Click here to read – Daughters of India Part I

Daughters of India – II

QUEST – I                                           

Shubha entered the USA for post-graduation.  Her new life was woven around JAVA, PYTHON, and the WEB world. New friends. New assignments. Away from parents. Away from old friends.

University classes –different from earlier classes. Shared room. Roommates from different countries. Food availability – western food. Indian preparations – Indian grocery stores.

Everything new. Shubha got used to the new environment. Food habits. Behavioural styles, and new style of clothing too. She changed her outlook on the dressing. She changed completely.  She adopted the new lifestyle.

Her high IQ made her perform very well in her career studies. Regular telephone calls to parents and reporting progress made Devdhars happy. After two long years, Shubha got her Master’s. Devdhars were looking forward to Shubha’s return to Mumbai and searching for a job. Since India also was making progress fast under changed political leadership, Devdhars thought Shubha would get a job of her choice in India only. But Shubha had different plans. She applied to Microsoft, the best job provider for IT aspirants in the United States. She got the job and conveyed the good news to her parents, Devdhars.

On one hand, Devdhars were happy that Shubha has got the job of her choice but on the other hand, they also realized that it would delay her return to India and her marriage prospects to a boy of their choice. Earlier they were prepared that after marriage, though she would stay away from them, they would be able to visit her place anywhere in India whenever they missed her. But now indications were that she was going to stay so far away that their visiting her would not be easy.

Here in USA Shubha was getting extremely busy with her job. More assignments, more success, more promotions. In her fast-paced life, she came across Amit who was her classmate in Engineering college in Mumbai. He was also in the IT field but with Google. When she first met him at a conference, her college days in India were rekindled. Amit was a very nice person – serious and studious in their college days. She found Amit the same now. Some sort of strange feelings were generated in Shubha. She thought if he was inclined, Amit would be the right guy to settle with for life. As per her upbringing, she was interested in an Indian boy, of her religion even if he is from a different community. She thought about her parents. Considering their thinking, she thought Amit would earn their approval. She approached Amit with the proposal and Amit was too glad to coincide. Both decided to get married in India in their parents’ presence.

Shubha disclosed her decision about marriage to Amit to her mother.  Her mother was upset initially. Shubha choosing her life partner on her own without their consent was unacceptable. Though Devdhars had nurtured Shubha to be completely independent, her being independent to the extent of choosing the life partner was shocking to them. Secondly, the boy was from a different community. How can they face the orthodox relatives? Devdhars first opposed the idea and told Shubha to reconsider. They told her of some boys in acquaintances who were well suited, from their community, and most importantly settled in India only. That would make matters easier. But Shubha was firm on her decision. She tried convincing her parents that the boy was Indian and they would hold up to the very first opportunity to shift to India if their career was not affected. Devdhars were not impressed by this promise as they had almost accepted the idea of Shubha settling in the USA. They were happy with Shubha’s progress in her career and were not prepared to apply brakes to her climbing up the ladder by imposing their ideas on her. Finally, Shubha and Amit’s parents met in Mumbai and chalked out a plan for the wedding in Mumbai after consulting both the candidates.

Nearly a year had passed for their marriage and Shubha had hardly time to think of her friends from the school. Extremely busy with her career, on top of her newly married life, and she could not spare even a few minutes to think about them.

That evening when she returned home from the office after a hectic day, she freshened up and arranged for dinner. Cooked on Sunday morning some Indian-styled vegetable, was taken out and put into microwave for making it hot. Some gravy too was made ready to accompany rice. She looked at her watch. Amit would take nearly an hour more to reach home. She was happy that she had applied for a competitive event in software. She took out the papers and was brushing up the material to be sent to the apex body for evaluation. Soon Amit arrived, they finished their dinner and sat down to discuss her paper for the competition.

QUEST – II

Archana completed her Master’s in India in Biological sciences.  In her pursual to get a doctorate, she applied to various universities for admission.  Since the possibility of financial aid from her parents was very bleak, she opted for a university in the USA that provided a teaching assistantship to support her expenses during her studies. One of the family acquaintances, who was staying in the same city, was contacted, and with her help staying arrangement was made.

Archana started chasing her career goal in a far-off place, away from her own country and new atmosphere.  She had to complete her Master’s as a part of an integrated course which she accomplished with great satisfaction. The research environment which demands a lot of self-initiative was new to Archana.  Colleagues from different countries were part of the complex surrounding. In addition to this, the cold atmosphere made her stay more difficult. During winter, the below minus 20 degrees temperatures, demanded a different kind of clothing especially the woollens which she had never even heard of. The snow falls, wading her way through heaps of snow, etc. was very new to her which added more thrills to her life than a hindrance. She added skiing as her new avenue to her extracurricular activity in addition to trekking, hiking, etc.

Archana took so much interest in her tasks that her teaching assignments earned her popularity among the student community. Her elocution skills came to her assistance in her periodical presentations of laboratory work. Everything was going great for her when all of a sudden, an unexpected thing happened in the laboratory. The scientist under whose guidance she was holding her ground strong, decided to leave the university and that was a big setback to her career. This incident had put spoke in her ambitions by at least two years. A new guide means to start all over again. But firm she was. She consulted her seniors and decided to join another lab where she found a project with prospects in the future. She took this setback in her stride and started working on a new project with full vigour.

Archana was so much buried in the project work that she had hardly any time for her friends. Weekends were also used to complete the tasks which needed more working hours. Despite total dedicated input, the results were not coming as expected. She was stretched beyond her capacity. Any other person would have given up and resigned from the project. But not Archana. Perseverance was a quality that had made her different from others. She fought with the time. She did not succumb to negative results. And her life continued under pressure.

Her colleagues Stephen, Roger provided her with the necessary solace in her stressful going.  They were also struggling for their doctorates but they understood her point of view and always sided with her when she advocated her ideas all alone.

After a solid struggle for five odd years, Archana got some stunning results. She pursued with them. And yes, that was an extraordinary achievement. Her name was talked about in the field. She received accolades for her work.

She informed her parents about the latest developments.

Deshmukh’s were delighted. Now the obvious thoughts were of Archana’s marriage. Their half-hearted search for a match for Archana got revitalized and seriously they started looking for a suitable groom, worthy of her.  With their background, their field of the search was much wider than conventional, one could think of.

Deshmukh talked with Archana and asked her if she already has somebody in her life. And to their surprise, the answer was affirmative. Roger, who was her colleague and very good friend had earned his doctorate and had moved to another city to do post-doctoral research work. As expected Deshmukhs did not enquire about the caste, religion, or even nationality of the boy. Simply they asked Archana whether she knew of his interests. Archana answered about how he had helped her in her research work, about his interests in skiing, astronomy, etc. Once she had met his parents too. They also were keen on her wellbeing. Deshmukh’s told Archana that they would talk to Roger’s parents.

To be continued

Vijay Likhite