This post is about my dad's younger brother and my mom's elder brother who have always been critical about me and things that I do. If you really wish to know then you can consider reading this post.
Let me start with my mom's elder brother, Chandru, who used to tease me by calling "ammana gumma" (roughly translates as Mama's boy) when I was seven. My mom still recollects the time when I didn't feel like interacting with my relatives much, instead just wanted to be with her all the time. Uncle Chandru after wasted efforts in pursuing me to spend time with him came up with that intimidating phrase. I guess I used to not like him. I know for sure that I disliked him when I was twelve. He had this high pitch voice and seemed very self righteous when ever he uttered something. I still remember that summer going to his place when my sister and I got our respective report cards of the final exam. I had got 19th rank and my sister had got third rank in our respective classes. He had appreciated my sister's efforts and encouraged her to do better. When he saw my marks card he had belted me right and left. He had shown extreme sense of disappointment towards my performance. I was myself little disappointed after seeing my report card and after listening to his words I had made up my mind that I shouldn't voluntarily go to his place ever again.
Well, I was wrong, for many reasons. Let me tell you why. When I was in 11th (PUC), I had opted Science. During that time he had come over to my place for some festival or some function. Like always, he wished to know my progress in studies. I happen to say that I had a hard time in chemistry. As such I used to hate chemistry then. He asked me the topics that I had, as he was from pure chemistry background, to be more precise, he had majored in chemistry during his bachelors degree and later did a masters in applied chemistry from IIT Bombay. After I mentioned the topics, he told me that they were very easy if I understood them properly. I asked him if he could help me understand, for which he immediately agreed. After that interaction with him I started visiting his place when ever had I tough time with chemistry. When I was in 12th he used to come over to my place regularly to drop his daughter, my cousin Surabhi, for her tenth standard maths tuition, which was near my place. During that time I used to get all my doubts cleared. Like always he used to yell at me when ever I made some stupid mistake or when I had a mediocre doubt, but never the less taught me the subject with great interest and commitment. Due to this I got totally indulged in chemistry. More than teaching me the subject, without his knowledge he had showcased the passion he had for science. I could figure out his genuineness and sincerity, which was wrapped around by the very irritating ill-temper towards me. In this way he became more of my mentor and less of my uncle. It so happened that I scored more in chemistry than any other subject in my engineering entrance exam.
Like Chandru uncle, my dad's younger brother Dr. Gopal has also been a very ill-tempered person with whom I have survived over the years. Since I used to meet him once in a while during my childhood I didn't experience his yelling as much as I am in my adulthood. He was in Tamil Nadu back then. When I was in school, dad used to tell me that he was the first person in our family circle to study at Indian Institute of Science and also to get a Doctorate. Listening to my dad's words, I had aspired to become like my uncle Gopal - a scientist. I always had this very high respect for him and when ever I had a chance to talk about our family I used to proudly mentioned that he did pioneering works in silicon technologies in India. I still feel very proud to be his nephew.
Fortunately, he shifted to Bangalore when I had just completed my engineering. During that time I had tried to start a business with a few close friends but we had failed to launch it. Since that didn't work out I was looking for an electronics engineering based job. My uncle, Gopal had come to my place one of those days when I was in that phase. He wanted to see my resume to make an assessment of my profile. After seeing my resume he told me that I had done a very poor job in making it. He sat with me and prepared my resume in a way that could help an employer understand by credentials for the job that I was applying for. That was my first interaction with him as per career goes. I still remember writing mails to him during my masters about my courses and my research work. I was glad that I got a seat in Indian Institute of Science - the same place he had studied thirty years back. He visited while I was there once and had even interacted with my close friends during that visit. I also remember those days when I had become little careless with my research work for which he had shown extreme displeasure. The worst was when I had not completed my thesis but still went on to do an adventure trip at Kashmir which lasted for three weeks. His typical way of expressing resentment towards anyone is " Have you got some little brains at least?" I might have been at the receiving end for nearly thousand times in last seven to eight years. Though I know that I should be super cautious when I make a statement in front of him with respect to science or engineering or for that matter any topic as he has the tendency to get infuriated with superfluous argument, I still end up getting into some or the other debate with him. Over the years my admiration to him has consistently increased and as much I crave to get his attention towards my work I have also developed this irrational aspiration to win intellectual arguments against him.
When I left my job at GE to start an engineering enterprise of my own, these two uncles, who apparently are my parents favorite siblings, were the first people in family I approached to seek for advice and help. They graciously offered their assistance in all possible ways they could. I guess in the long run I will do very well in my business, I should be able to take it to the level that I aspire. I know it sounds like I'm being little over confident, and well, if my uncles read this post they may snap at me for being too optimistic and will bring me down to the ground realities, but you know what, to a large extent they are the reason; I wouldn't have been this confident without them as my mentors.
