THE BELIEF IN OUR SKILLS AND OUR SELF-CONFIDENCE IN LIFE
Last evening my friend and co-trainer, Anupam and I were
on our way home after the daily training session. We have been holding these training
sessions for the degree-college students in a suburban college. The management
is very keen that these young kids should possess in them some fine soft-skills
so that they succeed when they move from the campus to the corporate.
My subject has, always, been ‘Self-confidence and
Communication Skills’. It’s something I needed the most when I was these students' age…
and, I know how significant it is and, importently, I know how I went about
building up my own self-confidence and honing my own communication skills. So,
it’s something I impart straight from my soul, and I have been sensing the
instant connect of hearts. "One of the ways of building up your self-confidence
is by becoming aware of your talents, skills, strengths and weaknesses,” I keep
reminding the young kids, “It’s one of the legs of the stool called ‘The Stool
of Self-confidence’.
Yes, when we are strikingly aware of some of our talents
which we have honed into fine skills, invariably, we go about our lives feeling
confident… We fear less and remain less
anxious about our future. Thus, the secret is to develop some fine skills in us.
Anupam, my friend and co-trainer, guides the young ones on
‘Presentation Skills’, and he does it extremely well. Last evening, while we
were returning after the training session, we had taken the local train. A
young vendor had come in our compartment to sell an interesting product… It
looked like a thin pen… It glowed like a torch… but, essentially, it was a
device used to clean one’s ears. I immediately remembered my ENT doctor lecturing
me a few days ago not to use even cotton buds to clean my ears, leave alone a device
like this one sold in the local train. Well, both, Anupam and I, were glued to
the ‘Presentation Skill’ which was being demonstrated by this local-train vendor…
His script was so flawless and his self-belief was so strong that he could sell
a dozen of those pieces before the next station arrived!
“What was that Anupam,” I teased my friend, a “Technical
skill’ or a ‘Soft skill’?
“It’s a ‘Survival skill’,” my friend declared!
I remembered the work we had just done in the college for
young future of our nation. I, also, remembered a Blog I had written a year ago,
after returning from a very reputed Mumbai college. I had held a programme for
the teachers about being passionate in teaching work. I am sharing this Post
here, once again…
Today, I had been to one of the reputed colleges in the city to
conduct a programme. Though the programme was meant for teachers, I agreed with
the Principal madam, when she suggested that even the students, who desired to
attend it, could get the benefit of it. That was a good suggestion when I
reflect on it… After all, there is a teacher in all of us… and, we should be
too arrogant and ignorant to claim, that we, as teachers, have nothing to learn…
I loved being with the teachers and
students, today. My emphasis was as usual: “Do whatever you do… but, do with
your heart. Full heart!”
Hope, the message was taken home by
teachers and students alike…
There was this one teacher… An
affectionate and unassuming soul. I was told, that she was the senior-most
teacher… What I immediately loved about this teacher was her sincerity and
attentiveness. You can make out when you teach or talk to any group… there will
always be some in the audience, young or old, who see you with kindness,
affection and, above all, gratitude… That brings the best out of you as a
teacher or a speaker… Also, there was humility oozing out of this senior
teacher’s and many other teachers’ eyes… You know, when you feel that, ‘a teacher
has appeared for the student’!
“Nobody can teach you,” I quote OSHO,
“yet, you can learn.” Yes, it’s all about being available… being ready… being
teachable!
After the session, while talking to this
affectionate senior teacher, I casually asked her if she had any specific plans
after two years when she would retire from the teaching profession. “Sir, I
believe a teacher never retires,” ma’am said gently, “I have got some plans to
write on my subject… which will help me continue to be a teacher. Age will not
stop us from being teachers.”
I had spoken about three of my teachers,
who had impacted my life, and done it silently without they knowing they were
doing it. One of them had come in my life when I was a little boy of second
standard… another had come when I was a teenager, in my tenth standard… and,
the third one had come when I entered my degree college (and taught me for all
the three years)… Now, their inspiration had been very private and invisible…
It had helped me bloom at the right time.
So, while talking to our senior ma’am, I
remembered another teacher from our high school, Monteiro Sir. He had not
taught me… But, I used to hear a lot from my elder brother… He made learning
Mathematics easy for so many students. Ours was a village and in those days,
going for ‘extra coaching’ was for the weakest lot… There was a stigma attached
to that. So, Monteiro Sir, because of his simple way of teaching, had been
flooded with requests to teach the weak students, which he did at his house.
What was inspiring was this: Sir suffered from ‘Filariasis’ also known as
‘Elephantaiasis’… This disease was so rampant in those days… that, we
used to call it ‘elephant leg’… Sir’s leg was so huge, so heavy and so scary to
look at… It used to smell and puss and water used to often ooze out… Probably,
the school authorities might have asked him to quit… I really do not know. But,
Sir continued to teach in his house… It was a long hall- room… Dozens of
students sat on two sides of the hall… Tables and chairs were laid out like you
would see in a traditional dining-hall during functions… Sir was unable to
stand and walk… He taught lying on his bed… a couple of pillows tucking behind
his back for support and rest… He wrote on the board next to him from that
position… And, he was as effective as he was in the school… For, he taught from
his heart with all his passion… with a missionary zeal!
As it is said, “Monteiro Sir died with
his boots on!” Yes, even though he spent almost all his life unable to wear the
‘boots’… He did wear the ‘Boots of a Teacher’ so well and for so long!
Today, in my session, I had not mentioned Monteiro sir as I had
not been his student in the school. But, ma’am, the senior-most teacher, had
reminded me of him… “Sir, I believe a teacher never retires,” she had told me,
“Age will not stop us from being teachers.”
Yes ma’am, nor sickness… Nor our daily
frustrations… Let’s pray, the teacher doesn’t die in our hearts till the last
breath!
After all, what helps all of us to feel
confident and communicate well in life are a few ‘skill-sets’… Some technical
skills, some soft skills and, yes, some survival skills!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Kamal Kishore Rikhari
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