100 Rays Of Son - 98

When Opportunities Knock

When recently I was discussing his first choice of career in Automobile Industry with Rayyan, he told me, “Maa, I never think of what could have happened. I just see good in what has happened and I am going to be happy with what I have. If I start thinking ‘what if’ I will end up being unhappy forever”. I wish I could be like him, but then I somehow cannot stop thinking what would have happened if he could have gone into automobile field.

When Rayyan was in school, he had come up with an idea about using the power generated by rotating wheels of a vehicle to power up the battery or something, which I cannot explain like he does. I could not understand what he was saying, because the working methods of cars and motorized vehicles has never been the topic of my interest. But, I did some Google search on what he was saying, and I found actually few people had tried it out, but unfortunately, it did not work out. This encouraged me to see a future for Rayyan in automobile engineering. Some people ask me, why when something he said did not work out, I was encouraged. It is because there were others who had seen it as a potential working model. May be it needed to be modified some more to work out. More than that, I love people coming with new ideas which means they have critical thinking ability in the area of work. That was what encouraged me. Later, in USA, I saw great interest Rayyan showed working with Jay in garage and I was further convinced about his career and Rayyan was also on the same page. But, then life doesn’t go as we want it to go and a small mistake from his father landed him in a different career all together. This tiny thing will remain a regret for me, no matter what Rayyan will achieve as an animator and progresses career wise. I will always feel now that he would have done great in the field of automobile Imagineering or something similar, but I at the same time I am so proud of the way he is progressing career wise.

Rayyan was at least able to take up his second passion of animation and he is happy. Rayyan has no regrets. As Rayyan finished his Animation course, Farheena was done with her special school training as well. Farheena had to go to a vocational centre which was situated further from our home, so we decided to shift there first, before looking for a job for Rayyan. Officially, Farheena started her career before Rayyan.

I had heard about Digital Juice when helping out a friend find job. I told Rayyan to apply for a job that company and try out his luck. He spent some time preparing his demo reel and then went for the interview. He landed with the job, but I was sceptical about his night-shift. Rayyan found that the job would be great learning experience for him and was very excited to take it up. So, he started his career there and it really helped him learn a lot about Motion Graphics.

Though the company had good standard of work and great learning experience, the challenge Rayyan faced there was the dress code. Since he has never been into formal wear, it was difficult for him to manage the shirts and formal pants. Other than that everything went on fine until nearly a year later, the company suddenly announced that they were shutting down. Rayyan was enjoying the learning more than the earning and was disappointed. Since, he was there to receive Farheena when she came back from work, I had taken up full time job for once in my life. Everything had to be shuffled once again.

Few weeks went by as Rayyan attended few interviews but could not take up job due to distance, work environment, mismatch of work requirement and many other things. I told him to wait for the right job rather than jumping into just anything that came his way. Finally he found something he loved and was waiting for their call. It did not come by. I came across an ad for a company which was very close to our home. I informed Rayyan to check it out. He went for the interview and came back highly excited because his boss interviewed him in Jeans and T-shirt. He got the job in the company and he decided to take it ahead. The same day, the job he had applied for earlier responded calling him in. Somehow, since Rayyan already had the offer letter, he went ahead with the job giving up the one he coveted for long. It was not an easy decision to make.

When he started, he had no clue what the whole project was about. When he realized, it became a passion for him. His company was competing in Global Learning XPRIZE, which was associated with the Elon Musk. That name ignited lot of excitement in Rayyan. The company was looking to create scalable solutions to enable children to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic in short duration of time. Rayyan would come home excited most of the days and would discuss his project so often with me. They were working in Swahili language to reach out to children in Africa.

Meanwhile, Farheena’s vocational centre shifted to a new place and we had to shift to a new home again. Meanwhile, I got back to working from home like earlier. Rayyan was working with more passion as the days of result were coming near. I was as much excited about the project as was Rayyan. Finally the result was out and to the great surprise of everyone the start-up from Bangalore was the only Indian company among the top 5 finalists in the much coveted XPRIZE. Rayyan had a lot of trust in the project and his boss, but that did not take away the shock, surprise and delight even a bit. When Rayyan took up the job, little did he expect such a big boost for his career, yet here it was. I am not sure how is he going to beat that high peak in his career curve ever in his life, but then life is unpredictable and we will never know.

This also enabled Rayyan to help me out with saving Giggle Garden which was taking baby steps. I had started the school with a working partner who had to back off due to travel and health issues. Rayyan decided to buy out her share and become a part of Giggle Garden because he knew how much this project meant for me. At times things work out in mysterious ways and we feel blessed. I cannot stop being overwhelmed thinking how his company winning the XPRIZE saved Giggle Garden from closing down when the partner suddenly backed off and demanded I refund her share as soon as possible. At that time, the only option I had was to sell off all the materials we had bought to run the school and pay her.

When the project was coming to an end, Rayyan got an offer through an acquaintance who remembered him from the days of Arena. His team lead from Digital Juice had also recommended his name at BYJU'S which paved his way there even before he came out of his previous company.He had enjoyed working in the company which had its share of fun and parties along with the great achievement. As his work with Chimple was over, he had just enough time to finish the interviews, demo-reel before taking up the new job which started on his birthday last year. It has been a good progress for him so far.

I am not sure how, but life is pushing Rayyan towards education and teaching, since his mom is highly passionate teacher. At present, Rayyan is back to enjoying his work, though travel in the heavy traffic of Bangalore is something he doesn’t look forward to. I wish him good luck and also thank him for the gift of Giggle Garden, which is the best thing I have done in my life career wise. He not only loves what he does but also helped me do what I love the best.

He is happy and content with the way his career is progressing. What else can I ask for?

https://inc42.com/buzz/chimple-global-learning-xprize/