Life Changing Experience.
There Is No Education Like Adversity
After they left, my mother told me “the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested your father for his alleged role in obtaining telecom licenses for his company but I know your father is innocent of any wrong way.” Tears rolled down my cheek as she spoke. I hugged my mother tightly and cried for the next few minutes. By the time I regained composure, it was already 12:30 a.m. I went to my mother's room. By this time, my sister had woken up, she was crying profusely and my mother was consoling her. I rushed up to her and tried to console her too, but she was inconsolable. That night was probably the longest night of my life. I was awake and talking to my mother and sister as to the next steps in this shocking development. My life completely turned upside down with this incident.
Next day: In the morning, my father was produced before the Court and sent to judicial custody. I was with him in the court throughout the hearing holding his hands and reassuring him that I would take care of the family. When I returned home, I sat with my mother and told her what I had promised my father. She looked at me with an expression that I am unable to explain in words; I guessed what she meant was I trust you. My father was eventually taken to Delhi from Mumbai and hence I moved to Delhi along with my mother. I continued to visit my father on a daily basis and I visited lawyers for few weeks. The absence of my father in our life was an inconceivable development, one for which I had never dreamt nor planned. I was in the 9th Grade, planning to pursue my 10th Grade and High School education in the UK. However, with these developments, all plans came to naught. I had to look after my mother who was most distraught and my sister who could not come to terms with what had happened. My mother obviously expected me to continue attending school however; my father’s condition pre-occupied my mind.
As these events unfolded, there were issues related to coordinating with lawyers and with my father's business executives. Therefore, until my father was released on bail on the 29th of November 2011, I continued to visit Delhi every weekend to meet my father. Then, whilst I was in Mumbai I coordinated on his behalf with his business executives. Every day of the week, I attended to his office to understand his business issues so I could narrate them to my father when I met him over the weekend and take back instructions from him to his executives.
In the process, I learned about my father's business, which was primarily real estate and gained considerable insight in the criminal case that my father faced. I was and remain, fully convinced of my father’s innocence that the court will exonerate him and he will regain his lost position in business and society. However, I learned more than business, real estate and law in the process; the circumstance of my father’s arrest gave me a more important education as well. It taught me to value the family bond, true friends and the ability to face adversity with strong resolve. This experience changed me completely and marked my transition from youth to adult.
