New Delhi: New Delhi: Making a career in the corporate UK or USA is a target that most Indian students seek to achieve as they pursue studies abroad. If you thought a foreign degree was all that it takes to get a break in corporate United States, it's time you see the challenges behind realising the dollar dream.
Sandeep Varma, Senior Analyst, Lehman Brothers, New York gives his account of the ordeal and opportunities that came his way while he made his way to the top.
I distinctly remember my first day on US soil; I had eagerly awaited this day all my life and was so looking forward to making a name for myself in this foreign magical land. Everybody called it the land of opportunity but somehow I just knew I belonged here…(Read part1: I reach NYC)
Chapter 4: My Life goes into turmoil
As I sat there staring at the ceiling in the ICU, I had this sick feeling in my stomach of letting my parents down. I had somehow managed to pull through most of the first semester even with the constant coughing and tiredness but there was definitely no going back to the computer lab the moment I was diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis.
Now the dormant TB virus is present in most of us Indians as it is presumably transmitted into our bodies with one of the vaccination shots we receive as new borns. It takes a lot of stress coupled with weakening of the immune system for it to become active; and when it does become active; is highly contagious!!!
A massive TB test operation took place in the computer lab I worked all day and night at and unfortunately, 50% of all the students tested turned in a positive test for dormant TB! Fortunately for me, no one had active TB...A wave of panic spread through the Computer Science department at the university as medicos and public health workers came in and everyone testing positive for dormant TB was put under a six month treatment course.
The news spread and before long I was labeled as the TB guy...All this while, I was still recuperating after the initial week long treatment at the city hospital. I was quarantined in my house for a month and a public health worker would visit me with a mask everyday and ensure that I had my meds daily. I was told I could go back to school after one month of heavy medication (to subside the contagious nature of the active TB virus in my system) and would then have to complete a six month course just like the other students who tested positive to completely rid my system of the virus.
Sandeep Varma is a Senior Analyst at Lehman Brothers, New York and an alumni of Cornell University. He can be reached at [email protected]
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So there I was, my finals of the first semester half undone, a huge bank loan in India, down and out with active TB and practically no money...and no support system in the middle of one of the coldest winters in North America...Oh yes, I wasn't going to tell my parents back home about this...and I didn't...
Chapter 5: A New Year ushers in hope
While I was recuperating I knew that if I could survive this, I could basically face up to any challenges I was going to face in my life.
When I returned back to school after a month in the new year for a new semester I was told that the finals I had missed had been waived off and I ended up with a pretty healthy GPA of 3.8/4.0 for the first semester. I then applied for a TA for one of the courses I did well at and ended up getting a partial TA. In another couple of days, I was offered another partial TA (for tutoring Hindi in the Asian studies department) through an application I had filled in a few months back.
Things were starting to turn around...I started eating and feeling well and although I was looked down upon and discriminated by some of the goras in the lab, most of my colleagues had a lot of sympathy for me. Even the professors in class spoke of this anonymous kid who braved up to a deadly disease and made it through the worst...I finally informed my parents and although they were shell shocked to hear everything I had been through, I played down the intensity of it all and convinced them that I was going to be just fine...
Being a TA was a fun experience...I taught a business course to freshmen and sophomores (1st and 2nd year college students) in English and taught Hindi to another bunch of look alike Indians (oh yeah, these ABCD kids just looked Indian, they didn't speak or feel Indian at all) and some goras interested in the course.
The business course kids had a little trouble initially with my accent and the Hindi course kids were surprised to hear me speak such fluent English out of class... and then came the stereotypical questions...I was questioned on everything from snake charmers in India to cows on the street.
I tried to convince them that India had progressed by leaps and bounds and although we had a long way to go, India was a young country with a lot of talent and drive among its youth who were turning around the face of India to the rest of the world...and that it was an exciting time for Indians everywhere, we had arrived on the international stage and there was no looking back!
I really did and always speak very passionately about India as I'm grounded because I grew up in this diaspora of probably the most intellectual breed on the planet.
Coming back to my story...I now basically had enough money to live a comfortable student life and slowly started to ease into the program; studying and teaching made it fun and kept me on my toes.
I started enjoying the Indian Association gatherings in school and made sure to attend the other cultural events in the university as well. We even played cricket, watched Indian movies in a closed auditorium at wee hours of the morning and made super duper Indian meals in our desi gang gatherings. Spring was on its way and my life was back in full bloom.
Chapter 6: Culmination of an eventful year
It was interviewing season soon and although the economy was still recovering I started hearing of friends and colleagues landing with posh offers from prestigious companies. I blew away the first few interviews I had partly because I was a nervous wreck and partly because I couldn't quite come to grips with the interviewing procedure out here. You were expected to be a computer guru with a personality to match up to the school's reputation; and in the fray of students competing for these prized jobs, I certainly wasn't the smartest or the most charismatic around.
After the initial interviews that I bombed I finally managed to get an onsite interview call from a company close to New York City. The interviews went well and soon enough I had a lucrative offer from a good firm. No more multiplication of the dollar amount by 50...I could finally start repaying my loans, going to parties and get the life I had dreamed of. Graduation went by smoothly with President Clinton coming to do the honors. I felt proud and thankful to God, my parents and my India...Coming to Uncle SAM had paid off.
As I looked up to the skyscraper I'd be working from, I knew I had arrived. My dream fulfilled and the beginning of an exciting new chapter of my life in Corporate America and New York City.
(Sandeep Varma is a Financial Analyst at Lehman Brothers, New York. He can be reached at [email protected])
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