I reached Bangalore around 7pm and I clearly remember as I walking on the platform it felt as if the ground below was shaking. Anyhow, I managed to get an auto rickshaw an reached the IISc campus, clueless as to where I was going to spend the night. After talking to many people and dragging my big green VIP suitcase all over the campus, I met a warden who was kind enough to give me a temporary room for the night.
The room was huge, old and scary but I slept with the lights on. Next morning I attended a reception where I met the other 28 young fellows who were selected from all over India. They were all nice and warm people and to my bad luck, no girl worth my time was there. As I was used to such environments, I overcame this first disappointment with great ease and later that morning went to the Department of Metallurgy to meet my alloted Faculty member. I saw that Prof. ESD was mentioned in front of my name and I felt this was my chance to develop new solar cells. I reached Prof. ESD's office and noticed three other students in his office. I felt I was special so will talk to him once he is done with these other kids. But Prof. ESD immediately said, "Gurjeev, I have been expecting you, come on in"..I moved closer to the table..."7012 Aluminum Alloy would be your alloy to be used in NAL's unmanned aircrafts". Those words, I tell you....shattered me and they still echo in my head because those words were repeated in a slightly different form, again in Michigan. But that is a different story altogether.
Overconfident and loud mouthed which is not my natural style, I replied back "There is some error, I am here to work on solar cell materials". Prof. ESD, smiled at me and said "Come back in 30 minutes and we can talk more". I left his office totally shaken and shattered as if it was the end of the world. But when I look back, I have realized that life's challenges come in various forms and most of the times we just can't figure out things, can we?