Lost in India: It Was Under an Indian Skyline My Pathway to My Destiny Was Revealed

By Sharad Makhan

In my life I was beset by the tragedy of what my mind conceived and what life presented. I was a normal guy with unusual circumstances, which made me realize that my soul would awaken by accepting the blessings that I turned my back from.

This is a story of a journey to the majestic land of India and how a mans destiny was revealed to him by what he thought was the ultimate end of him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Mar 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543740127

Sharad Makhan

As an author Sharad inspires the soul with his writing. He transports your mind to any dimension he chooses and has the ability to take your imagination to a point where he leaves you breathless. That is the power he wields in his writing. An author with a gift to change the world.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

P ietermaritzburg a little city in Kwa-Zulu Natal South Africa, that’s where my story begins. As a boy growing up in a small town it was cozy, never wondered of to far from home, never had any worries, safe to say it was a normal childhood. My dad Mr Vijay Makhan, my mum Mrs Shashi Makhan and my elder sister Jyotsana all lived in a small apartment in town, we were a happy unit. My dad who was a used car salesman and my mum a housewife did their best to give my sister and I a warm and nurtured childhood, even though at times money was at a low my dad always smiled and mum always made sure whatever dad brought home she would cook something spectacular. We never had a worry, my sister and I went to an average school, had a close unit of friends who are more like family to be honest and we had an amazing normal life. I however have always been a dreamer I was never as highly professional and well groomed as my dad, nor was I as charismatic and bold as my sister, to say the odd one out would be to say the least, I was not one of those kids were you just knew by one look who they will turn out to be.

My rise as a man begins many years after school and college life, I was informed by my sister of an opportunity that came up at the college at which she worked, she is a lecture for many years but also the most boldest, kindest, loudest, frantic, sometimes annoying, did I mention loudest?, individual you will ever meet. SHARAD GET TO CAMPUS NOW YOU NEED TO DO THIS I WILL EXPLAIN WHEN YOU GET HERE, that was the very informative call which I had no idea would be the start of the most remarkable journey, and most life altering experience. The National Institute Of Information Technology also known as the NIIT, a very well established educational institute from India, they took on an initiative to promote information technology in foreign countries around the world, a very worthy cause I might add, being in an age of technology and many people not having the means to study the NIIT merged with the Moses Kotane institute in South Africa to offer bursaries to people willing to get familiar with IT. However this was a unique bursary, it was told to all who registered that towards the end of the course a handful of students will be chosen and get an opportunity to go to India to serve out an internship and gain international work experience.

Being the pessimist I was I passed a remark to myself after hearing that as if that’s going ever happen. A dreamer I was but I was also very rude, arrogant and I admit very judgmental, I always in my gut knew that there was something larger than life out there for me, something colossal that would make all the years of job hopping worth it, I being a Hindu was thought to be good, kind and graceful in who I was to others, I’m sure after me telling you how far from that I was its clear that my bond with god was not the closest, I was always angry at God and life for very superficial reasons such as, why did dad never buy a house?, why do we always have to settle for the least and watch others have the best?, why does mum have to be sick? Why does everything good that comes away take its own sweet time to come? So I was a rebel to a very hard working and humble family, naturally back then I never saw myself as a little brat I honestly believed that I was fighting for a cause that was going to make everything better and that was status and material wealth…good Lord was I in for a rude shock!

My dad used to always tell me you are the captain of your own ship I could literally pull my hair out whenever he told me that because I had no bloody idea what he was talking about, further more every single time he told me that he was under the influence of alcohol. As both my parents sadly are now not with us, I write this in honor of them, they were two that actually believed in me the most and again I was too arrogant to see that. My travels, my journey and my experiences are that of ‘acts of God’ I aim to make the sad non believer a believer, I want to inspire hope to those who have lost their way within themselves, I want to send a message to the world that the essence of life, the value of life comes from the most unexpected places, and that sometimes to be found, to be saved one needs to be lost.

This is a story of how God was made visible to me, and how in my opinion he can be visible to all, I feel that after reading an adventure it would spark all who feel prisoner to themselves to break the shackles you have manifested over time, and that finding the hero in yourself is so easily attainable even when you feel you have being the bad guy. We hear stories of how men go to battle outnumbered and half-starved but yet still taste victory, we hear stories of how the little guy finds the heart to overcome an adversary two times his size, yet they inspire us to a point, but when we wake the next day we say to ourselves this is real life heroes come to those who do not need them. In this I want to send a message to all that no matter how far you travel outside your front door, no matter if you never left your front door, there is a horizon we must all follow and that’s the horizon that leads us to awaken our true potential and lives within you and finding it is a journey unlike no other.

CHAPTER 1

I get up one fine morning, not feeling too confident to go get the day, only because it’s the first day of campus and I was not too optimistic of how I would benefit from this initiative that an overseas institute would have in my life. So I get to campus see many students all bursting with nauseating enthusiasm. We were all directed to a classroom in which the orientation would begin, we see two gentlemen from India walk proudly into the class, and everybody was so amused by this… yay Indians because we don’t have any in South Africa that’s what I rolled my eyes and said to myself. Again the enthusiasm was high, their energy was electric and so motivated when speaking of the course we were about to pursue. We were all going to be studying Business Process and outscoring also known as BPO. To me call center management never seemed like a career path I wanted to embark on but then again at the very confused stage of my life, I had no path I wanted to take.

