I JUST HAD TO MAKE ONE PROMISE TO MYSELF... AND KEEP IT

Pic.Sherry Haridas

It is, always, one step at a time, that takes us – all of us – through our respective thousand-mile journeys…

The Mount Everest is conquered with one brave step, at a time…

And, the mighty elephant is eaten, too, in the same manner – one spoon at a time!

A mother of two girls - age 12 and 13 respectively – was talking on the phone, just now. The kids go to a convent school and come about as quite expressive and confident. Today, while talking to the mother, she asked me if I knew a tutor who could help the kids in English grammar.

“Ma’am, the kids are very good in English; I don’t think, they need a tutor,” I said to the mother.

“But, sir, they have been losing marks in grammar,” the woman told me, “So, some help might help.”

I knew a very efficient English teacher, and, I did pass on her number to the concerned mother.

How did I put my own grammar in place?

These two kids, as I have told you, study in a convent school. Their parents are well-qualified and speak good English… Importantly, the kids come about as confident and expressive.

I was nowhere near the mark when I was their age. Forget their age, I was nowhere when I was in college too. I had studied in a local vernacular medium school… parents did not know English, nor anyone in my close circle… When I turned a teenager, I had also turned terribly self-conscious, particularly of my poor English… and, self-confidence had hit the rock-bottom.

Then, when Prof. Raman came to teach our class (not English) in first-year B’Com, my world changed for ever. I got my dream: to become a fine teacher like him, my hero. That’s enough to motivate me to put my English in place… both, spoken and written. Those were not the days of Google, Wikipedia and YouTube. Forget buying English-improvement books, we couldn't afford to buy our regular text books, even. So, the only way was to knock, seek and ask… be humble, observe, watch, read, write, and, above all, take risk, trust and speak!

Learn one word, one sentence, one idiom or phrase, one quote… a day;

Write one little line, one little poem, one little note or a story… a day;

Read one essay, one story or one poem… a day;

Correct one piece of grammar, add one new word, learn one etymology, find one new synonym… every day;

Yes, I remember making that commitment in my heart, right in the midst of the lecture, when I dreamt of becoming a good teacher like my idol…

No tutor did it… My parents didn’t do it… My desire to become a fine teacher did it. Yes, as they say, my motivation, too, came from my dream, my goal!

The two little girls are too innocent to understand, what I am trying to convey. A voice inside me tells, “No, they are not!”

In my case, what started as ‘a word a day’, when I was a little older than these two angels,  has, today, become ‘a blog a day’...

At that age, I just had to make one promise to myself… and keep it…

Yes, so much for my thousand-mile journey called, ‘English’!

GERALD D’CUNHA