LIKE A FERRARI WITHOUT FUEL

 





“Talent without enthusiasm is like a Ferrari without fuel.”

Sebastyne Young


 

Some weeks ago, I received a call from an elderly woman. She said, that she was referred to me by her neighbour. “The reason I called you is to tell you, that my grandson writes beautifully, both prose and poetry. My neigbour said, that you are into publication of books. So, I wanted to check if it is possible to consider my grandson’s case,” the woman said.

“Ma’am, I am a small man. I just write something simple every day in my Blogs… Occasionally, I bring them out in books… Also, I regularly bring articles of little ones and young ones through the books published on behalf of a centre I have started (THE DAWN CLUB CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE)… But, all these are self-published and not commercial.”

The neighbour woman, who had referred my name to this elderly woman, had shown one of our books for which the neighbor woman’s daughter had designed the cover. The elderly woman was impressed and, so, was genuinely checking with me, if I could do something to publish her grandson’s work…

But, then, when she learnt about the way I operated – without any commercial interest – she exclaimed, “Oh!”

“But, ma’am, I have this advice to offer to your grandson… Let him not worry too much about publishing his work at this stage; let him keep writing and write passionately; let him fully enjoy the process of writing and share his work through various platforms like, Blog, Insta, FB, YouTube etc. These are free platforms… Let him keep sharing his work without any profit motive.” Then, I concluded, “Please ask your grandson to call me; I will be delighted to share these ideas with him.”

The call hasn’t come, yet. Maybe, I was the wrong person to be contacted! Well, I don’t want to judge… Who knows the reason?

Throughout the history of mankind, there have been only two kinds of ‘Success Schools’… The one to which Arjuna belonged (The school of Dhronacharya, for the privileged kids)… and the one to which Ekalavya belonged (The school of self-development, for the underprivileged kids).

When nobody is ready to teach you ‘archery’, when nobody is ready to publish your work, when there is no money or Godfather to push you up… what can you do? - Just sit back and sulk? Rot in self-pity and blame? Come on, do what the tribal boy Ekalavya did – go out and do something… be a street-performer… Just do it with all your passion and, importantly, enjoy doing it… Money and recognition may or may not follow. But, then, what have you got to lose?

You have only to gain!

That’s why, one of the things in my favourite watchlist are the videos of brilliant street-performers… They are the underprivileged gifted kids, who belong to the ‘Ekalavyan Success School’…

















“Ma’am, I am an Ekalavya,” I had told the doting grandma of her gifted grandson…

“What’s that?” she had asked me, genuinely!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic.: Maksim Goncharenok/Pixels

 

Videos: 1. James Marcal 2. Danile Vitale & Karolina Protsenko

            3. Miguale Motalgan Music 4. Talent Recap (Malik Dope Drummer)

      

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