GO, DO IT YOUR WAY...








This is the season of results… tenth standard and twelfth standard, particularly, where the excitement – the joy and despair – is maximum. Yesterday, tenth (ICSE) and twelfth standard (ISC) results were out; and, today twelfth standard (HSC) results are out…

In the P.D.  session, this morning, I asked some boys and girls to come up on stage and share their joys and despair after the results… not just theirs’, but their parents’ and grandparents’, their siblings’ and friends’ too…

The ‘Board results’ are something… big thing! When I was a young boy like these students, I had gone through the same experience… the joy and the despair. My parents, even though they weren’t educated, had gone through the same experience, too…

“At your age, I was nowhere near you,” I tell my students, “You are far, far, far better. Hence, I have no business to judge you, leave alone ‘condemn’ you.”

When I look back at my own tenth, twelfth and graduation marks, I am now able to give a very confident and peaceful smile…

“Did my marks do it?”

Because my marks did not do it – did not bring me wherever I am today… because I did it only through the ‘clarity of purpose’… what I wanted to do in life… yes, that one thing is singularly responsible for the rest of the drive in my life…

“Marks alone will not take you anywhere,” I drill into my young-ones’ heads, “At best, they can  give you an entry… an admission.”

After that?

After that, it is always what you can do best – ‘your show reel’ as some call it… What you got with you to show the world… your best work… your most passionate and brilliant labour of love… from flying airplanes to washing cars, from running companies to writing movie scripts… whatever that is, if you are able to do it ‘your way’ – the best way... you will not find this world to be too competitive… you will never ever say ‘there is only so much’ … ‘there is no scope’… The truth is, that whatever you desire to do, millions have already done it, are doing it and will be doing it… Still, the world waits for you to do it ‘your way’… your special way…

Shiv Khera’s famous line befits here: “Successful people do not do different things… They do things differently!”

A steadfast belief in this one truth about life is more than enough to instill in us the optimism and zest for life. There is so much out there for all of us… So much undone, unconquered, undiscovered… That’s why God creates all of us – millions and millions of us – differently packed in our souls our unique gifts and strengths… and, with this single instruction: “Go and do it your way’!

This morning, in our P.D. session, I played for our young ones the famous Frank Sinatra song (Written by his friend Paul Anka) – ‘I did it my way. This is one song almost every great singer has sung, including Elvis Presley… yes, in ‘his way’. But, my favourite versions were one by Engelbert Humperdinck  and another by  charismatic Sal Valentinetti in ‘America’s Got Talent’… Here are they…









True, all that matters, there in this world, is if we have followed God’s instruction: “Go and do it your way”!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Shraddha Sachdev

Videos: YouTube

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