In the last blog, I had just completed my notice period, and was officially jobless.
Often God plans something for you, the devil will try his best to mess things up, and this time was no exception.
I had a couple of tasks to complete before I head back home in a few days, and I wanted to have something to show, before I would face a barrage of questions from my hometown.
Prof. Mukherjee was absolutely supportive about my plans to do research in Statistics, and he wrote me a stellar reference, but I needed two more reference letters. One from another prof and one from work.
For work, I thought of my senior who was like “if you need anything, please let me know”.
The Senior who ghosted me
I decided to give my senior at the workplace a ring. He picked up, and was so delighted to hear from me. However, when I mentioned needing a reference, he abruptly ended the call, citing an urgent matter. I kept hounding him for the reference for days, but he mysteriously became unreachable. Just to be certain, I tried calling from another number and voilà, he answered.
“If you didn’t want to give me a reference, you could have at least said it” I said and hung up the call.
So much for “if you need anything”.
But the good thing was that this letter wasn’t mandatory, so I sighed in relief.
The Professor who tried to hurt my chances
However, there was one letter that I couldn’t do without, and this was the second reference letter from a professor. I decided to go to a very senior and well known professor, as we had a good rapport, and I was his student too.
Each of the universities I had shortlisted expected me to fill out a form, basically a questionnaire on my skills and level. The scale ranged from 1 to 10, where 1 meant “I have no idea what I’m doing” and 10 meant “I’m basically a superhero.” Prof. Mukherjee had already filled out this form for me, giving me straight 10s across the board, and saying “It is highly competitive, and unless I give you 10, it will be difficult.” I felt like I’d won the lottery! So, I went to this senior professor hoping for the same treatment. As was the custom, he had asked me to fill it out myself and then bring it to him for signing.
I went to the Professor’s office for getting the signature, and just when I thought that it would be a cake-walk, I noticed that the professor was intently looking at the paper, and he didn’t look too pleased.
“Prince, you have put all 10s here!” he said.
“Yes Professor.”
“This will not be believable. You should not put 10s here. Put something believable. Also, what Statistics do you know?”
If a camera was on my face, you would probably see shock written all over my face.
He kept making discouraging remarks, and after that he insisted that I fetch another copy of the form, then proceeded to fill it out himself with 3s, 4s, 5s, and anything but 10.
It dawned on me.
He was determined to block my chances of getting the position.
I felt betrayed, but I stood there distraught and helpless. He gave me the sheet that I had filled and brought in, and asked me to throw it in the dustbin on my way out, while he sealed the new one, with the 3s and 4s, with the low ratings in an envelope, and posted it, and smiled.
“All the best, Prince” he smiled.
At the end of the ordeal, I walked out of the room, heavy with sadness, and while I was about to throw away the form that he had given me to dispose, I noticed that it had all 3s and 4s instead of the 10s I had entered.
That’s when I realized.
He had accidentally posted the one which I had originally given him- the one with the 10s, and had given me to dispose the one which he had filled.
I had the one with the 3s and 4s which I gladly disposed. I praised God that day, knowing that even despite the devil’s plan to destroy, God made a testimony out of it.
Conclusion
It was a great testimony of his goodness in my life. I remembered that if God could use Pharaoh’s daughter to bring up Moses in the palace, he could definitely swap the reference letters so that His plans would come to pass. My God is amazing!
People may claim to help you, and may not help you, but you can always be certain that God cares. He taught me a valuable lesson that I shouldn’t trust in chariots and horses, but in the Lord.
My time in Chennai ended with an amazing testimony! Now it was time to go to my hometown.
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