[I’m wearing my sunglasses]Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and gentlemen. [Pointing to the toastmaster with a smile] I am sorry; I didn’t mean to make it sound like a third gender! I am glad to stand before you to introduce myself through this first formal speech. You have seen me babble in few occasions before, but this time, you will have to endure me longer! I am here to share a few experiences ‘In my journey called LIFE’.
It was a Saturday afternoon on the 15th of October in 1983 when a tiny human being saw his first sunlight. His first impression about earth was ‘it’s blindingly bright!!’ From then on, for a few years, he never used to go out without his sunglasses! Today, approximately 25 years after that, he has the courage to remove them. [I remove my glasses]. For those you still haven’t understood who I am talking about, it’s me!
I am Bharath Ravichandran. I was born in a small city called Coimbatore in South India. My father, Mr. Ravichandran is a businessman. My mom, Shanthi Ravichandran, runs our home and owns the company that my father runs! I can see people staring at me!! These things happen in India! I have one sibling, a younger brother.
Now, let’s get back to the story. From the time I started my journey, the bright light has gone dimmer and dimmer! [I close my eyes] Oops! Sorry. I didn’t realize I had closed my eyes! Life’s bright. Life’s good! Life is the best teacher.
I clearly remember one episode from my school days. It was a Sunday morning and I was eagerly waiting for my friends to play a game of cricket. For those who don't know the game, it is similar to baseball and is commonly played in India. Even hours after our usual meeting time, none of them turned up! I decided to go meet them, but couldn’t get my bike out of the parking lot. My dad had taken the keys to the garage with him. Disappointed, I came home and looked into the time-table for the next day. Only then did I remember that there was a test scheduled for the next day and I hadn’t prepared for it! I thanked god for those random events and prepared for the test. The next day, I came to know that my parents had locked the bike in the garage on purpose and had sent my friends away to make me realize I had to study. I learnt a lesson that day. I learnt the Chaos theory. Even though those events looked random to me, there was really nothing random about them! From then on, some person or the other has laid out plots to get me to study!
Thanks to their efforts, I was admitted into a reputed college in India. I had a lot of fun in college. Movies, long drives, lunches, dinners, dance, drama – you name it, I did it! [Singing] Those were the best days of my life! I am sure they were better than Bryan Adams’ summer of ’69. If there were 100 days in one semester, I used to be merry for the first 80 days. In the last 20 days, I used to burn the midnight oil to score well in my exams. I realized later that I had learnt the Pareto principle. 80% of all the good work was done in 20% of the time! That was how I was successful in college!
I am an MBA aspirant and have been working on it for a couple of years now. There is an exam conducted in India for admission into Indian universities. To crack that, I enrolled in a prep course in the evenings. Few days before the course started, my office timings were changed and I had to work in the evenings! That was the first thing to go wrong. I had to enroll in weekend classes instead. All my weekends were eaten up by those classes – the second thing to go wrong. After all those sacrificed weekends, I wrote the exam and found that only one university bothered to call me! Even they didn’t want to admit me after the interview! This was when I realized that life was teaching me Murphy’s Law! Everything that could go wrong was going wrong!
After that debacle, I got an opportunity to come to the USA. The experience and exposure I have gained from the time I came here have been truly spectacular! I did many fun activities like visiting new places, driving many cars, joining Toastmasters and getting to meet new people. But the most important experience was the revelation that there are abundant opportunities for MBA aspirants in the USA. I am currently researching them and will return to this place as a student very soon. Life has taught me that when one door shuts, another opens.
As Randy Pausch told in his famous last lecture, do not get bogged down when you face brick walls. They are there only to give you a chance to prove how badly you want to be on the other side. Thank you!
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