LIFE IS NOT A CONDUCTED TOUR






Pic.: Anima D'Cunha

“Don’t allow your teacher to think for you, plan for you, take risks for you,” I was telling my CPT (Entrance for CA) students, last morning, “Let your teacher only give you a broad framework, inspire thirst in you, motivate you to succeed…. But, you do the real work… you discover the new ways of solving the problems… you develop a scientific mind, a creative mind… Please, stop depending desperately on your teacher… Please don’t expect readymade solutions… I don’t want you to come out as third-rate Chartered Accountants.”

Well, this kind of long monologue comes to me at the drop of a hat… Nothing can substitute discovery… being on your own. Nothing can substitute a childlike, awe-struck mind… Nothing can make us self-confident as robustly as self-trust and self-responsibility can…

“You find out,” yes, this is one of the gunshots I fire at my students very regularly, whether they love me for it or hate me… “You will understand it now or never,” I put it point blank.

On last Sunday, in our Tai Chi class, Kannan also was telling me about how all friends of his son (who live in a hostel of an Engineering college outside Mumbai) often urge him (Kannan) to join them whenever they plan a tour. “They all love me… talk to me freely… seek my advice… Probably, because, I do not deal with them like a typical parent does… However, when they ask me to join any tour or party, I tell them straight this: “That’s ‘your’ tour… ‘your’ party… Go and enjoy the way you should, not the way I want you to… Don’t take your parents when you friends hang around… Let not parents guide you or influence you when you make your discoveries, trusting you… Just see that, you act with responsibility… But, no, let them not spoil the fun of discovery… Life is not a conducted tour, sweethearts!”

Wow! Did I say the same thing, last morning, to my CPT sweethearts?

GERALD D’CUNHA



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...