Friday, December 22, 2006

10 Greatest moments of my life

In everyone's life, there are defining moments that change the course of his/her future. It just sneeks up on you and takes your breath away. You've dared to dream about it but never thought this could happen to you. And when it does, you know your life is never going to be the same again. Getting my Kellogg admit has to be one such occasion. This got me thinking about all the other special moments that I have taken for granted. So, after much soul-searching, here are the top ten greatest moments of my life. So far...

10. Sending a check back home from my sign on bonus at Motorola to pay off my loans I took to come to US.

9. Receving an admit with Teaching Assistantship and full tuition waiver/stipend to UIC.

8. Getting a FedEx package with an offer from Motorola for my first job. I had all my friends around me and we partied hard that night.

7. Receiving the letter of admit to the EEE program at BITS Pilani.

6. Completing my Chicago marathon with my knees threatening to tear away from their sockets while my friends cheered me on at the finish line.

5. Meeting W the 2nd day in the US and getting introduced to each other with a simple handshake. Barely did I know this was going to change my life in ways unimaginable.

4. Receiving my 12th std public exam marksheets and realizing, against all reason and logic, I came first in the entire school.

3. Getting a call from Kellogg informing me I've been admitted to the full-time MBA program.

2. W and I were on a walk in the park across the road and we finally decided that we want to be together for the rest of our lives.

1. And the numero uno? I'm reserving this for the moment when I tie the knot with W on Jan 28th 2007.

Ofcourse, there are tons of special moments that did not involve me but still brought tremendous joy and satisfaction. For example, my brother getting into the IIIT program in Bangalore, my cousin - who's like my sister - giving birth to a baby boy, my grand father recovering from a heart surgery, W coming back to Chicagoland and getting her first job offer (she had moved to NJ briefly), parupps finding his first job after a long and frustrating search, dad starting his own business etc etc.

There are also some events that do involve me and deserve special mention here (and obviously involve a lot of firsts) - getting my first car, closing on my first home, my first (and last) bike in the US, my first trip back to India from the US, my first job offer at BITS (IBM - I never joined), the talk about W, marriage and cultural differences I had with my dad on the Deccan Air flight from Tirunelveli to Chennai, Sugan-Srikanth's wedding, Arun-Cindy's wedding, the inter-class cricket tournament at Santhome High school when I went in as opener and took every attack apart and got invited to a coaching session, meeting my 2 best friends-to-be at the same school, my first bicycle, performing on stage at the inaugural ceremonies of OASIS in front of a huge audience and the after-parties that followed, those lazy summer evenings playing volleyball and later chilling with good beer and great friends, the list goes on and on...

Looking back, I realized that its been an interesting ride so far. Though I know there's plenty more to come, nothing can match the abosolute thrill of something huge happening for the first time to you. My next job offer is not going to be as exciting as the first, I'm never going to meet a girl like W (not that I can do anything about it even if I do!), or I could possibly not make better friends than those that I already have. Still, I can't feel but excited about the next turn in my life and where its going to lead me. Watch this space!

3 Comments:

Blogger Chandru said...

lovely...me too waiting for the 28th of Jan...

12/28/06, 2:05 AM  
Blogger Hawkeye said...

he dude! a single-stroke congrats on all the 10. awesome dude. im happy for u.

12/28/06, 3:41 PM  
Blogger Parupps said...

Thanks for the honorary mention!

1/2/07, 12:20 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home