Our life is a journey; rather a series of journeys. We embark on each journey with a destination in sight. In the end we realise that each one was part of a grand journey to a grand destination and the little stops and detours were only momentary. My own journey has had its joys, sorrows, challenges and sense of fulfilment which I consider unique. Officially now I enter my professional retirement and it is only natural to look back and recount the journey I took- my academic and professional journey- and how it all added up to a joyful consummation.

My Academic journey

At the age of 12, I aspired for priesthood and so I joined Don Bosco Aspirantate, Tirupattur, Tamil Nadu. After finishing 12^th I was one among those shortlisted for Novitiate. But my father insisted that I join novitiate only after completing degree.

I applied for Engineering at REC. However the application which I received by post turned out to be blank on two of the four pages! So it fell through.  The next choice was to join an arts and science college for a degree course. Here too there was a problem. When I thought of the   BSc programme I found that it needed me to take two papers of second language either Hindi or Malayalam, which was very difficult as I had studied neither of these language papers at school. So I joined S B College for B Com, which had just one very simple Malayalam paper and I secured second rank in Kerala University.

The next plan was to do MBA. This was in 1975. I applied to join the only B school in Kerala, School of Management Studies, Cochin University. I cleared the written test, but got stuck in group discussion and personal interview. Another dream bombs. I went on to do MCom at NSS Hindu College, Changanacherry, passing out in 1977 with second rank in Kerala University.  

I secured M Phil from Calicut University in 1986 and PhD in Management from Kerala University in 2004, thanks to Faculty Improvement Programme of the UGC. I was recognised as Guide for PhD under M G University in 2009.

Professional journey

Being a teacher was the last option I had in mind. It so happened that a vacancy cropped up at SB College the very same year I completed my Masters. So I applied, was selected and appointed Lecturer in the Department of Commerce in 1977. But somehow I did not like teaching and I registered for Company Secretary Course, ACS. A couple of years into the teaching career, I realised that the students appreciated my classes. I slowly took on to this profession; or rather fell in love with it. Looking back I feel I would have been like fish out of water in any other profession.

I could serve SB as Lecturer, HOD Commerce, Vice Principal, Director of Berchmans Institute of Management Studies and finally, by a historic decision by the then Archbishop H G Mar Joseph Powathil, the first layman Principal of S B College.

On my official retirement in 2010, my successor, Rev Dr Tomy Padijarevettil requested me to continue as the Director of Berchmans Institute of Management Studies. I said it is not proper that a former Principal stays back in the campus. And as it turned out, I was appointed Director of XIME, Bangalore, thanks to Prof J Philip, the founder of XIME. After a short stint of one year at Bangalore, I joined as Dean of the newly started MBA programme at Naipunnya Institute of Management and Information Technology, Angamaly, a venture of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam and Angamaly.

In 2013 the intake of students at SB MBA programme was doubled and the Principal insisted that I come back to SB as the full time Director. After much pondering and consultation with my close associates, I decided on my second entry into S B campus in 2014. I officially bid farewell to SB Campus on 30 June 2020, after putting in 40 years of service on the campus.

Connecting the dots:: The Almighty’s divine plan

Looking back at our life we can decipher a path all through in our journeys which Steve Jobs calls as ‘connecting the dots’. I call it the Divine plan of the Almighty. I see a clear link between my academic and professional journeys.

• I desired to be a priest, did not become one; but was placed in a post, which was occupied only by priests in the history of St Berchmans College, Changanacherry.
• I planned to do MBA, couldn’t; but became the Director of MBA institute, which was ranked one among the top 30 B Schools in India and was the Director of the MBA programme in S B for 12 years.
• I did not want to be a teacher, but was in the teaching profession for 43 years. Ten years more than the usual tenure. Moreover I have turned out to be a passionate advocate for this noblest of professions.
• On retiring as Principal of S B, I refused to be on its campus to lead the MBA programme. But I did return to the campus in 2014. During the rage of the pandemic, Covid19, one of the privileges people claim is ‘work from home’. I had been enjoying this luxury of working in my own home town residing within 2 km radius of my workplace- a 10 minute drive or a 30 minute walk for 43 years of my professional life, barring three years. In fact those three years working far away from home, made me thoroughly enjoy my second innings of the six years at SB, making it the best phase in my entire career.

At this juncture, I am filled with a sense of wonder and gratitude.  I believe that God had chosen me for this – to be an academician, a teacher who became an instrument in His hands to touch many souls and guide them on their own life journeys.

God Almighty never fulfilled my desires, but granted me a career, far higher than what I desired and deserved.

I gratefully genuflect before the divine strategist