Double Dhamaka!!

What a day it was! August 20th, 2013. I received two news which form very important milestone of my academic life. First, I received my results of Master's degree that I had successfully cleared it and secured a modest 8.3 CGPA. It had been 2 long years, a hundred weekends later that I had earned this degree. Truly it is a very dear achievement and I am grateful for all the people who supported me in various roles.

More importantly, it meant that, I  was now officially eligible for Ph.D. degree, result of which I was still waiting to hear rather nervously than anxiously. Later after an hour I received another e-mail. This time it was from Jain University!! This was it, I would know if it was yes or no. I prayed as I clicked to open the email. I calmed myself as the email was loading... I remembered one of the principles which I was brought up with, by my father: "Hope for the Best. Prepare for the Worst". I felt a sense of calm, a steady mind to accept what ever news I received. I had put it a lot of effort which technically started year or so ago and had picked up pace in the last month and a half. By this time, Email had opened and I had no choice but to start reading the mail. It started as below:

Dear Varun Deshpande 

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that you have been provisionally selected for the Ph.D. Programme in Computer Science Engineering,. Congratulations.

I closed my eyes for a second and thanked God for his kindness and Dr MKN for her support. I remembered Venus, my favorite heavenly planet, who is my constant source of inspiration. I felt at peace rather than over joyed. I took a deep breath and continued to read the rest of the mail. It took few minutes to sink in and immediately rushed to Balaji to tell him the good news. It was a major miles stone and a huge hurdle cleared. I had earned my ticket for my journey.

Later that evening, when I reached home, my mother greeted me with tears of happiness and hugged me. I told her there is still at least 3 years to go.... :)