A memento that I have kept for the last three decades is as dear to me as it was the day my professor gave it to me in the auditorium. That was something special. Still the same as it is today. That course I had joined was about the software side of mainframes. It was a six months exhaustive full-time course from nine in the morning to seven in the evening. Every day we used to have four hours of lectures and four hours of practicals. This course was launched for the first time in the country. Mainframes used to come in very high class technology in those days. The institute had to take only twenty students out of thousands of aspiring candidates.
Photo credit: antefixus21 on VisualHunt.comI had passed the entrance exam but I had heard that they were thrashing badly in the interview. I was getting very nervous inside, on the day of the interview, but answered every question honestly and probably because of this, I was also named among those twenty qualified students. In the last month of the course our project competition was declared. Groups of three students in each group were to be formed. In this way six groups were formed. All the groups had to gather in the auditorium at ten in the morning to compete. Each group was given a different project on the spot. One hour was given to all the groups to discuss their own project with their team members.
Then each group had to come on the stage in turn and present their projects. Each team had to choose a project manager. The project manager had to present his project and introduce the role of the rest of his members. Our project came in third place. I got the best project manager award among all the project managers. It was a great achievement for me that day. I got that best project manager's certificate that day, which is still in front of me in the frame. My professor happily gave me his very expensive pen as a memento. That memento is undoubtedly one of my best achievements. That certificate and that memento, both inspired me a lot to succeed everywhere and to achieve newer heights in every stage of my golden career.
A lot of credit for the success I have gained and what I am today goes to the achievement of that day and I feel very proud of myself because of that.