Impact Of A Pivot

September 28, 2025

The average child’s greatest obstacle is blissful unawareness of their own passions. I was never particularly outstanding at anything. From my vantage point, expecting that I might find passion in anything felt like a bleak endeavour. While I was surviving high school from one test to the next, a pivot changed my life forever.

A decision is obvious – it presents you with alternatives. A pivot hides itself in the cacophony of life. It is a choice that remains dormant, unless someone steps in to recognize the need to change course. In class 7, we were first introduced to the subject of Computer Science. Back then, it was just another subject I needed to pass.

I still get goosebumps thinking about the day I received an abysmal score of 20%. Baba came home that warm humid evening after a busy day and told Ma that there must be something that is not clicking for me. He had taken introductory CS lessons back in college I think and he was convinced that my poor result was a symptom of not understanding the fundamental concepts of the subject.

As a soon-to-be parent, what I find remarkable in that exchange is while it would have been easy to blame my lackadaisical nature for the test results, Baba took a deeper look at things. He decided to teach himself Java while also explaining the course material to me, step by step, one day at a time. That changed everything. I make a living doing something I genuinely love – all because that day, Baba looked out for me in a way I didn’t know I needed. You can never connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards, Steve Jobs famously said. The weight of that pivot is apparent to me today, some 20 years later.

Baba was always a gifted teacher – many fondly recall his physics lessons. Much more than the lessons themselves, what I takeaway is his silent watchfulness throughout my growing years – being the pivot and the nurturing support the shy indecisive kid needed more than anything. While the rest of my friends were duty-bound to follow the grueling path of competitive examinations, Baba’s calm guidance offered me a different path. He always encouraged me to find something I enjoyed. That quiet but radical permission to explore took me from English majors, trying a degree in Law, switching back to CS majors and later securing a funded masters degree abroad.

Today I am one of the few who can, from the bottom of their hearts, say they love what they do for a living. All of it traces back to that warm sultry evening back home and Baba’s thoughtful intervention – a pivot – that changed the trajectory of my life to ultimately find that one thing I am ever so slightly better at than the next person. An average kid’s dream.

Sometimes all you need is someone to tell you that it’s not your fault and that they have your back. Baba went beyond that – by sitting next to me every Sunday morning since that soul-crushing 20% score and explaining the fundamentals of Computer Science to me. Week after week, he wasn’t just teaching me – he was kindling a spark that would grow into a lifelong passion.

Baba is my pivot, my rock and the reason I am not lost in the dust today.

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