Thursday, January 8, 2015

117. Our daughter's achievements and pursuit of excellence make us happy

Thousand Moons: Dr R.V.Boradkar and Mrs N.R.Boradkar
Contributed By: Dr R.V.Boradkar  



I was of the firm opinion that the environment in which the children live influences their choices later in life. Now I feel that this is only partially true. We lived in Surat’s medical college and hospital campus but none of my children showed interest in medicine, and did not choose it as a career. I learnt this when my daughter was in the twelfth standard and we wanted to find out what she intended to do. She was quite certain that she did not want to become a doctor, and we started to think of possible options. She had shown some interest in the fine arts, and while we supported that, we also wanted her to choose a discipline that offered good job opportunities. We believed that women must be economically independent, they should have a source of income based on their own skills, and should have the potential to earn a living.

In thinking of other options, one of the possibilities that emerged was architecture, and she showed a real interest in it. The government of Gujarat’s technical college offered a program in Architectural Assistantship and she chose that as her career path. She really enjoyed this course, worked very hard on all her projects, and got extremely good marks as a student. We also discovered her desire to achieve a high level of perfection in everything she did. This streak of perfectionism paid rich dividends to her later on. She fell in love with architecture, worked tirelessly over three years completing her projects and assignments on time and paying attention to every little detail of the work assigned to her. She appeared for the final and when the results were declared, to our profound joy we found that she had stood first in the state of Gujarat. This was moment of triumph for her and boundless joy for us. This also led to another remarkable achievement. She was offered an internship at Sangath, an architectural office run by renowned architect Balkrishna Doshi in Ahmedabad.

Now, of course, there was no stopping. We started looking for institutions that offered further training leading to a diploma in architecture. In Mumbai, an institution called Rachana Sansad accepted students into the second year of their program who had training in architectural assistantship. We approached the authorities with a request to admit her in third year rather than second considering her rank in the state of Gujarat and the prestigious internship. And though they typically did not do this, considering her achievements, they admitted her into the third year of the diploma program. This was another triumph for her that really pleased us. In due course, she got her diploma and became a full fledged architect. We felt happy, content and fulfilled. At that time we did not know that something else, equally if not more exciting, was to follow.

She worked with an architect in Surat for some time and then decided to go to Pune. She had got a job with another well known architect Christopher Beninger who had worked in Ahmedabad and had now opened an office in Pune. It was here that the perfectionist in her blossomed and her working style really paid off. Soon, she became a favorite of Mr. Beninger and later he recommended her to an architect friend of his by the name of Dolf Schnebli, who worked in Zurich, Switzerland. Manisha got the wonderful chance to be able to work in his office, and we were elated, or rather ecstatic. Getting a visa to Switzerland took a little time, but with a little assistance from Mr. Beninger, that too happened, and and we booked a direct flight for her to go to Zurich.

In Zurich, she stayed with Eberhard and Barbara Fischer. The Fischers had adopted two girls from Gujarat, and as Manisha knew Gujarati well, she took the time to teach them the language. The Fischers were so pleased with Manisha that they more or less adopted her as their third daughter. After her tenure of a year before returning to India she traveled through parts of Europe, England, and then to the US where our son Prasad was doing his master’s degree. From the US, she came back to Pune and continued working with Mr. Beninger again.

We learnt that in everything she does, Manisha is able to express her desire for perfection and attention to detail. Her achievements and pursuit of excellence make us happy to this date, and continues to fill our hearts with joy.

Dr R.V.Boradkar and Mrs N.R.Boradkar
 

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