“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door. “ Optimism has always been my guiding mantra and often times I stumble on to opportunities just by keeping my eyes and ears wide open. Over the summer, I was awarded a Scholars Independent Research Fellowship to work on a project to create a medically sound and fashionable diabetic shoe. During the course of my project, I often hit roadblocks but I found that if I looked closely, there was always a sliver of hope somewhere.
In India, it is often difficult to get to people in high positions because of the massive levels of bureaucracy and the high power-distance ratio. One of the world’s most acclaimed experts on the diabetic foot stayed in my home city. Without a direct connection to him, it was nearly impossible to set up an appointment. I knew that to get ahead in my project, I had to meet with him. Sometime the next week, there was a talk being organised by Rotary International that my father wanted me to attend with him. The organizers had sent out an email to all the attendees and forgot to bcc it. By some luck, I looked through the attendee list and saw that the doctor was going to be at the event too. I finally saw my lucky break! I ‘accidentally’ met him at the event and pitched my idea to him. Hearing me out, he was very willing to meet with me to discuss my project and his advice was a guiding light throughout.
Another interesting incident was in Civitanova Marche, an important shoe-making town in Italy. In this small town, almost nobody could speak English. I had gone to the pharmacy to buy something and my eyes strayed onto a diabetic shoe which they had on sale. I got extremely excited and tried asking the pharmacist if he knew who manufactured these shoes. After a lot of frantic sign language, he wrote down an address in a town two hours away. I wasn’t sure if he understood me but I decided to take a chance and visit that address. Once I got there, I thanked my stars. There was a small factory that was specializing in medical footwear. I spoke to the friendly owner who showed me the shoes they make and explained to me how different shoe components can be used to satisfy medical needs of the diabetic foot.
This interaction was almost a class in medical shoe-making and really gave me a lot of clarity as to what features the shoe should have. These two incidents have reiterated my belief in the fact that if we look hard enough, there’s always a new door to be opened. Through college and beyond, I want to stay constantly hungry and curious to be able to find each one of these doors.