Nenjamellam kadhal

Chapter -32

                                                                                           Sakthi

We stayed at our guest house during my visit. Dada accompanied me to the college and the hostel, where we arranged my belongings in my room. Because it was still a holiday, I returned to our house with a few of my belongings and planned to return to the hostel one day before the college reopened. Dada took me on a sightseeing tour, familiarising me with the route from the college hostel to our guest house and introducing me to nearby amenities such as shops and hospitals, which made the ten days pass swiftly.

Contrary to my mother's expectations, I didn't return home after a month. While the initial adjustment was challenging, I grew habituated to the hostel life after the first two weeks. Dada initially stayed in our guest house for a month, providing much-needed support for me. Even after that, he made frequent visits, spending weekends with me and taking me to explore nearby places. During my semester holidays, we embarked on trips to nearby places, including trekking, hiking, camping, and more; my grandfather joined us whenever he could.

Despite having a rocky start, things smoothed out after the initial couple of months. I made some strong friendships here, notably with Karthick, a fellow Chennai native. I would recommend that everyone experience hostel life, at least for a short period, as it would teach humility and friendship.

After six months in the hostel, my mother realised that I was not coming back without completing my degree here, as she expected. After that, they began visiting me whenever possible after the births of Navya and Amar.

Anni and Akka both went into labour within two weeks of each other. When Navya and Amar were born, I flew directly to the hospital and returned to the hostel the same day. Apart from those occasions, this marked my first prolonged stay in Chennai after three years.

When Navya turned six months old, Siva Anna visited me at the hostel and took me to our guest house. He forced me to sit with him and explained that he had asked Mom to send me off that day solely for my benefit because I was very naive and cuddled by everyone. Also, he believed that it was better for me to stay alone and figure out my life if I wanted to take over Dada's business after him, and he believed that if I stayed with Mom, I would never come out of my shell.

He assured me that he loved me as much as his daughter and that he had never felt the way Shri did. He told me that during our childhood, he felt more protective of me than Shri, and he was happy to take care of me and accompany me whenever he did in the past, and he will continue to do so even if I get old. He was the one who told me about the Institute of Design in Italy, which he discovered while on his honeymoon there.

During my third year, I undertook an internship at Zara Homes, a construction company based in Noida. Karthick and I partnered together on my final-year project. I did it at a branch of my father's company in Bangalore. We did it under the supervision of the company's design department head. When he resigned and moved to Mumbai to work for an MNC, he told us to contact him if we ever wanted to work for him after we finished our project. Karthick accepted his offer and decided to join his team in Mumbai after completing his final year.

During my final semester, I grappled with the decision between pursuing a degree in business management or a design course in Italy or at the same college. Despite my passion for design, the practicality of business management for handling the family business weighed on my mind. Anyway, I applied for entrance exams for both business management and design courses in SPS and Italy, as I had been preparing for both since last year.

The entrance exam for business studies was scheduled first, and I took it. The SPS and Italian Institute entrance exams were scheduled three months before my semester exam, with a two-week gap between the two. During the preparation period for the entrance exam, I received the MBA entrance exam result, yielding results that made me eligible for A-list colleges.