ISLAMABAD: The United States is considered a land of opportunities. Every year thousands of people, including youngsters migrate to the US to pursue their “American Dream” which means talented and educated expatriates explore their destiny in the United States. Countless migrants have succeeded in their attempt to lead a prosperous life in America. Nonetheless, there are some people who migrated to America, but they are less fortunate to achieve their American Dream.
This is a tragic story of a young, talented, and educated migrant who did his MBA from a university in California, started a couple of jobs and his own business as well. Karthik Rajaram, an Indian migrated to the United States after doing graduation from Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai in 1985. He did MBA from University of California, Los Angeles. Rajaram first worked for Sony Pictures from 1989-1994 and then switched to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Later on, he joined a start-up consulting firm, EHS Partners which marked a tremendous growth. In 2001, Daily Telegraph of London called Rajaram a winner in a deal for NanoUniversity, a Los Angeles and London-based venture fund taken public on the London Stock Exchange. Interestingly, Rajaram invested just 12,500 pounds in this venture and earned 875,000 pounds ($1.2 million) in 2001.
In short, within a few years after doing MBA, Rajaram became a millionaire in Los Angeles, California. He married a beautiful Tamil girl, bought a luxury house, expensive cars and started leading a prosperous and luxurious life in the United States along with his three children. How luck supported him during his good days, it can be imagined well from this example that he bought a home for $274,000 in 2001 and sold it for $750,000 two years later. Then he moved to more luxurious house in Sorrento Pointe.
In Oct 2008, Rajaram suddenly committed suicide after killing his mother in law, wife, and three children. For the American media and corporate sectors, this incident was a great shock. How a successful man in career could do this to himself and his family? It became a talk of the town in America at that time. Consequently, California Institute of Clinical Psychology carried out a case study of this tragic incident. Researchers found out that Rajaram was a successful executive at job and in business as well. Problem begun with him in 2008 economic meltdown in America and elsewhere. During this crisis, he lost his investment in stock exchange, suffered losses in business and even lost his last job. He also lost his home to mortgage company as he was unable to pay instalments of home-loan. He tried to find job during economic meltdown, but luck did not support him at that time.
Ultimately, he and his wife decided to commit suicide after killing their three talented children. Consequently, Rajaram first shot dead his mother in law, then killed his wife, three children and shot himself dead after killing all family members. American media and experts have termed this tragedy as a “Murder of American Dream”. Now the researchers come to the point that led to the elimination of American Dream. Rajaram was educated and a talented man. He was prepared for success in education, in business, and at job. Unfortunately, he was not trained to come out of a crisis situation. Had he been trained to manage a crisis, he would have not killed himself and his family.
Dr Asfhaque H. Khan, DEAN of the NUST School of Social Sciences and Humanities send a WhatsApp message to this writer with the request to share it maximum to inform parents and teachers to prepare children/students to manage crisis in life. Tragic story of Rajaram is a lesson for all those parents who are motivating their children only for success in life and neglecting their training for crisis management. In the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, millions of people have lost their jobs, businesses, and countless have committed suicide throughout the world. Hence, good career, growing business, and wealth can end any time due to any unforeseen situation and people must be prepared to manage crisis situation for their successful survival.
