When was it? Was it not in the year 1987? I guess I remember all the events correctly. I am almost 100% sure (what a phrase!) that I can recall everything correctly. It was in this year that I traveled for the first time in life on an airplane. It was Indian Airlines, which no longer exists. I do not know why I traveled. I do not even know from where I booked the ticket. I could have booked it from the Indian Airlines office at the INA Market. When you proceed towards the AIIMS, you would find the Indian Airlines office on the right side. I do not think that office exists anymore. I borrowed Rs. 3,000/- from Kameshwara Rao Gupta, a friend from Kakinada who used to study law. With that money, I booked the ticket.
I booked the ticket with borrowed money. Okay. But how would I go to the Delhi’s Palam Airport? I did not fully understand that I could either take a DTC bus or hire a black-and-yellow Ambassador taxi. I had asked my friend, Pavan Kumar Vijay, to drop me at Palam. He had a sky-blue Bajaj Chetak scooter. It was winter, and the IA flight was around 10 AM. Bearing the cold, Pavan took me to the airport. It took almost one hour! Thus, finally I reached the airport.
I do not remember how I checked in or what were the security checks like. It was an unreal feeling—flying alone that too for the first time in my life! Had I traveled by Indian Railways, I could have reached Hyderabad with a student concession for less than Rs. 60/-.
My father was not happy with my liberal spending and the extravagance. Yet, he gave me Rs. 3,000/- to pay off Gupta ji. Kameshwara Rao Gupta was from a business family. They had CITY EMPORIUM – a shopping mall of those days in Kakinada.
In the same year, I had also passed grueling physical and written examinations, along with the interview, and got selected as Assistant Commandant in the ITBP and CRPF—Indo-Tibetan Border Police. I did not join!
In that very year, I was selected as a Pilot Officer in the Indian Air Force after facing written examinations, one week of physical tests, and finally after a maddening six-hour interview. I was one among the two candidates selected. A close friend and well-wisher poor Surender Batra not selected. I did not join!
I was also selected in the same year as Flight Purser in the Air India. Needless to say, I did not join!
It was also in that very year that I had written LIC’s All India Examination for the post of Assistant Administrative Officer (AAO), got selected, and joined on 10th October 1988. The recruitment process lasted for almost one year!
When presented all my selection letters, my father preferred LIC for me, as he had an unfulfilled desire regarding LIC. In the 1960s, LIC employees were offered very high salaries, more than a District Collector. Meeting an agent and a Development Officer and discussing a career in LIC had left a deep impression on father’s mind. His first preference for a job was LIC’s AAO post. Unfortunately, he failed twice. He joined the police service as Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). Hence, he was happy with my LIC selection and directed that I should join LIC. Hence, I joined.
Finally, I remember the advice he offered: “Your selection to any post is a chance selection, including LIC. Hence, remember convert your chance selection into your choice. You will go far in life.” That is what I am trying to do.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
