Nature - An Open School

Everybody wishes to learn and enrich their knowledge bank. For this people often refer books. Of course, reading books on various topics can certainly help in gaining information. You can understand the thoughts and ideas as well as the perception of the writer. But, when you wish to gain optimum knowledge about different things from various aspects, don’t confine your mind to only books. Trust me there is an open source of gaining information particularly related to the life management and that is the ‘NATURE’.

Every organism present in nature tries to deliver some lesson. If applied carefully, it acts as the healer and can even lessen our sufferings and pain.

To cite an example which we might have experienced is when we are unwell, we start blaming and it starts from the Almighty God, we blame the society, we blame our family and we blame our own body and soul for all the ailments that we are undergoing through. Our vision is ransacked and we can feel only true pain, nothing else. The moment, we visit a hospital we come across other patients, may be in better condition than yours or could be vice versa. Suddenly the complaining state of mind switches to the praising. Blame turns to be blessings and we want to find a proper remedy to our problems.

When we move and start exploring nature, you will be bound to learn many new things. It can be certain things which can help you to strengthen your personal relationship with the other beings. Few could be related to your work style, few could be related to time management and the list will go on. To learn from nature it is you who should be vigilant and be focused. Only with true concentration you will learn the realities of life with great ease through the open book, termed Nature.

There is a beautiful saying - Nature has sufficient resources to fulfill the need of every being but not to satisfy their greed. We, the human being, only desire to have more than what is actually needed by us. The concern is self-centered and maybe because of this reason throughout the life we lead a life full of mayhem. There is no inner peace. The desire to have more generates competition which sometimes seems to be meaningless.

Well, I am not against competition. But while in competition try to first identify the cause and its effect on every action that you are engaged into. Anything which is indicating the extreme points can be dangerous.

To share and care, to know your kind of personality so that your behavior can affix into the type of organization you wish to work for or you are engaged with. Every kind of plantation can’t be grown in the type of soil available. There has to be a correct match between the two. Similarly, it goes with the human being and the associated organization.  

It is easy to state that one should be at right position, working with right people at the right place. But often, you may hear from the HR Managers that they find it very difficult to identify and recruit the right person at the right position.

Those who can naturally acclimatize can sustain longer than those protected and grown in nurseries. We stopped getting acclimatized. Due to the thoughtful mind and creative brain, numerous innovations and inventions made our life quite happening and comfortable. Contrary to this, we lost the immunity. We find it difficult to adapt according to the demand of nature. Though we are the most prominent part of this nature, yet we find it very hard to live and lead the life at an ease.

Every new innovation and invention or the discoveries directly or indirectly has affected the lifestyle. Unless we confine our desire and won’t be thinking about other beings, it will be difficult to draw consensus. The tussle of the life will keep going and even after getting the honor of the highest qualifications, academically, we will remain as the part of sufferers. It is only because of lack of interest to think about the consequences and its impact on others, we keep the momentum on.

Let us take a pause. Let us learn a very simple lesson from the nature to share and care and to maintain harmony for better growth of each and every resource available. May

be, the day we realize this, we may think about better human nature which can think about the betterment of Self as well as The Beautiful World.

Passion Paves the Way to Success

One fine morning, out of the blue, I took a pen and started writing. Well, my mind had already planned for a task which I could not stop. It wished to write about Anuraag, who has his own story of success at the age of 23.

Anuraag’s childhood is different from other children. Though his parents are alive, he is forced to lead his life like an orphan. His parents are the refugee from Bangladesh. They beg and live under the Raja Bazaar flyover. Anuraag, when he was of 10, his father forced him to beg in front of the famous Hanuman temple at Rajbanshi Nagar. Though he hated begging but was scared of the beatings which he would get by his father on his denial.

Well, begging turned into a boon. As recalled by Anuraag, it was a Tuesday. Generally, people especially pray to Lord Hanuman on this day. Moreover, it was raining. Anuraag was in his shorts, barefooted sitting just outside the temple gate with hands spread for the alms. He saw a white ambassador car which stopped. Out of this car, three people stepped out. There was a boy, who was just five or six-year-old said Anuraag, who was wearing a beautiful suit. A man was in white kurta-pajama and a lady draped one of the expensive sarees.

Anuraag was awestruck to see them walking to him after praying to the lord. The man gave Anuraag 10 rupee note and said that it was his son’s birthday and to buy sweets and have a great time.

