BE GOOD IN YOUR FIELD... VERY, VERY GOOD

Pic.: Bharka Manik

Last night, I was talking to one my nephews, who has just one more semester to complete his Engineering. A company has almost recruited him in their campus interviews and, he is, understandably, very happy about that.

I was very happy for my nephew, too. Considering the different constraints he had to face, I really feel he has done extremely well, so far, in his life…

“Be good in your field,” I advised my nephew, “Be very, very good.”

I give this advice to every young-man who seeks my advice. My own dad, who had hardly studied, with whatever wisdom he possessed, would urge us to pick up a ‘line’… which meant a ‘trade’… and be really, really good at it. As young-men, we took that advice a lot casually, though. But, I realized, quite soon, when I wanted to become a teacher, what my dad had meant: “If you want to shine in life, all that you need to do is – choose a field of your liking; then, put all your heart and soul and do it… Be really, really good at it.”

See, how simple that advice was, how timeless, how universal!

Luckily, last night, when I was giving that advice to my young-nephew, he was very, very sensitive in absorbing my advice… Perhaps, he had realized, that, like him, there would me lakhs and lakhs of young- men coming out of their colleges to work… So, what would give him the ‘cutting edge’ was the kind the expertise he would develop and the passion with which he would perform his work… Yes, it must’ve been clear to him, that, be it as an engineer or be it like a teacher… or be it like a waiter in  a hotel… the only way to shine was the way his mechanic-grandfather, in all his native wisdom, had imparted to his uncle.

Be good in your field, my dear young-nephew… Be very, very good. Remember, it isn’t any tall order… Nor is it any out-of-this-world advice…

You can check it out, for yourself!

GERALD D’CUNHA