WANT TO EAT AN ELEPHANT?

 

“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”

Henry J. Kaiser

 

For many years, I used to have this placard pinned to the lectern in my classes:

“WANT TO EAT AN ELEPHANT?”

This used to be at the start of the academic year.

Young boys and girls, curious to know what it was all about, would come close to the lectern and stretch their necks out to read the fine letters at the bottom of the placard:

“Eat one spoon at a time!”

 

Well, the message would get conveyed from my end… and, my young students would get it, too: “Honey, we are at the start of the academic year. If we can manage one lesson at a time, slowly and steadily, we can manage the whole syllabus, very efficiently. Else, when the exams come, you will stare at the ‘Elephant’ and panic: “How can I eat it?”

“Honey, the only way you can eat an elephant is – by eating it one spoon at a time! There is no other way!”

“People do not lack strength,” says Victor Hugo, “they lack will.” That’s why, we keep hearing the old adage – “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

About a week ago, my friends, Stan and Stella* approached me to discuss some behavioral issues relating to their 11-year-old son, Ronan*. From what I gathered, little Ronan was good in studies, and, particularly excelled in English subject. The problems, as parents had observed, related to the boy going into his shell; often, yelling out badly; then, displaying a general lack of interest in everything. Apparently, they had sought help from counselors. But, of late, the lockdown had made the situation a little more worrisome for the parents. As Stan (and his sister), several years ago, had attended our Personality Development programme, he wanted to check if we had any activities for the kids, which, perhaps Ronan could benefit from.

Obviously, the lockdown had not spared us, too. We had no activities for two years in a row. But, taking the cue from little Ronan’s parents about his interest in English, I thought of making a small experiment (Which had worked with many other kids of his age before). I needed parents’ involvement for this, particularly mother’s. The experiment was: I would be sending short videos which carried touching stories. From my experience, I knew, that those stories would appeal the kids as well as parents. Parents would get Ronan watch them, and then nudge him to narrate the story, in writing, in his own way. In Ronan’s case, it became relatively easy as he had a flair for good English and imagination…

The only question mark was over his motivation to do it… Would he do it?

We had tempted Ronan, saying, that if he could write nicely twenty stories, over the next twenty days or so, we would put them together in a bound book bearing a title of his choice, and a foreword by either his mother or me. Importantly, on the cover page, there would be the author’s name – Ronan Rebello!

The deal was struck and little Ronan started sending me one story a day. Today, he had sent the fifth one… One-fourth of the elephant was eaten, already!

Bravo!

“I am very happy Ronan… Keep it up, no matter how bored you may feel, at times,” I pepped up the author-to-be, in my message. Then I added, “But, sweetheart, to shine in life, you need to be that ‘Mountain Man’! Now, do you know who the ‘Mountain Man’ was? The next homework is a small write-up about this ‘Mountain Man’ from Bihar (Dashrath Manjhi). It’s a very inspiring story, which was beautifully captured in the Hindi film ‘Manjhi – The Mountain Man’ (Played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Go google, right away!”

Will Little Ronan be able to ‘eat the elephant’ in another fifteen days or so?

It took 22 long, lonely, crushing years for Dashrath Manjhi, from a godforsaken village in Bihar, to break the mountain and make a way to the other side…

What was the stuff, that kept Manjhi going, while his entire youth was spent breaking the mountain with a hammer and chisel?

I have asked little Ronan to find it out…

You see, in Life, our mountains break many of us. Yet, some of us stay put – yes, stay hungry and stay foolish -  to break our mountains!

 

*Names changed

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s.: Pexels/1. Ketut Subiyanto 2. Arthur Brognoli/

 

Video: Viacom 18 Studios