Tears rolled into Anuraag’s eyes. He recalled his family members. He never knew his own birth date. He never celebrated one in his life. A child of just 10-year-old was so frustrated with his life that he decided to run away from his parent’s bondage and lead a free life.

Anuraag said that when it was time to go back to his parents, he decided firmly to trench all the relationships and start leading a new life. He had ten rupees in his pocket along with some coins. He pleaded and requested the autowala to take him to Danapur station for free.

It was around 9:00 pm when he had reached Danapur station. He recalled the first night which he had spent, all alone on platform no.1 without his family members. In the morning, when he woke up, there was no shouting and smacking. He brushed his teeth with neem stick and bought a cup of tea and two pieces of bun.

Anuraag decided to plan his future. He wanted to do anything other than begging. His eyes moved here and there in search of some opportunity. He went to the auto stand where the autowalas were shouting and were trying to call the customers for the ride. Anuraag started shouting and said an old autorickshaw driver to pay him a rupee for each customer whom he would be calling and pleading

them to sit in the auto for the ride. The old man agreed and the whole day, Anuraag went on calling, requesting the riders to come and sit in the old man's auto.

Platform no.1 turned into his temporary house. He felt excited as he earned pretty handsome money. He could hardly count as he had never been to school. He gave the money to the autowala and inquired about the total earning of the day. It was 84 rupees. The money belongs to him. Nobody will come and snatch off his money. He spent some of his food and rest of the money, he started pooling.

His first teacher was the old autowala, who taught him to count numbers. The anxiety to know about the earning earned by Anuraag every day forced the boy to learn things quickly.

Anuraag also learnt to ride the auto. He started cleaning and offered service to other drivers too.

One afternoon, he saw his father and mother at the station. Cold sweat drenched his clothes. He was scared and did not come out of the tea stall where he hid for three hours. He thought, if his father saw him, he would surely take him back to the temple and would force him to beg.

Anuraag was also keen to learn to read and write and started taking tuitions from one of the schoolmasters who lived in Khagaul.

Seeing the learning ability and interest, the School Master inquired about his parents and about his past. Anuraag lied to the schoolmaster and said that he is an orphan.

His answer touched the heart of the schoolmaster. Anuraag never expected that this one statement would change his life.   

The School Master asked Anuraag if given an opportunity to work, would he like to work in the school. He will have to clean the classrooms and water the plants in the garden. Other than this, he can learn and study in the school along with other children.

Anuraag’s hardship and interest to learn and excel in life, kept his momentum on and he had successfully completed his graduation. Currently, he is working as a School Teacher in the same school which gave him education along with shelter.

When I met Anuraag the day-before, he told me about his past and why is he so passionate towards teaching. Well, I could only sum-up in a single line that, “Passion paves the way to Success”.  

Missing - Key to Success

Every day you meet someone who can inspire you either directly or indirectly. One day, I was at my workplace where a company was organizing a pool recruitment drive. Students from different reputed institutes gathered in the hall. Well, few were busy talking; some individuals were busy on Whatsapp or on their mobile. It seemed that everybody was engaged in different activities. 

Not bad at all. 

Well, the recruitment drive started with the pre-placement talk. This was followed by Group Discussion. Students were pretty aware of the processes. Only the shortlisted candidates will go ahead and can appear in the next round.

I am not targeting the numbers, nor do I wish to target any individual. 

But certainly, I would like to pinpoint the mindset with which the youth appears for any interview process. Every good institute spends decent hours in order to develop and train the students. Special classes and lectures are organized to groom, develop personality and prepare for the interview process. While interacting with few, I got to know that such sessions were organized by the institutes, where students participated but not whole-heartedly. They took these sessions much lighter than their core, regular classes.

Few stated that they have attended PD or Soft Skills sessions just to chillax. 

No comments.

I took hardly 30 Minutes to eliminate over 80% students who were willing to appear and bag the job. But to their disappointment, the process was not correct. Some blamed their group members, some blamed self, and some were now looking forward to sitting on the next drive.

Is the Youth on the right track?

Are jobs so easy to get?

Well, yes, to get a job, particularly the desired one needs your dedication. Your efforts to connect the right cord, by presenting the best of your knowledge and skills so that you leave not a single stone unturned and believe in giving you’re the BEST.

But it is difficult for those who only dream to get a job and work in the well-established organization without knowing much about the organization, job role, the responsibilities that you need to shoulder and kind of efficiency that is expected in YOU.

Students were excited when they knew about the organization which was coming for the drive, the pay-package was lucrative which attracted their mind to appear for the process, but they missed to carry with them the key to success. 

