Gerald D'Cunha

“Your career is what you’re paid for; your calling is what you’re made for.” Steve Harvey I just asked one of my eleventh-standard student: “So, what is the plan after twelfth?" “I don’t know, Sir,” the girl said quite sincerely. The last thing I wanted to do was to make this bright girl feel guilty about it. I was clueless about what I wanted to do in my own life till I landed up in first-year B.Com. I knew how I had gone about my own career choice. So, I said to this girl, “It’s okay if you do not know what you should do after twelfth. But, you should know what you should do now about it.” I pointed to the difference between my situation at her age and hers… I grew up in a village, where my parents were not educated. There was ignorance and lack of means… My self-confidence was extremely low and social skills were poor. I was not into reading; nor I was aware of any motivational programmes. Everything began to change during my B.Com days, when I dreamt of becoming ...

What comes to us naturally is our calling in life! Let me recount a mundane episode to explain this logic. Last evening, I received a phone call, all out of the blue. It was Cynthia. She was in twelfth-standard, when I had taught her Accountancy, some thirty-five years ago!   I was in my final year B’Com, then. Inspired by my idol, Prof. B.S. Raman, I had started teaching dozens of students, all for free… I was obsessed to become a teacher… and, a teacher like my idol, in that. Yes, nothing else, nothing less! So, Cynthia was one of those, with whom my early teaching experience had begun. I left Mangalore soon after some time…and, my contact with all my students in Mangalore, including Cynthia, was lost immediately. Those were not the days of cell-phones, e-mails and Face book. We had to write letters to keep in touch. It was not easy as it is today. I was very happy to talk to Cynthia, last evening. I learnt that she did not ...