My Dad, my hero

Remember that line in Love Story (by Erich Segal, a captivating read of two young college sweethearts) when Oliver introduces his girlfriend, Jenny to his father? (a successful businessman, and a wonderful sportsman – Olympian no less in his student days) He wonders if she noticed that “he’s an inch taller than me”. On innumerable occasions, in school and college, I have experienced Oliveritis myself, as my dad has been and remains an inch taller than me :-)

And, just as Oliver, I always feel that it would be great if someday, I can measure upto him. And just as him, I realize that catching upto my Dad’s achievements is going to leave me panting all through life. (I can relate to the Indian Oliver, Abhishek Bachhan here as well ;-)) And as I am sure is with him, my heart swells with pride when I talk about him with friends and colleagues.

And just as big B’s cup of victories overflows, here comes another feather in my Dad’s cap. At the age of 60, when his peers are mulling deep matters like which pilgrimages to make, my Dad’s choosing which stocks to invest in! When his contemporaries’ daily ritual starts with taking their grandchildren to prep school, he finishes the economic times and browses the latest on the net. And when his friends are contemplating where to “settle” in, he is evaluating which IIM to join for further studies!

For those who are not aware, he’s taken the CAT this year and scored 99.3 percentile. I don’t know if the IIMs keep a record of scores, but I can bet on it being the highest score by a 30+ candidate, ever! I read somewhere that a person’s brain continues to sharpen from birth, is sharpest at the age of 20, and then starts to wane. Keeping that in mind, (no pun unintended) I can only imagine his score had he taken the CAT 40 years ago!

He’s intending to join IIM – Indore in July for a FPM (Ph.D) program in Management. His area of research would be data mining. (IT for the uninitiated) It’s the same institute which rejected my application 10 years ago when I wanted to do an MBA from there. But, as my girlfriends in college realised, so do the professors at the IIMs, that even at this age, he’s the smarter one in the family. After all, he’s an inch taller me!.......always :-)