hai friends, please go through this article, nice one. regards m.chandru ----- Original Message ----- From: P. Subramani To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2008 1:00 PM Subject: Understanding the meaning of success
Hello Friends, Understanding the meaning of success DISPEL NOTIONS: Success is in accepting who you are and more importantly in following your heart. Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur: Every year during this time, just after the monsoon sets in and washes the country with its rhythmic pitter-patter, the results of some of the most prestigious examinations are announced. And the anxious moments of anticipation that it brings with it is unbelievable! The results bring with them success and glory to a chosen few. Most newspapers and TV channels carry and cover their success stories. However, in this euphoria we often forget about those many students who tried and never made it through. It amazes me, year after year, when I see how parents, coaching institutes, and peers pressurise children to take these exams as a matter of life and death without once trying to understand what he or she really wants. They are typically fed on a very wrong notion of success where all it ever means is to qualify in the respective exam. However, if you do not or try something different, something more close to your heart, than the same world does not think twice before it labels you a loser. Under this immense pressure to succeed, I see a lot of children buckle, some to the extent of committing suicide. The more I see them, the more I am reminded of those days when I was fresh out of school. There were 750 students in my batch, 50 in the top performing section and 17 in the segregated intensive batch because of continuous good performance and I was one of them. However, the day the IIT results were announced, all this suddenly seemed trivial. I did not make it to the IIT that year. For someone who had regularly been taught to despise setbacks, this seemed to be the end of the world. I was devastated, felt miserable about myself. I could not even cry properly. While the rest of them enjoyed their success that night, I kept myself locked in my room. A lot of friends and teachers came to cajole me. It seemed hypocritical. I was jealous of those who made it through and did not care about those who did not. I was awake the whole night, the pang of being a failure deeply rooted in my heart and this thought was killing me. I contemplated suicide twice that night. Early next morning I received a note from my principal. 'Meet me urgently in my cabin'. Let me tell you, the principal in a boarding school is a strange character. All you ever know of him is his cane-wielding, fun-spoiling look. It seemed as if he is the unrelenting enemy of the student fraternity since eons. Dejected and awake the whole night, I walked into his office expecting the regular verbal dose of how he disliked failure. "You were not in the party yesterday?" I was a bit surprised at his first question. "Did not feel like. Why should I be there?" I retorted. "Isn't this strange Shreetam? There were 700 students in the party yesterday. Yet I noticed you were not there. Does it tell you something?"I did not feel like talking. I simply blurted out, "I want to go home. I do not want to stay here anymore." Two drops of tears fell from my eyes. "I will tell you what it means. It means that you are special Shreetam. Every 750 of you are. One examination is too trifle a thing to classify you as a success or a failure." "But sir." "It's true you did not make it to the IIT this year. May be you never will but that does not mean you are not good enough. I want you to know that after many years pass, it will not matter whether you got through the IIT entrance examination or not but it will definitely matter what you decide to do with your life now. Success is not getting over every examination that life keeps throwing at you. However, it definitely is in accepting who you are, and more importantly in following your heart. For now, go and take some rest. You look sleepy." My tears stopped. I looked at him. He was smiling coyly. You do not see a boarding school principal smile everyday and when you do, trust me, it is definitely special. I had a wonderful sleep that day, one of the best that I ever had. All of a sudden, I felt very light, very energetic, and very comfortable with myself. When I woke up that afternoon, I had a note from him. It read: "Success is a perception. If you understood this today, I have succeeded as a teacher. If you did not then someday you definitely will. God bless you." Life has changed a lot after that. It has taught me enough now to understand the note, every word of it. It has been years to this incident now but every year I am reminded of it when I see the dejected, depressed, and disappointed faces after the examination season. I pity them. They never had a principal like me! I only hope that the parents and friends of aspiring candidates accept them as they are, with their share of successes, failures, and dreams. In the thousands of coaching classes where they promise to prepare candidates to succeed in competitive exams, if only they could teach this simple definition of success. a definition that a headmaster told his special student just like that! Taken From The Hindu. Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