Something was missing. 

The kind of preparation and performance that was expected in these students was the key element that was missing. 

Awareness about the company, preparation towards pitch to convince the interviewer, art to showcase the kind of knowledge and skills required doing the assigned task, business awareness, etc. were few points that always one should keep on priorities while planning to sit for an interview.

Well, I do believe that every faculty or trainer while imparting the training must have emphasized on these points mentioned above. But as students, they hardly understand that along with regular course and its knowledge it is equally important to give value to general awareness, enhance business acumen and improve their communication skills. When a student works on these areas, these will surely help in building confidence.

Every organization looks for a confident person who is smart in making and taking decisions. Who can identify the problems and love to search for its solution? 

These statements are not NEW

But unfortunately, the candidate who wishes to give a great start to the career hardly pays quality time in enhancing and improving these skills.

Believe in knowing and exploring things; enjoy reading information related to the things happening in and around. And love to interact and speak relevant things when asked.

I wish all the BEST to the students who are planning to attend an interview and get placed.

If You Wish to Change

There is much of ‘WE’ everywhere. Steadily, the people around are forgetting that even in WE, ‘I’ plays a prominent role. Without ‘I’, the meaning and significance of the word WE completely change.

Ankur is a student of management studies, who had completed his B. Tech (CS). He is an average student, belonging to a middle-class family; his reason behind pursuing higher studies was to get placed in a well-established organization, which he had said in the very first day of joining the institute in front of all his batch mates, as stated very proudly by him.

In due course of time, he created a group of the students who were either having the similar attitude like him or were forced to approach higher studies so that they can secure their future by getting placed in good organizations. The group members always dream big. Ankur, being the leader is their motivator, and they blindly follow him.

He has the habit of chewing tobacco. He thinks, being a matured person, he knows what he should do and should not when asked by others to quit chewing. Well, according to him, he does what he likes.

The year passes by; he hardly shows any interest towards the development of his skills. With the kind of knowledge that he has, he may find it difficult to compete with his fellow students. He knew this fact but was busy in the blame game and never paid attention to his sessions or curriculum.

In the final year, he had attempted 42 interviews and was rejected all the time. The interviewers in their feedback advised him to improve his communication skills, negotiation skills and knowledge skills.

Ultimately, he met me in December 2017 while I was travelling from Patna to Hyderabad. While interacting with him, I realized that he seldom analyzed his conversation. In the complete journey of 39 hours, he was fully occupied with negative thoughts and believed in reducing the stress by blaming others. He started by blaming the people of Bihar, then he blamed his friends who had ruined his career by spending time in all sort of worthless activities, ultimately blamed God for giving him birth in a middle-class family.

At Hyderabad, he was called to appear for an interview process at one of the IT Solution companies. I realized that Ankur needs someone like me who can guide him correctly. I said to him without condemning his thoughts that what he said was right, everything around us is not certainly the best but one thing that surprised me was his honesty. He admitted and accepted his failure and knows his loopholes. At the same time, it was painful to know that he never paid any attention towards the development of his skills.

Well, I told him to send three hours with me, if he wishes to prepare and then go ahead to appear for the interview. Initially, he pretended that he has prepared himself and may not require any assistance of mine but I don’t know what stuck him, he agreed.

In my second meeting, few tips of the interview were shared with him. I focused on his preparation towards the kind of job he has applied for, the need of the organization, his concepts related to IT and its marketing, basic questions that are generally asked in the interview. Well, it took me six hours to just guide him and to put correct elevator’s pitch in my mouth.

I advised him to believe in self. I took time to tell him that in the complete story of the blame game, the real culprit is he, not the friends, not the society, not the family or God. I told him to judge and find out what are his real strengths and do work on weaknesses. On listening to my words, he said that he was asked to do these during his graduation as well as post-graduation. I admitted and said that the things told to him was not new.

What is driving the youth like him on the wrong track is their lack of interest in self-assessment and self-improvement. They can spend hours in blaming but can’t take an hour time to count their own areas of development.

I don’t know the result of Ankur’s interview. Nor I do have any contact number. But one thing I am very sure of is students like Ankur after reading this post will realize that they will get nothing by not doing things aptly at the right time. They will have to repent later which can be more painful in their future.

Students or aspirants, who wish to join good organizations, remember:

1.     Do work on communication skills

2.     Get rid of the habit of procrastination

3.     Believe in self and stop blame game

4.     Time that passes never returns

5.     Set your goal and be focused

Career Advisors like me are many in the number who are always willing to help students like Ankur but how many of the students adhere to what is advised and wish to bring positive change.

