IN THOSE SMALL STEPS HIDE OUR DESTINIES
“Your
present circumstances don’t determine
where
you can go;
they
merely determine where you start.”
Nido
Qubein
Two
young boys have just joined me for class 12. Both have two things in common: 1.
They have been referred to me by two of my well-wishers and friends. 2. Both
boys come from under-privileged families.
After more than
45 years of teaching the same thing, over and over and over again – many ask me
this question: “Don’t you feel tired and bored?”
I do, sometimes…
Sometimes, tired… sometimes, bored… and, sometimes, even, impatient, frustrated
and angry.
So, why do I still
continue teaching?
That’s because, I
only wanted to be a teacher, and I still want to be a teacher… I do not see
myself as anything else. Even in my writings, I still see myself as a teacher…
Therefore,
despite my occasional fatigue, boredom, temper and frustration, I consider,
that teaching is the medium through which, I am destined to make the maximum
difference…
I deal with
young lives… I deal with them at their impressionable age… They are moldable,
shapeable… and, I know that. At the end of the day, the thought, that I make
this crucial difference in the young ones’ lives, helps me to sleep well…
To me, that’s
the feeling of ‘Success’… Period.
The
two boys, my new students, who come from humble families, have the two
challenges before them:
1. they both are
weak in the subject of Accountancy;
2. they both (being
vernacular-medium students) have to deal with their English.
Besides, they are
joining me late, when I have already completed some chapters…
So, do I have
enough patience and compassion to deal with my own challenges?
For the answer
to this question, I have to take you back to the time when I was of these boys’
age… I, too, came through a vernacular medium, and suffered from a nagging
inferiority complex... I, too, was weak in studies and clueless about what I
wanted to do in my life. Things had begun to change from my F.Y. B. Com days,
when, hugely inspired by my own teacher, Prof. B.S. Raman, I dreamt of becoming
like him – a fine teacher. There were two challenges to achieve that goal: My
English and my low self-confidence. Fortunately, I realized early, that to achieve
my dream, my dream had to be stronger than my fears. So, I was determined to
overcome my two handicaps – slowly but steadily. Eventually, the very two
handicaps became my greatest strengths, my blessings… Along with teaching the
college subject, I used the insights gained through my own struggle to help
young kids to overcome their low self-confidence.
“I do not need
your past marks, and I do not need the level of your present self-confidence,”
I told these young kids, today, “What I need is how determined you are to start
your journey, today, and how determined you are to face your challenges.”
In those small
steps, taken today with a bulldog resolve, hide our destinies…
In them, hid
mine…
In them hide my
two young students’.
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Marta Nogueira/Pixels
Video: truly
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