In my class I being the antisocial person I was actually made friends, they were so named Sajil and Kerry. And during the interval of lecture I made a few more and they were so named Luwayne and Lee. The first day already proved how amazing this journey was going to be, I Sharad Makhan made friends and did not lose them within an hour. In my class I sat next to a girl who in time came to be a very dear friend to me her name was Batha, my lecture at the time was a close friend of my sister as well her name was Stacey. The day progressed and I made it through the first day without wanting to go home and jump of a building, During my time at college as the days went on I found my emotions and attitude to life in general was slowly starting to change. I was more involved in class I was starting to develop a small fan base with my general knowledge and witty responses in class and I was getting along with my fellow class mates.

My lectures I attended were not very challenging because I had a firm grasp of the English language seen as it is my first language but to some in my class it was not so easy and straight forward, I remember a guy that approached me and in a broken English he said my choma(South African slang for friend) could you help me take English?. Assuming he meant if I could help him with his English I gladly assisted because he had asked in such a humble fashion even an arrogant guy like me could not refuse. I over time became very close with my class we used to laugh, work together and grow as unit together. I was actually starting to learn so much of myself because of the people I was surrounded by, I found my arrogance was slowly starting to dull, my perception of people started to become more positive as opposed to me always been so highly suspicious of everyone. But I want to digress and track back a few years.

My mum suffered with a mental illness from the time I was a kid, and growing up I used to slowly adjust to the fact that my mother was indeed sick and that it was nothing she had control of, paranoia schizophrenia is what doctors diagnosed her as, my sister and I however never let it change how we saw our loving and beautiful mother, because of one thing I know is true she gave us the purest and most intense love a mother good give, however I now know her condition silently affected who I was in society, because I was surrounded by people whose parents whereas society would put it normal. And I never saw my mother as anything besides the perfect mum but I was withdrawn from people because I did not want people to pass judgment onto her and show pity to women I feel was significantly more amazing than any individual living without a condition. Coming from a humble background I always wanted more I as a kid was not very grateful for the little I had, and when my sister started working she used to spoil the whole family and I was swimming in that glory and never realized at the time that I was drowning my spirit, because I was enjoying the fruits of everyone’s hard work besides my own. This over time manifested a very harsh form of me, and it held me back in life and I was totally oblivious to it. I had a very odd passage of thought, I used to read books on demonology, witchcraft, white magic and take interest in a lot of dark and unholy stories and events, again all which played a role in me becoming so distant from everybody including myself.

So whilst I was at campus I went through such a spiritual journey, I found I was not praying, not arguing, but now talking to God. My best friends who I consider brothers were also starting to notice a change in me, my bro Waseem once asked me I have noticed you enjoying campus, but Sharad do you plan on completing this?. No he did not doubt me to add to my many character flaws I also had this ridiculously bad habit of not finishing what I start, I would be so volatile in any project or activity I used to take on. I told my bro that I’m strangely enjoying campus, a lot of people trust me to help them with their work and motivate them to do better, my bro in total shock was like uhm ok,

Waseem and I had been best friends for many years and over time we developed a very special bond, he was my partner in crime, he guided me when I was out of line, had so much respect for my family and his own, he was never one to turn down help to anyone. Which is why my parents loved him, I used to always say he was the son my parents never had, but even so I was cool with that because I knew I was not exactly living up to the amazing reputation my father had, even my sister at a young age was very accomplished, and I also felt that at least the folks got one child to represent. Both Waseem and my sister were supportive of me in different ways and I looked up to them because they were doing so well in their respective careers, Waseem being a well-trained nurse at a very good hospital and my sister a lecture in an established institute, and I still studying to an uncertain career path I felt I did not measure up and instead of taking inspiration from the two people I looked up to I just carried on being me.

I was loving campus but a huge part of me felt so incomplete, and I could feel the novelty of helping others and people looking up to me was slowly fading, because I associated success with money and not by the good I did. However one day Sajil my very energetic friend comes running to me on the campus parking and says we having a concert and I have to dance I’m going to be famous as over confident as he was, he was indeed a very good dancer, My lecture and campus managers had explained to us that it’s going to be a cultural show, to express South African culture to a panel of judges from India. My friend Sajil was so excited he truly believed without a shadow of a doubt that this was ticket to Bollywood. I however was so not impressed because we were told that every student will have to take part and contribute in some way, and I for the life of me had not the foggiest of idea on what I was to do.

Then my friend Batha came to me and said "hey mam said we going to do a play on the 1976 Soweto riot, in South African history this was a huge moment in our countries walk to freedom, many school children took the streets of Soweto in a protest against the apartheid law that forbid the use of their native tongue in schools.

Again I was still so confused for still had no idea how I fit in all this. So whilst our class was brainstorming the play we were going to do, and then Stacey my lecture who at that moment wished she had no faith in me suggested I do the background speech and after every verse my classmates would act out what I just read. I agreed even though I did not really have much of a choice seen as all those students I helped with English nominated me to do the reading… talk about your good deeds coming back to haunt you, because I was not keen to speak in front of a large audience.

I do admit though it was fun and a pleasant distraction from my own morbid mind, there was music, African drums were played and that was amazing the beat of those drums could invoke such passion and fire within ones soul, it motivated me I took to my writing pad started writing what I knew about that historic time, did a lot of research and was now looking forward to doing this, and yes. Sajil still thought he was going to be in Bollywood. The concert day finally came after months of practice we were all ready for this, but also very nervous because the other classes were really creative and had acts that were equally historic as what we were doing. After a brief introduction from the campus manager it begun. I remember a lady