Yes, I am Daughter

Yes, I am daughter

I am like water

Ready to accept all change

Bearing pain of any range

To care is my nature

To share in my future

Burden is part of my life

As a daughter or a wife

I am asked to learn

When denied, even some burn

Yet, I love the family as whole

This is the goal of my soul

Torture or nurture

These are the part of creature

Yet, I appreciate and love to be a daughter

I proudly say I am like water.

To Motivate is Very Difficult

In the last 30 days, I have interacted with the students of at least 38 private coaching centers and institutes. Maximum students were those who were enrolled in government colleges and schools. Many had been to their college or school only once or for few days.

I wanted to know the reasons of these students, who do not attend the classes regularly. How do they cope up with their subjects, understand the various concepts? I really doubt their ability to learn.

But, all my doubts got cleared, when I interacted with the students of the different coaching classes, institutes that hold classes for competitive exams and so on.

Students believed that their teachers and faculty members do not take the proper interest in teaching or taking classes. They are often engaged in those activities which are not concerned with the development of the students.

Anita of Class XII reported that she has never been to her school. Because of the coaching centers, she was able to appear her papers confidently and could pass the examination with flying colors. Well, when I inquired the amount that she is paying at the coaching center, she proudly said that it was very less, only 500 INR per month for the complete five subjects.

In her coaching center, there are over 30 girls from the same college, and the total strength of a batch is not less than 60 students. The concerned teacher uses a mike to be audible to the students and keep explaining the lessons.

On asking, why she has never been to her college?

She just smiled and said, “There are no students who come to attend the classes. Hence, there is no point in going to the school.”

When I asked her, who pays her coaching fees?

She replied, her father.

Well, I was in complete shock. On the name of the girl child, the government pays such a huge amount. They are given books, bicycle, mid-day meals and what not. But, when these students do not go to school or the college every day, what should be the way to introspect the roles and responsibilities of the teachers, schools and the colleges?

Who is responsible for such level of education?

When I asked Mr. Mohan Prakash, a mathematics teacher of an institute, he said that he can take 8 classes on a day. In each class, there is a strength of 80 – 100 students. He keeps teaching and is pretty happy with his performance.

On asking, have the students failed in any of the exams, he said it depends on the center of examination and how strict are the invigilators. According to him, the invigilator should consider the students as their own kith and kin and should be lenient enough. They should understand the problem of the students, the background and other areas of problem.

I asked, do they analyze the background of the students, he said, “My family depends on my earning. If I start the charity, then my children will have to beg on the street. But, I do charge the nominal fee from the students so that they can pay the fees.”

On hearing his answer, I thought, why the parents are so insensible. Do they really have any affection towards their children? If they might have any consideration, they should have at least approached the school or the college. They should have inquired as to why the students are not attending the school or the college regularly.

I believe, there are so many dots that are not well-connected and due to awareness, the schools and colleges are unnecessarily blamed.

Yes, the administration and the management members of the school, as well as the colleges, should think of motivating students to attend the classes regularly. If attendance is regularly maintained as per the ordinance of the board or the university, which has made it as the prime criterion to appear for the examination, for sure the things will transform drastically.

There is lack of concern, among the members of the institute, family and the students. It may be tough to motivate unless the stakeholders realize the real benefit of such resilience.

Protocols are to be made for the betterment of the education system so that the monetary support that the government is providing to the students, duly reaches them and the entitled users should know that these benefits, when availed by them, will turn them as a liable citizen who needs to redeem the benefits and in turn help society to progress.

I’m not against the coaching centers, nor of any other institution. My only request is with the sensible youth and the citizen of this beautiful nation to create awareness and let the right beneficiaries avail the benefit so that as nation we grow and proceed towards development with empowered educated YOUTH  

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Break the Barriers and Attain your Goal

Every student wishes to obtain a better education so that they can break the dependency and build their career to lead an enriched life. Most of the time, when we talk about the students of the government college, there we find a huge gap between the level of personality development when compared with the students of private educational institutions. Reasons could be many:

1. The medium to a great extent acts as a barrier to the development. After the intermediate course, which is often studied in Hindi medium by the maximum girls in Bihar, they find it difficult to opt for vocational courses, which is taught and studied in English medium.

2. The cost of education creates an obstacle when a girl child wishes to proceed with higher education. