‘Namaskar sir, I need your blessings.’

He said as he entered my office room and touched my feet.

‘Please come, have a seat.’ I said as I usually do for all visitors.

‘Sir, do you recognise me?’

‘Not really’

‘I met you before Covid, in your office.  Sir, I did M Com some 7 years back from the D School.’

I was still not able to remember and recall meeting him, which is unusual. Otherwise, I generally do not forget the facial appearance. Maybe it reminds me of my aging. But anyway, I admitted that it is ok, if I do not remember.

‘Tell me what brings you here.’ I was interested in knowing the reason of his coming. For a moment I thought he must have joined some organisation and hence came to inform me and seek my blessings. But that was not the case.

‘Sir, I have appeared in 7 interviews so far in different colleges of Delhi university but could not get through anywhere. What should I do?’

As usual, I said – ‘work hard, prepare well for the interview and develop confidence.’

‘Sir, I have been performing well, out of 10-12 questions I answer some 8-9 questions correctly. I am quite satisfied with my performance. Still not able to come in the list of selected or waitlisted candidates. I am not able to know what do I lack. Sir, my family background is not good. Please guide me. And this is for what I came here. I really need your blessings.’

The way he was narrating his experience and the way he was carrying himself made me curious to know little more about him. For that reason, I asked – ‘When did we meet last? Could you please let me know?’

‘I came to you few years back seeking your advice to pursue PhD and to prepare the proposal.’ He informed. I know when the aspirants for PhD receive a call for submission of proposal, many wake up and start hobnobbing with teachers in the department. There is quite a visible rush of students standing outside teachers’ room. For most of them it is an event, it is a transaction that they like to finish. So, it is really difficult to remember all of them who meet you, some of them keep meeting regularly, keep sending mails or messages and keep being in touch in order to improve and finalise the research proposal. And there are many who do not have patience and maybe they are not interested in improving themselves but just want to have a viable and convincing proposal. He was not the one who kept in touch, who kept on improving himself.

‘What are you doing these days?’ I asked before I could suggest anything. And his reply was vague. ‘Sir, I taught in few colleges, I also taught in NCWEB for some time, but eh I am preparing for interviews.’ I still was not sure whether he is still teaching somewhere or not. I wanted a clear answer and he was trying to bypass the question. I was wondering when he is not clearly speaking with me, how he would be answering questions in the interview. When I insisted, he said – I am not teaching anywhere since last 2 years.

‘Sir, how should I prepare myself for the interview? What should I do? I am from a poor family. I must look after my parents. Many of my juniors are getting selected, I am worried about my future. Help me sir.’ After he was done what he was to speak, I asked him about whether he has looked into the merit of the candidates who are selected. He only had another side of the story. They are selected only because – .

I told him – you need to see as to what have you done after your masters, not just in terms of experience in teaching but in terms of academic growth, what are your reading, how are you updating yourself. It is not important what marks you obtained in your masters, what is important is how much efforts you have put to justify those awards, those marks. I asked him to conduct a gap analysis between his skill sets, ability to teach and knowledge base as compared to the ones whose have been selected. Look at what have they done after completing their masters. Have they academically advanced their pursuits by doing MPhil or PhD, have they aligned themselves with some research projects, have they tracked researches done and published in their domain of work. Where they have invested their time, efforts, and energy. Have they built good relations with friends pursuing research. And how are they different from you.

He kept listening to whatever I was speaking in a flow.  I got reminded of a bias most of us commit – when we fail, we tend to overestimate the influence of external factors and when we succeed, we tend to overestimate the influence of internal factors.  Generally, rather than investing on developing internal faculties one gets into focusing on identifying and nurturing externalities.  At times we are so bogged down by the environmental factors and results that we see only one side of the coin and that is – ‘There is no point in working hard, the result is already known.’ This feeling stops us from putting efforts in the right direction.  We fail to internalise and avoid on working on ourselves, we become impatient and begin to blame destiny.

This young man who is in his late 20s did not show any sign of self-development.  I could not notice any spark in him to have capacity to discuss any subject.  He kept on requesting for my blessings and as a teacher I wished – Good Luck.

I was just wondering whether I had any other choice except wishing him Good Luck in all future endeavours.

Destiny has an important role in our lives but we make our destiny by our own actions, by our karma, by performing our duties (what is expected of us).  Our commitment, sincerity, hard-work, will-power, determination, discipline, patience, perseverance, positive mindset, good relationships design our destiny.   We are all travelers.  Though we buy ticket to reach to our destination, but we are not sure when shall we reach there.  Till then keep enjoying the journey and let it take you to your destined place.