2006 was a challenging year for me personally. I had always planned to leave for the UK for my PG. I had given my IELTS and was preparing for PLAB. As if the situation there wasn't challenging already, the changed rules threw my plans into disarray. Plan B was going to Australia, my family wanted me to go to the US, though the USMLE was a relatively tougher exam and hence it was Plan C. My friends from college, Ashiq Ahmed with whom I was preparing for the UK started preparing for Canada, and Mehul Patel was preparing for the USMLE. I spent some months evaluating the options and there was never a Plan D.
At some point I felt two things, one I would always be an outsider in any of these countries, and that any changed rules like in the UK could affect my prospects of higher education. Secondly, I started feeling good about how the group was shaping and started thinking if I should consider staying back in India. I was going through immense personal turmoil during that period and when I think back now, I'm not sure if I was in the right frame of mind when I decided on these things. It's probable, I just gave up without trying too hard …
We continued to meet regularly at either the Gandhi Mandapam park or on the lawn at the entrance of IIT Madras. One day, we were traveling on a bike to one of those meetings I remember Surendran telling me he was leaving Chennai and me asking him if I could start leading the group in Chennai and that's how I got started. And it was only my Plan D …
Have you faced an unexpected situation in life when you had to choose a Plan B which later turned out alright? Leave a comment
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