(This was an Ice Breaker at Toastmasters Club NIA Doha. Delivered on 26th December 2016 by Dr. Trilok Sharma)
‘The Journey of my Life’
Every day I wake up with a determination and go to bed with Satisfaction, in this way I am completing the journey of my life!
Thank you, dear Toastmaster, of the day!
Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen!
If I had to break the ice in one minute, I would have said- Mera yahi andaz zamane ko bada khalta hai Itni thokaren khane ke baad bhi Ye shakhs Seedha kaise Chalta hai??
The answer is very simple, despite of all odds in my life, I survived, because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me. Always remember, to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure!
But I have five minutes, so I will take you through the aerial journey of my life. The journey is full of Action, Emotion, ups and downs, so please be patient and enjoy with me.
Who is Trilok Sharma, what does he do, where does he work and what has he achieved…these are the questions that might be better answered by google than me. So, I will not enter those areas this evening! I will share only secrets about me that Google doesn’t know.
My journey to this world started 18 thousand 934 days back. I was born in a small and remote village of Southern Rajasthan and after 58 days from today, I will be celebrating my 52nd Birthday!
Frankly sharing with you my friends, I had no desire or target in my life as all other successful people have from their early childhood. But I had a dream, which I used to see again and again during my childhood, it took me almost 21 years of my life to know the real meaning of that dream. The meaning of that dream was to develop the abilities to survive against all odds. I am proud to say it today that at this age I have emerged as the Survivor.
I will not take you on the route which was very beautiful and I drove with much ease. Let us walk together for a while on a different road today which most of my nearest people are also not aware of.
In 1975, I passed my primary classes and entered class 6th. Then only I came to know about the place we call school. I could read and write, but not able to understand what the teacher really trying to make me understand. Not because I was a mentally challenged child, but I was never serious towards the studies.
Then came class 7 and real challenge started. My father, who was a very reputed and senior teacher of the town; was the class teacher and used to teach Mathematics and my uncle used to teach English. First day was very tough for me, because I was the only student in class who was NOT able to answer any question asked by any teacher. My father and uncle were the two teachers who made me feel most insulted in comparison of other teachers. That day and today, I never enter any class without full preparation!
Let us change the route and take a by-pass. My father wanted me to become an Engineer or CA but I didn’t have that metal. So, he declared that he will not be responsible for my studies after Senior Secondary classes. It was acceptable to me. I never see the face of college for learning-teaching activities until 1992 when I entered the campus to teach a PG class of Mass Communication there as an Invited expert faculty.
Are you shocked or surprised??
Everyone around me was also shocked. After my Senior Secondary Exams in 1981, I joined the Editorial Board of Rajasthan Patrika that started publishing from Udaipur in the same year. During these 10 years, I completed my graduation and post-graduation as a non-collegiate student. My salary in Patrika was Rs. 600 per month and to run my family it was very less amount. I utilised my free time to do some part time job and I started writing Thesis for PhD students. One thesis usually completed in 2 to 3 months and I used to get Rs. 5000 to 8000 for each thesis. That was a good job for preparing myself for the future. I was the most popular Ghost writer and during those 11 years I wrote 28 theses on different subject range and all of them awarded Doctorate. All professors were happy with me, because their students were getting degrees in first attempt, and at the same time all the students were obliged of me who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get their degrees for another two years. I was nominated as the external examiner for almost all PH D Exams and oral interviews. All posts coming to me from Universities were addressed as Dr. Trilok Sharma, while I was not a Doctor until that time. I earned my own Ph D in January 2008.
Coming to the main road again, now I will take you through the Golden era of my life. The two decades (1991-2010) full of achievements beyond my imagination. The network I created in the first decade of my career was now giving me the real fruits. My father was now more proud of me and had forgot all the complaints that were raised because I could not become an Engineer or a CA, because now I had more reputation in society and demand in market as a renowned journalist as well as an academician. Rajasthan Patrika had started a campaign called “aao gaon chalen”. Many of you must be aware of it. Master Bishan Singh Shekhawat from Jaipur was the person who contributed highest number of articles in this campaign and stood top in the state and I was the runners up with an unbeaten record till date.
More reading and writing job pushed me slowly towards bad health and I developed the problem of spondylitis. Doctors advised me to leave the job and find some easy job. Then in 1997 I joined Udaipur Chamber of Commerce and Industry as The Chief Executive Officer and performed quite well. During my short tenure of two and half years, I was instrumental in setting up a technology centre in chamber and brought an International funding of Rs. 5 crores for the development of Rural Tourism and Marble related small scale Industry in the region.
These two big achievements brought me into the notice of His Highness Maharana of Mewar Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar and he asked the chamber to release me for him in 1999. He assigned me the responsibility of the Secretary of Rajasthan’s one of the biggest charitable trusts called Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation. I was also assigned the responsibilities to run all other 7 trusts belonged to the royal family of Udaipur as their honorary secretary. Just to give you an idea, the major activities under me were the Annual Maharana Mewar Foundation Award Ceremony, The Maharana Mewar Public School, The City Palace Museum of Udaipur, Shri Eklingji Temple and the Sun temple in Ranakpur.
You all will agree with me that life is not all about the good things. There comes bad time also. I have also passed through it. I winded up my inning with Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation when the next generation entered the scene. My chemistry with Shriji Arvind Singh ji was very good but with his son I could not tuned up myself and decided to leave them in the mid of 2007. I started my own business and put all my savings into it, but suddenly came the worldwide recession of 2008 and 2009. Despite of all my preparation and dedications, I lost all my investments and to come out of this situation I even had to sell my house and lost my permanent address as well.
This was the phase of my life that taught me- “Success is not Final, Failure is not Fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts”. I also realised that “Pain is real. But so is the HOPE!” And with this faith and hope, I continued the journey. My Good angel and best friends came forward to pull me out of this situation and we shifted to Ahmedabad, where once again I entered academics and worked as the Director Academics with Ahmedabad centre of Sikkim Manipal University. But now the challenge was different. I had to regain my permanent address and that was not possible with job only.
In February 2012 I landed at Qatar and started a new inning. By end of 2015, I could regain my permanent address in Ahmedabad and now we are leading a good life again. Here after noticing my achievements, the Qatar University invited me and enrolled me as visiting professor in Management Department. I am continuing with sharing the knowledge and experience with young students of Qatar and other nationalities as well as my full-time assignment with Sendian Group as the Managing Director.
We are all inspired by other people, I am inspired by many, many more than I can list, people who run big business and small. I firmly believe that it doesn’t matter who you are, what matters is whom you choose to be with. Many people came in my life, some as blessings and others as lessons, but everyone taught me! What I have learnt during my journey of life is- Kind people are the best Kind of people and simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!
My P1 speech would not be complete, if I don’t talk about my family, who was always with me in all of my ups and downs. I am the eldest son of my father among 5 brothers and a sister. I am happily married with Shobha. We are blessed with two sons. The elder Divyanshu is married and settled in Pune while younger Ketuman is working in Qatar as Media Consultant to a company called Primedia Qatar.
The journey with you has just begun, it will be continued through next projects. See you soon with my P2 speech.
Over to the toastmaster of the day!!
Let us Grow Together 