About two decades ago, when
I was managing projects in IT, I inducted a young boy as a trainee into one of
the projects under me. Let us call him Akshay. IT had just started booming in
India and it was a common practice to induct such qualified youngsters
initially as trainees and then absorb them as employees. Akshay hailed from a
very affluent family and came to office by car which in itself was a novelty
those days! The project Manager was a tough character and was short tempered
besides expecting nothing short of a miracle from his software engineers. After
a while it became quite evident that Akshay did not measure up to his
expectations, an observation I deduced during my casual conversations with the
Project Manager.
As luck would have it,
Akshay approached me one day and told me that another IT company was recruiting
freshers and that he wanted to appear for the test and interview. I wished him
good luck and gave him an experience letter for the 6 months he had worked in a LIVE project under me in a particular technology. Fortunately, he was selected in
that company. As was common in those days, it was not against a particular
requirement but recruitment in general (like the mass campus recruitment these
days!). He was, as is euphemistically called, on the bench. A few months passed
and the company then asked him to go to a different location and get trained
for a few months in a different technology – completely different from the one
in which he worked under me. He agreed and as the training date approached, his
wedding was finalised, Akshay being from a community that got their children
married very early. Perhaps no questions were asked about his job!
He sought leave of absence
for a 2-week period from the training schedule. The company refused and made
him go back to the bench again. He got married and was back to the good old
bench. Obviously, Akshay was also frustrated with nothing much to do. Then one
fine morning the HR asked him if he knew a particular technology – the one in
which he was trained in my project. He answered in the affirmative. On being
asked how he was proficient in that particular language, he produced my letter!
And in the next few weeks, his papers were processed and before he knew what
hit him, he was packed to USA! Yes, it sounds crazy now but those were the
days!
If you review the entire
sequence, can I stake a claim for his success since I had trained him, albeit
for a short while and gave him a valuable experience certificate? Certainly
not. Many things could have gone awry and the result could have been different.
He was destined to go and I was only an instrument in the whole process. This
profound truth hit me. I understood the meaning of “Thy WILL be done!”. The
Good Lord had chosen me as his instrument to execute his plans – nothing more
nothing less. I cannot take an ounce of credit for this act of Grace. This is a
fact once you experience it. This is what all the scriptures are talking about!
This is nothing but Nishkama Karma – selfless service. This is what the
great artist Picasso meant when he said “The meaning of life is to find your
gift and the purpose of life is to gift it away!”. Nature or the Good Lord
expresses herself through each of us and it is only because of HER grace that
we are the CHOSEN ONE to express herself! We need to be grateful instead
of arrogating the gift or talent that we possess to our efforts!
In this context I recall the
farewell speech of Sachin Tendulkar who put these thoughts eloquently. He said
he always felt that while he enjoyed playing cricket, he was the CHOSEN ONE to
represent India – to serve India. What a magnificent thought! Since he had this
PURPOSE, all the laurels and accolades, he received all through his life sat
very lightly on his shoulders! After all, all the glory belongs to the Good Lord.
Let us all imbibe the true
purpose of our existence and be grateful to the Good Lord for whatever he
chooses to accomplish through us!
