Dear 17 year old Gurleen,
You will be getting your 12th board results soon. Don’t lose your heart, as you will be getting an unexpected results. Your parents, teachers and you yourself will never expect you to get 55 in English, everyone will make you believe that this is an error of CBSE and revalidation of exam sheet will give you 85 if not more. But, the is not going to happen and your Best of four will remain 89% which will not get you to your dream Colllege, Shriram College of Commerce.
However, in entrance examination, you will be selected for BFIA- Bachelors in Finance and investment analysis in Shaheed Sukhdev College of business studies ( popularly known as CBS) . You will crib as there is no campus life around, you will blame your cousin sister who introduced your father to this college and got forms for you, you will be promised that you will get a car for travel as the distance to and fro is 80 kms but let me tell you nothing will help your woes.
So, in 2001, you will finally settle in your college life. Through out college life, you will not realize the importance of the course that you have enrolled for.You will repent even after 2 decades that you did not take the education here seriously. You will miss taking part in lot of opportunities that were served to you on a platter. You will yearn to get in a corporate job after college as your other friends and then with some work experience, you will sit for CAT and do MBA from a top B- school.
Hold on, Life has some different plans for you. In the final year in Feb 2004, you will get engaged and get married. Don’t ask me , Why and How, it will just happen. You will not be sitting for college placements as you will conceive soon after marriage. You will enjoy the honeymoon period for next one year. Soon, there will be Hargun, your son in your arms. You will be feeling on the top of everything and accomplished. You will feel that everyone around- your husband, your parents and you in laws are in a very happy zone.
Again, Life has a different plan in store. In March 2005, You will hear the worst news of your life, your father will pass away all of a sudden due to cardiac arrest. Your world will be shaken, you will feel you have no where to go, no-one to talk to, your back bone has broken and your life will suddenly halt. From 21 year old daughter, you will start behaving like a 31 year old son, you will become more mature, responsibilities on your shoulder- to take care of your mother and younger sister who has just taken her Class 10th exams.
Few months from here, you will be taking in-charge of your father’s 2 decades old business and onus will lie on you to take forward his legacy. You will feel a complete dead end in front of you. It will be very difficult in the beginning as you will not only be taking care of office , but dealing with clients on regular basis and maintaining papa’s goodwill that he built over the years.
Don’t worry, you will get tremendous support from everyone around you, your 3 months old son will be taken care of by your in laws, sister and mother. Your Husband will help you in meeting with clients and setting up the processes, your grandfather will stand wth you through the first few years and your staff members will help you sail you through this. Things will settle down in few years.
You will keep on missing your dad. Whenever you are stuck, you will visualize what your father would have done in such a situation and you will quickly get through. Always remember- “ When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. I have strong faith in your potential and trust you more than you do yourself. You will now realize, the graduation course BFIA was meant for this purpose , you will be able to join the dots.
You will improve as a human being, business owner ,mother, wife and daughter with each passing day. You will keep thinking about the corporate job and would want to earn as much as your college friends are. But something will hold on to what you are doing.
In the year 2009, Gurbani, your daughter will be born and your family will be complete.
In few years from now, your clients will recognize your work and compliment you by saying that you work in the same way as your father. You work with same sincerity and passion. They will say things like “ Aapne business ko 21 hi kia hai 19 nahin”. This will give you a wide smile that you kept your family name high and also got the respect that you were yearning for.
You will venture into other areas of Financial advisory and this will give birth to “Hareepatti” in year 2013 and there will be no looking back.
Rest, in the next letter. Till then Bye.
Lots of love, Gurleen