My Journey from Technology to Yoga

[One of my friends who lives in Pune, India and teaches business management programs, asked me to write a guest post for his blog. In this post, he wanted me to write about my transition from a professional, corporate career to a life devoted to the study and teaching of yoga. Here is a link to that post.]

First of all, I must thank Dilip for giving me this opportunity to share my life’s experiences with all of you. Dilip and I went to the same engineering college in Jabalpur in the sixties. We became very close ‘buddies’ during our time in college. Since we lived close to each other, we were able to spent a lot of time together. However, after we graduated, we took to different professions and gradually lost contact with each other. You can imagine my thrill when after a gap of almost 45 years I received an email from Dilip that he just ‘found me’ via the internet! It is indeed great to be back in touch again. We can even ‘see’ each other through the magic of ‘skype’!.

How/why I became an engineer

So, let me start my story from the time when I decided to join the engineering college. While studying for my preliminary science degree (it was called "intermediate degree in Science" in those days), I got very interested in Physics. Given a choice, I would have preferred to pursue a study in that subject. However, I became a victim of the commonly prevalent wisdom at the time that only doctors and engineers can make a decent living. A Physics graduate can at best become a college lecturer and probably stay that way for the rest of the life. What ‘sealed the deal’ was the fact that based on my good academic grades in the science degree I was offered a full scholarship that would cover not just the tuition for my engineering studies but also books, study material and even some ‘pocket money’ . Thus I entered the engineering college at Jabalpur and four years later graduated in the field of Telecommunications Engineering.

Due to my academic interests, I joined the IIT, Kharagpur for a Masters degree program in Electrical Engineering. Only six months into the program, based on an interview that I had given several months ago, I was offered an attractive job as "Scientific Offier" in the Research and Development Organization of the Ministry of Defense. I once again fell prey to the prevalent common wisdom that an M.Tech or a Ph.D degree can only lead to teaching jobs which are not financially as ‘lucrative’ as a traditional engineering job, especially a secure job with the Government.  So, I quit my studies and became and "officer" in the Ministry of Defence where I was engaged in product development in the field of Telecommunications suitable for India’s armed forces.

After about five years, I got selected as a ‘Govt. sponsored candidate’ to undergo the two-year M. Tech program at IIT, Kanpur. This was like a dream-come-true! I jumped at the opportunity, joined IITK and two years later, got back to my job with Defence with an additional label of M.Tech degree in EE. I must say that despite the hardship that goes with a tough M. Tech program, I really enjoyed my stay at IITK. On a personal note – I even got engaged and then married while at IIT.

Immigration to USA

In 1977 I got the pleasant news that my sister, who had migrated to USA after her marriage, had been granted citizenship of USA. Which meant that she could then sponsor me for immigration as her family. Fortunately in those days, the immigration was much quicker than it is now. In 1978 my petition for immigration was approved. My job at the Ministry of Defence by then had become monotonous and quite uninteresting and I was absolutely ready to make use of the immigration opportunity. However, because of my involvement with Defence, it became apparent to me that I will not be let go quite so easily.  I was somehow able to convince my management to approve my application for a passport and a tourist visa so I could visit my "ailing sister" in USA. I was granted a leave for two months as a special case and I proceeded on my trip to USA, carrying my immigration papers with me. Of course, as you can guess, the idea was to get to the USA using my tourist visa which would be converted to a valid ‘green card’ once I landed in the US since I already had my immigration papers. All this worked out quite well until  about three years later I got a letter that threatened me "court martial" type proceedings against me unless I immediately presented myself in the military court in India. Once again I got fortunate as the Govt gave up after I decided to ignore all subsequent letters from them.

Back to School

Once in the US, my first job was to look for a job. Unfortunately, the job market was pretty tough at the time and I was unable to find a suitable job. I then started looking at the possibility of joining a University for a Masters degree. It was already middle of July and too late to apply anywhere for a September admission. Again, as luck would have it, I got in touch with an old friend of mine from Jabalpur who was a professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Through his efforts I was able to secure admission into the MS program in Computer Science at Lincoln. I really enjoyed my time at the university even though some of the coursework posed severe challenges especially because I was out of touch with academic work for such a long time.  During the final semester, as is customary for most university campuses, recruiters from various corporations descend upon the campus in search for candidates suitable for hiring. I was absolutely thrilled to see one of my old classmates from Jabalpur in one of these recruiting booths. He was representing one of the most prestigious research organizations, The Bell Labs, the research wing of the telecom giant corporation, AT&T. Through his contact I was offered a job at Bell labs. I was just very excited to work for this world-renowned organization.

Corporate Life

I worked for AT&T, and its various incarnations, for about 25 years. In 1984, AT&T got split into several "baby bells" as well as another R&D unit which finally became Lucent Technologies. The project that I was working on got moved to Lucent. I worked for Lucent until the late nineties when it got split further. At that time I became a part of Avaya which was spun off from Lucent. At AT&T, I started my job first as a Hardware engineer, then moved to software engineering. Later on I got involved with testing, planning and systems engineering and a few other bit assignments. Overall the work continued to be challenging and interesting for the most part.

Transition to Yoga

It was in the early nineties when I found my interests shifting toward yoga. I had been practicing yoga since my early college days. I was what one could term as ‘irregularly regular" in my yoga practice as I was able to practice about 3-4 times a week. My normal routine lasted about 40-45 minutes and consisted of various asanas (physical stretching postures). With growing interest in yoga, I decided to do a formal teacher training program. In 1996, I completed a 4-week teacher training program at the Swami Satchidananda Ashram in Virginia. This training was an "eye-opener" in many ways as in addition to asanas, I was introduced to several other aspects of yoga, including pranayama, meditation, relaxation and the underlying concepts in yoga philosophy.  After this training, I started teaching about 4-5 yoga classes per week while still continuing with my job at Lucent. With a deepening personal yoga practice and the ability to help others with their health-related issues, I started gradually loosing interest in my technical job while getting more involved in the study and teaching of yoga.

It was around this time that I started asking myself questions like  "is there a deeper meaning to life beyond this mundane day-to-day life revolving around work and family?" I had a job with a decent enough salary to support us financially. However, gradual involvement with some of the concepts in yoga made me aware that I need to look for a higher truth beyond this corporate life. I started seeing more clearly where my priorities were. Interacting with my yoga students and sharing the benefits of a yoga practice with them became more meaningful. Of course, I still had  a major family commitment, as is true for most parents – marriage of my daughter – to take care of. As soon as that commitment was fulfilled in 2004, I made my plans to quit my corporate job and devote my time to yoga.  In late 2005, I finally decided to call it quits, gave up my professional career and moved to North Carolina (a slightly warmer and relatively less expensive place) to pursue my interest in yoga.

My Yoga Life

So, here I am – having spent close to 40 years in the technology field, most of them in the US corporate world, I am now devoting my time fully to study and teaching of yoga. I teach several classes during the week, both in a group setting as well as in private, one-on-one sessions. I also teach at a couple of local corporations during their lunch hour. All-in-all it is a highly satisfying and fulfilling experience, especially when I realize that I am able to impact the lives of my students in positive ways. Through personal interaction, via email or feedback from my website/blog, my students give an account of how they have benefited at various levels – physical, mental and emotional.

No matter what profession you are in, I would strongly suggest that you try some yoga lessons from a teacher in your area. A regular yoga practice will help you live a more meaningful, fulfilling and healthy life. I realize that in today’s busy lifestyle, demands of work and family leave very little time for any other activity. However, it is this busy and hectic life which is the main cause of much of today’s stress and resulting health-related problems that highlight the value of a yoga-based regimen. Even if you can devote about 40 minutes every day to a practice that includes some asana and pranayama, you will begin to reap the benefits of your practice.

Please visit my blog and my website to get acquainted with my work and also some useful yoga-related information. I would welcome any comments or feedback that you might have.