The Story till now

Mrs. Hina Pathak, the wife of Mr. Harendra Pathak, gave birth to their second child on the post-Christmas day and the propitious Boxing Day, 26^th December, 1988 on a fine Monday morning in the land of rising Entrepreneurs, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. I am still figuring out the reason why my grand-father named that child HARDEEP.

Born in an extra-ordinary family of teachers, I was always extra-ordinary throughout my school life. World’s most caring dad always used to encourage me for multi-tasking, his contribution is the topmost in making me who I am today.

“This education system is going to lead you nowhere. You need to discover atleast one love in some other field than studies and be a leader in that” – My dad

“Moral values and self-discipline will only complement your education”- My mom

“Anything you do, do it with full interest until you are self-satisfied” – My Big bro

My mom and dad made me learn every possible thing during my school time may it be Math, Skating, swimming, key-board, cricket, karate, yoga, dance, tabla, horse-riding or mental calculation (my big bro is a real pro in that). I hopefully developed love towards two major things out of them all, Cricket and Studies (especially Math).

Till I entered the higher secondary, I was the most promising student for my teachers and parents. And to meet up their expectation, I fortunately scored 90% in the 10^th grade board exams and entered one of the most reputed schools of Ahmedabad, St. Xavier’s High School. Unfortunately, trying to accustom with the so-called modern students, I was deviated a bit from my image of a sincere student and a studious boy. For the first time in my life, I flunked the first terminal exam in 11^th grade, and then the route continued till the last Board exams until 12^th. In the 12^th grade, I was sick with broken ankle, migraine, stiff back & dengue for atleast 5 months. But in the last month, I tried to cope up, and the student who was promoted to 12^th from the 11^th grade, scored 72.2% in 12^th grade finals.

My entry into a college called Parul, somewhere in the out-skirts of Baroda happened to be the most boring part of my life, which fortunately ended shortly once I entered LD College of Engineering to do my Plastic Engineering. And I was fortunate to secure the last seat in LD in the last re-shuffling. MY REAL LIFE (I love to term it that way) began there. As I read in my cousin’s blog, College brings out a man out of you; I found everything in my college life till now (with a minimal exceptions though). Actively participated in all the college events till 3^rd sem, became the chief coordinator of the college magazine, managed a few events, won many friends and the most special ones, NAGAMESE friends, coming every year in my college from the far North-East of India, was exposed to the real college life in the first year itself (I love comparing it with Chetan Bhagat’s five point someone and the movie Dil, Dosti, etc., but all the minute details cannot be published here).

“Doing Monotonous thing stiffens your life” – Hardeep Pathak

For a change from the routine life, I joined 3 organizations in my initial part of college life, Lions’ Club, YuVA Unstoppable and AIESEC, but could develop interest only in YuVA and AIESEC. Being one of the most active AIESECer, I gained a lot from the organization and also became the Vice-President, External Relations (VP-ER) of the Ahmedabad chapter. Learned Marketing, Communications, Branding, Sales, Networking, PR skills, HR Processes, Goal Setting and striving to achieve that, Performance analysis, reviewal mechanism, organizational behavior, team dynamics and all the fashionable business skills in today’s world, during my VP-ER term. I am a hell lot thankful for that and also for making me learn some important lessons of life like defeat, to AIESEC. Yes, I was defeated while running for the office of the President of AIESEC Ahmedabad. But I did not regret it for a longer duration as in few days after that I got into the core committee of YuVA Unstoppable.

YuVA proved out to be a completely different experience than AIESEC, leaving aside the direct impact and the indirect impact thing, leaving aside the difference in the cultures of the two. From the values that my parents have instilled into me, I was ever inclined towards the social sector since my childhood.

“Your interest will always start showcasing itself right from your childhood. It is just with TIME that you will know your lifetime interest” – Hardeep Pathak

I could not see the beggars asking for money being pushed apart by someone, I would insist my dad to give him/her something. The day since I got my personal vehicle, I could never see anyone dragging his petrol-less bike to the next fuel station, I started pushing such bikes till the fuel station and it would be hard for anyone to believe that till now, I have atleast 1500 bike-pushings in my account, with a record of pushing 17 kms in a day. These small feeling of being kinder got vent in YuVA and I strived to work harder and harder always for any social cause since I got into the Core Committee of YuVA.

“Everyone is born with a specific purpose in life. Discover your purpose and start working on it and for it” – Amitabh Shah, founder of YuVA Unstoppable

I am thankful to YuVA that I have now found my interest and the purpose of life and believe it or not, nowadays I am into planning my whole life in the social sector. I and Saurabh Rawal (my cousin, with the same interest in life) are just figuring out the ways to take this interest to a bigger level, or probably the biggest level in the course of few years or decades.

“You should do only what you love to do” – Steve Jobs

And I am proud to say that I don’t have any interest now in Engineering for I have found the interest of my life, my purpose of life and the thing that I love to do.