Those days I was working as a faculty in an engineering college in Odisha. I was preparing for my Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) along with my lectureship job. Exam preparation along with being in a job was really a tough task but I strongly decided to do so. I was very much determined not to take financial help from my parents during my preparation period. This was encouraging me to study hard and also being in a teaching job was helping me to be in touch with my subjects.
But it's true that always the plan and the reality may not run parallely. The institute where I was teaching was established in the same year and it was facing serious financial breakdown. To my bad luck, the owner of the college was in real estate profession. His prime intention in starting the college was to make money and not to bother about quality education.
This post is the sequel of DARE to live your DREAM. This story tells how I struggled after my WIPRO days.
At the starting of the academic year, the owner forcefully involved us in marketing job. We had to move to different corners of the state to convince students to take admission in the college. I was not happy with all those but as a part of the institute I was playing my role also.
Once the admission was over, the classes started. But the management was not paying our salary. For two months they kept on saying us that " Let the admission finish, then we would pay you", but they did not. After several conflicts between the management and the faculty members they released our salary. But this was the situation in all upcoming months. I was very much disturbed and was not able to concentrate on my study.
Before my GATE exam I asked for 20 days leave, which they denied to approve. And this was the case when I had not received my two months salary. I had to take the leave without permission. I prepared hard for those twenty days but that was not enough probably. I qualified the exam but not with a good score. The result was that none of the IIT and NIT were calling me for interview.
Gradually the conflict with the management increased and I had to leave the organization in an informal way. Unluckily I was facing some health issues during that period. I was very frustrated internally. It was like I had no job, not in a good health condition and no clear future goal. Only the clear thing was, I knew I would not get admission in any good university for that year and I would have to find a new job to survive the next year.
I did not know with whom I would share my problems. The instability inside me left me with few sleepless nights. In one fine evening I decided to go to nearby temple to relax my stress. I reached the Jagannatha temple at the time of Evening Arati. I sat on the floor of the temple and closed my eyes. Then I started sharing my problems such that Lord Jagannatha would solve all those. The evening prayer and the loud temple instruments helped me to relax myself. For sometime I was able to ignore the disturbance inside me. That togetherness with God made me calm and stable. When I opened my eyes, everything was as before except my mental state. I was feeling much lighter than earlier. Then I stood up and started walking out of the temple.
Next day I got a call from my father: " I received one of your interview call letter today, come and collect the same".
I have already published this experience story @ digitravellers. As igniteengineers is a sister blog site of digitravellers, I thought of republishing the story at this platform as a sequel of DARE to live your DREAM.
Together - A Different Experience
