04/23/2006

A mid-level civil servant came by Jayeshbhai's house to deliver some good news: his son had recently landed a job with Cadbury that pays 10.5 lakhs a year. They somehow know Jayeshbhai, and the mother had very specifically remembered Jayeshbhai in their hour of good fortune and insisted that a personal visit be made to share the news.

The parents of the guy who got admission are a very interesting couple. They were married as children. The wife worked and tended to the house so that her husband could get an education. In fact, she insisted that she bear the burden so that he could get an education and they could be better off in the future. His education landed him a secure government job, though not necessarily a high-paying one.

Somewhere in this time, their son was born. The wife continued to work and save money, though her husband was already earning. Though she herself was barely literate, she would enforce rigorous study upon her son. He was a bright student, usually at the top of his class. Either as he was graduating from high school or college, he got an offer for some fastracked military training that would quickly give him a ranked officer post. He asked his mom if he should take it, but she couldn't bear the possibility of losing him in battle so she asked him not to go. From his perspective, he wasn't able to get a decent job, and couldn't afford further education, but he still complied out of love for his mother. He aspired to get admission to IIM and took the CAT despite knowing that he couldn't afford it. The day he learned that his score would qualify him for entry into IIM was full of mixed emotions: jubilation at the achievement but disappointment at the inability to reap the fruits. He shared the news with his parents. His father was heartbroken, until his mother revealed that she had been tucking away money from her odd jobs for years as well as saving drastically from her personal expenses, and actually had saved enough to cover his initial IIM fees.

Now, two years later, he's graduating with a fabulous offer, because of the selflessness with which his mother sacrificed her own life to educate her husband, and then him.

Somehow, though the woman came to deliver the good news to Jayeshbhai, she was shy about getting out of the car to share the news. Jayeshbhai coaxed her out and was so humbled and touched by how selflessly she'd worked, that he said that her sacrifices were an inspiration to him. After they left, he ended up ordering a bunch of Cadbury chocolates to be delivered to their house.