Whatever He Wanted

Whatever He Wanted

He could have have had anything he wanted. So what did he want?

Shanker was born in a small village in coastal Kerala in southern India. His father, although an uneducated tailor, knew the importance of an education and sent his son to the local school. Shanker soon became a favorite of all his teachers, as he was both intelligent and obedient. He always stood first in his class in the examinations and never made any trouble in school. Some nights, after he had finished his homework, he would go for a walk with his father. They would walk to the river on the edge of the village and sit for a while on its banks. His father would tell him wonderful stories of great people from the world beyond the river. These were stories of kings who had saved their subjects by the sacrifices they made, freedom fighters whose conviction and courage had freed India from foreign rule and of common men who had bought glory to their villages by their hard work and ability. As they walked back home later, finding their way along the mud trail that led from the river to their home, by the light of the naked flame his father held up for them, Shanker would be lost in his thoughts. He dreamt of a wild and wonderful future for himself, like the heroes of his father’s stories, bringing happiness to his villagers by his actions, confident in the knowledge that he had all the time in the world to make whatever he wanted come true.

When Shanker was in the fifth standard, he won a national essay writing competition sponsored by a company in Madras. All participants had to send in an essay titled “My Ambition in Life”. Shanker wrote about how he wanted to grow up and become a scientist and bring progress to his village and country. A journalist came to Shanker’s village and took photographs of his family, his house and school and also interviewed him. The interview appeared in a national English language newspaper along with his photograph, but nobody in Shanker’s village saw it, as they didn’t get English newspapers there.

Shanker got the highest marks in his state for the school leaving examination and on his teacher’s insistence, his father send him to Cochin to stay at his uncle’s house and attend the pre-university college there. After he had finished his course, again with a stellar academic record, he received a scholarship to study engineering at the University at Benares. Here again, he excelled at academics and his professors were amazed at his intelligence and the speed at which he picked up new concepts. Some nights, he and his friends would go to the teashop at the campus gate and sit there till late sipping on tea and chatting away. The tea was good, but the conversation was even better and he and his friends would sit round the kerosene lamp on wooden benches at the roadside shop late into the night exchanging stories and talking about their plans for the future. Most of his friends wanted to go work and settle down in a big city, make money to enjoy the comforts that money would bring. Shanker, however, wanted to eventually return to his village and make a real difference to the lives of the people in his village.

Shanker finished at the top of his class and earned a scholarship to do a post-graduate course in America. There were numerous forms he needed to fill out while applying for admission to universities in the US. Many of them asked about his future plans and he always wrote about his passion for chemistry and his desire to become a famous scientist and contribute meaningfully to the progress of science and hence mankind.

He spend two years at Harvard during which time, he did very well for himself and was, once again a favorite of his professors. At the end of his course, he landed a job in the research department of a consumer goods company. He worked in a big lab with many other equally well-qualified and able scientists on developing molecules that would make a superior detergent. The work was stimulating and the pay was good and Shanker didn’t therefore mind the long hours that he put in. During this time, Shanker met and married one of his colleagues — Malini Sharma, who like him had come to the US from India. They worked on the same project and went out together often to the cinemas and for dinner. Sometimes, when they went out for long walks together, they would reminiscence about their lives in India and how they would one day like to go back there to settle down. They also talked a lot about their careers. Shanker had a burning ambition to rise to the position of the head of the research and development department at his company and was confident that he had it in him to get there.

Shanker was very good at his job and was, by now, the head of his team. Malini had quit her job when they had their son and was a happy and content homemaker. His son inherited his intelligence and when he grew up, went to the best university in the country. Shanker continued to do exceedingly well at his job. His superiors thought very highly of him and most people realized that it was only a matter of time before he became the head of his company’s research and development department. He had a big car; bigger house, property in India and more money in his bank than he could possibly spend. As his responsibilities at work grew, he found that he had to spend more time at work and also be more organized, in order to be as effective as he used to be. He got an additional secretary. He also had a laptop that plugged into his desktop and a palmtop that plugged into the laptop that helped him keep track of his schedule and count off the days of his years.

As expected, at the age of forty-eight, Shanker became the youngest ever head of the research and development department of his company. Shanker thought of that as the happiest day of his life. His promotion was widely talked about in corporate circles and was also covered by some business publications in the country. Top magazines and TV channels from India send journalists to interview Shanker and he told them all his story of how a small village lad from India had grown to become the head of the research department of one of the biggest corporations in the world by sheer dint of hard work.

Shanker did not go back to India very often any more. His parents had died a few years ago and his son had no interest in returning to his parent’s native home and had stopped accompanying them on their annual trip home many years ago. Besides his work schedule made it impossible to take off more than two or three days at a time anymore. Shanker began to nurse an ambition of becoming the CEO of his company. Already, there was talk in the company that given how young he was and how well he did his job. There was no precedent of CEOs from the research and department function at his company, but that did not deter Shanker and he worked towards his goal in everyway he could.

At the age of fifty-seven, Shanker was appointed the CEO of his company. It was the high point of his career. He was the first Indian to be the CEO of a major corporation and for weeks he was the center of all attention. Major magazines featured him on their covers and his interview appeared on the major television networks.

The week after he was appointed CEO, he made a business trip to one of his offices in a different city. After work in the evening, he was strolling along the promenade by the river that flowed near his hotel. As he walked, Shanker’s thoughts went back to his village and his evenings spent by the river with his father. His father’s stories and his conversations with friends in college fleeted through his head and for a moment, he remembered the magic of his youth. Then it passed and he made a mental note to ask his secretary to look for a non-profit organization to which he could contribute.

That night, Shanker had a heart attack and died in his sleep.

Shanker’s body was flown back to India and cremated in his hometown. There was also a very well attended service in the city where he lived most of his life. They talked about how gifted and hard working he had been and how he always got whatever he wanted.