Gratitude
July 28, 2011
-by Karthik Gurumurthy
It has been quite a while since I blogged. There has been lot of things happening which was keeping me busy. From time to time all of us catch ourselves being in a rut so much that we do not pause and reflect about the things that we need to thankful for.
With the blessings of my parents and good wishes from friends and family, I actually got the "outstanding award for excellence in teaching this fiscal year. I attribute this to my parents who has always blessed me and given unconditional support all the way, my wife Shobana who did everything in her side to let me go out and perform and my brother Aravind who has always been a backbone to all my successes, and my miracle baby Ashwin for showering luck on us.
I also like to take this opportunity to all my good and bad teachers from Kindergarten to Grad School.( Sankara School, Vivekananda College, Anna University, IIT Madras, Tulane University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Johns Hopkins University, Univ of California Irvine). Good teachers taught me how to break down a complex subject to simple language in which students can enjoy and appreciate the subject so that they can apply it in day-to-day life. Bad teachers has shown through their example what pitfalls I need to eschew so that I can learn from them.
I would like to make a special mention about my good friend from Kindergarten "Susi" aka Sudarsanam who literally took me under his wings and pushed me to level of excellence when I was frittering away my time during IX grade. This was the time I really had no idea what I was doing and what I was capable of. I was promoted from IX grade to X grade with warning( I barely scored 35% in my annual exam). This was probably one of the low points in life which helped me to reflect and bounce back. Thanks to the association with Susi who really pushed me to excel and that is the time I started to dream big and I know I can outperform anyone and achieve anything if I set my mind to it. Thanks to all my cousins and relatives who set a high bar of excellence for all of us to follow.
I am thankful to my research mentor Dr. K. S. Viswanathan from IGCAR who showed through his example how to really learn and master any subject by putting in the effort through relentless passion. I thank all my business coaches for teaching me how to communicate clearly from heart than from the mind. I am using this award as the springboard to help more students achieve their dreams and goals in academics as well as more business associates reach their financial goals through my business opportunity.