WHEN TALENT MEETS PASSION
"Your
passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.”
Isabelle
Lafleche
Talent
and passion are a deadly combination. While God has placed in us one talent or
the other, I believe, that He has left it for us to, both, discover our talents
and pursue them with sufficient passion…
Passion is
personal… God wants us to find our own.
Exactly a year
ago, in last February, Aadi and Tanmay, who were in eighth standard in the same
school, were brought to me by their very involved mothers. They wanted to
enroll their kids for our Summer programme on Personality Development. As the
programme was to take off post Mid-April, the mothers insisted, that I should
keep them engaged in some helpful activity. Apart from his studies, Aadi was already
busy with cricket coaching. Tanmay,
though didn’t have a major interest, was a very enthusiastic and well-cultured
kid. I instantly fell in love with both of them, and went about helping them in
my own way…
Lessons of the
heart are no rocket science, you see. And, to connect with young hearts, you do
not need a magic wand in your hand… A caring hand suffices!
Though I have
spent decades conducting programmes on Personality Development for young kids.
I myself haven’t attended any such programmes, ever. I believe, that developing a kid’s
personality is not a ‘task’, either to be started or completed inside a
classroom. Instead, it’s a long, continuous process that spans over a lifetime…
From the cradle to the grave! So, though I am into it, I tell everyone this: “All
that you can hope to get in this room is a ‘spark’.”
Quite often, even that doesn’t happen!
Gautama became the
Buddha in a flash… But, years of ‘wandering in the wilderness’ was necessary.
You see, some understand this phenomenon… and, some don’t!
As I said at the outset, talent and passion are a deadly combination. If Young ones get this point early, I think, that takes care of the rest… They will learn to hone their talents into fine skills… They will have the required discipline, determination, perseverance and hardworking capacity… And, all of these traits will have to come from their passion…
On
the very first day, there were parents alongside Aadi and Tanmay. I showed them
these two videos:
Sir Tom Jones,
at 80, still sings and performs with the same passion. More than six decades
have passed by, but the genuine talent and passion have endured…
The Personality
is still a work-in-progress…
Was I trying to
tell this to our two little-kids and their parents?
Hope, I was…
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic’s: pixabay
Videos: 1. The Ed Sullivan Show 2. Joffre Maestraccl
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