I was on cloud nine imagining about living the dream days after my graduation days.

Days passed by and I stepped into my 8th semester. It was the time when the black days of recession was growing as a devil. The economy of the world was falling like anything and the employee layoff was a very common news at that time. The date of being graduated was getting closer and the chance of receiving the call letter from the company was getting dimmer. By the time we graduated, the recession had reached its worst limit. The industries were running out of projects. It was clear that most of the companies would give the call letter at-least after 6 months if the situation would improve. I shifted to Bangalore to my sister’s place. During those days I saw the brutal impact of unemployment. I have seen people standing in more than one Km long queue from morning 7 to evening 7 for a job interview. The struggle was all about getting a job, a hope of earning for living 😐 !!

I was very lucky. One fine day, 4 months after my graduation, unexpectedly I got my call letter from WIPRO VLSI 🙂 . The feeling at that moment was fantastic, and the words from my heart were “Thank God! you saved me!“. I joined WIPRO on 10th Nov, 2008 and started my corporate life. We all the trainees completed our training in next 3 months. After the training, again the impact of recession reflected on us. We realized that there were no projects so we all were on bench (a popular term used in software industries when somebody doing nothing in the company but still enjoying the privilege of being an employee 😉 ). After one and half months of sitting on bench, I got a project call from WIPRO TARANG LAB, an end product compliance testing LAB.

I joined the TARANG LAB and gradually I learned the engineering skills needed in the LAB. I worked hard to complete my job honestly and of-course to get the praise. People around loved me and I too enjoyed their company. I kept on completing the tasks assigned to me. My colleagues always inspired me by every means and encouraged me to work hard. They used to tell me there would be plenty of abroad opportunities in the domain on which I was working. Slowly the ruthlessness of the recession was passing away and I was getting settled down in my job. Things were running smooth and stable outside me. BUT I WAS NOT SMOOTH INSIDE, I WAS NOT STABLE AT ALL.

Unknowingly, a teacher and a writer inside me were dominating the engineer in me. And those two characters were not new. They were there since long but lost their roles for sometime within ignorance. The engineer within was dying and the passion for being a teacher and writer was dragging me to a new horizon of DREAM. I was trying hard to cover-up the new revolution inside me, trying to convince myself “No, No! I can’t leave this platform, I am an engineer… I should continue contributing to engineering industry being here”. But the rebellion inside me was getting denser and denser. Then spending days in WIPRO were getting tougher along with my dream.

Now the big question was “Should I quit WIPRO on not?”

Answer: NO – Because

1. I would be unemployed and I have seen the cruelty of unemployment
2. I was already in a safe and stable zone. Leaving a stable job without any offer in hands was similar to a suicidal situation
3. There was no guarantee whether I would achieve my dream
4. If I would not be successful in my goal then I won’t be able to come back to this stable WIPRO job

Answer: YES – Because

1. I did not want to disrespect the job which I was doing without interest
2. I would live my DREAM
3. I would enjoy my job, would live satisfactorily, would be able to justify my existence
4. I would never regret of not taking a risk and not allowing me to take a chance

Challenges:

1. To convince others around me about the reason and situation for leaving the job
2. Searching for something which would feed me till I would achieve the DREAM

Biggest Challenge:

1. To convince myself that I am leaving WIPRO and I am doing the RIGHT

I still remember how many times I had a conversation with myself while returning back to home from my work, how many times I encouraged myself to have the courage and take the step to be free. I discussed this with my friends and they suggested me not to leave the job. They thought as of I was doing madness, as if I lost my perspective in life. But whenever I asked my heart at my loneliness, it told me, you are doing the right.

Finally, I collected all my courage to put my resignation in WIPRO. I dared to listen to my heart. I dared to walk out of the trend. I dared to allow myself to be free and to live my own DREAM.

The remaining posts would present my after WIPRO days and the journey towards my dream. This post is written for the campaign #Rise above fear! initiated by MountainDew in collaboration with Indiblogger. The campaign is highlighting the rise above fear through the following video.

“Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they are gonna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.“

                                                                                                                    — Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happiness, film)