When Destiny Sends Its Helpers

At different stages of life, you’re confronted with different challenges. And each time you cross a hurdle, you feel that familiar sense of accomplishment. It’s tempting to attribute that success to your own skill, tenacity, and willpower — to pat yourself on the back and feel proud of how you handled it.

But when you zoom out and look at the moments where you somehow managed to trump the odds, a quieter realization sets in:

It’s never just you.
There is always an unseen army that shows up at the right time.

It was 2005. I had decided to pursue my Master’s in the US. I picked a few schools in the Midwest where the expenses were manageable, and that’s how the University of Missouri–Rolla entered the picture. But funding was still a massive question mark. I hadn’t secured any assistantship, and we didn’t have the means to pay out of pocket.

We went from bank to bank, hoping for an education loan. Each manager asked for property as collateral — something we simply didn’t have. At that point, everything felt like a dead end.

Finally, almost out of options, we walked into the place I’d known for years: Canara Bank, Malleswaram 16th Cross, 8th Main.

The manager listened patiently. Then he surprised us.
He said he could waive the property requirement… but he would need a surety. Someone willing to sign.

We thought through every possibility and decided to approach a friend of my father. He agreed, came on the appointed day, signed the papers without hesitation. And just a few hours before I boarded my flight, the loan came through.

The last few days before leaving had been tense. The relief I felt that morning is something I still remember vividly.

A week after landing in Missouri, I secured funding for my studies. I completed my degree, worked hard, and repaid the loan soon after.

Three years later, on my first trip back to India, I visited the bank. I met the manager and thanked him for what he’d done. He smiled and said a line that has stayed with me ever since:

“I knew you would do well in life. I had no hesitation in helping you.”

That level of conviction is rare. As a leader, I’ve realized that one of the hardest parts of the job is figuring out whom to trust — whom to bet on. You have data, you can assess, you can judge. But in the end, your instincts do most of the heavy lifting.

That day in 2005, that bank manager trusted his instincts and took a chance on a young student with nothing to pledge except hope.

His name was Shivanna.
My father’s friend, who signed the papers, was Subramanian.

In hindsight, the names feel almost symbolic — straight from the pantheon of Hindu gods. Perhaps a gentle premonition of my later love for Rudram. And Subramanian… fitting, considering my mother’s daily Thiruppugazh.

There have been many moments in my life that, at the time, felt like my right call. But over the years, I’ve realized the “right call” is often something that arises from within — guided, nudged, or whispered from above.

Behind every triumph is a quiet constellation of people, events, and interventions that arrive exactly when they must.

You can’t fight destiny.
You can only embrace it.