In August of 1972 my father boarded an airplane for the first time in his life. He was an alone eighteen year old, did not know anything about the place he was going, and did not have anyone waiting for him at his destination. He was leaving India for the United States of America to attend a college he had never visited and could not really afford. Armed with a full scholarship and a small sum of money, he embarked on his journey with the hope of being able to build a life for him.
Twenty years later, I was born. My father had graduated with a doctoral degree in Physics, was working at an engineering firm, and had married my mom. He now had a new goal, to give me the opportunities to succeed even more than he did.
I had a spoiled childhood. I got what I wanted and I didn’t seem to care much about anything except having fun and making new friends. But I was getting older and it was time for me to set some meaningful goals in life.
My parents took me to India where my dad grew up and I was driven around the city where he and his family had lived. It definitely was not like the city I was growing up in. I saw people struggling to scrounge enough money to have a meal while we drove in areas where not all of the roads were paved. It was then that I decided that I could not throw away the opportunities that my dad was handing to me. If he was able to create a life for himself from essentially nothing compared to what I was being given, failure to seize my opportunities was simply wrong.
Going into high school I took an entirely different approach to education. I was driven by a need to seize every opportunity I was given.
Why do I do what I do? Because I believe in seizing all of the opportunities given to me. I want to be able to give my children even more than I received in my life.
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