In Search of Dreams

A very famous quote goes this way" dream of yesterday is hope of today and reality of tomorrow"

> I still remember very visibly the day when I decided that I will go to Mumbai to pursue my IT engineering. My dad at first was little reluctant to accept my decision. What perturbed him the most was the thought of his daughter staying alone at a place that's completely new. He respected my decision and I finally packed my bags to leave for my destiny's call. Dad accompanied me; we completed all the formalities at the university, and shifted to a good hostel. Now, I t was time for my dad to bid me goodbye. He consecrated me with his love and wishes and left for Delhi.



It was the time when my excitement of being independent, took a hold's suddenly started feeling very lonely.I immediately picked up the phone and called up my mother.certainly, it relieved me.

> But decrypted a message from my mother's words that from now onwards I have to be more responsible and careful at each step.Few days passed, and I accustomed myself to the living style and food habits of Mumbai. Being a delhite and a Punjabi, switching to the maharashtrian food served in the hostel's mess was quite thorny for a girl who was never exposed to any sort of adversities of life, always enjoyed the shelter of parental love and care.Food was not the only area, where tweaking was required. When started attending lectures and had difficulties, approached professors. You might be wondering what's wrong about it, approaching professors on having a doubt. Nothing wrong, but my questions were answered in Marathi. So new challenge was to get well versed in Marathi.Initially it was troublesome to cope up with the loneliness, but the freedom and the will to be successful overpowered that despair. Another best experience was staying in a hostel. It's like staying in a multi cultured environment. It has both its pros and cons, being an Indian, belonging to a country of diversity; getting exposure to these cultures definitely adds delight.It was like a learning period where I was learning to become a software engineer and experiencing my new stint as a manager. It added confidence to my personality; at times it was unbelievable for me, that I can manage everything on my own, without lingering behind my dad or mom.



Life to me, now seemed like a mountain, and me the mountaineer, trying to climb it by putting all my efforts, to reach the apex and fulfill all my dreams; dream to be called as a professional, to be completely independent, to support my parents and not to be a burden on them.These dreams constantly motivated me and never allowed imbecility to creep in. With the advent of time, I adapted pretty well to the new habitat and started loving it and the food too specially the puranpollis,sheera,dal-bhaat,karanjee and what all. Made many friends, because I realized when you are not with your folks they are the one to be with you. But one has to be very choosy about

making friends; one wrong choice can ruin your life. Look out for a friend who is not an aberration for you but a motivation.



Time came, when I became the favorite student of the faculty of my college and also a best student with lots of enthusiasm not only for studies but other co-curricular activities too. And that time was also not far off when I accomplished my degree with a distinction and had to bid goodbye, but this time it was not my family but my friends, college and above all a city that made me strong, resilient and powerful enough to be independent. To everyone it appears what I got from that city was only a professional degree, but in my point of view, it gave me those wonderful four years of life that taught me so much, which I would not have learnt if I resided in my abode at my birth place where I spent around 18 years of my life.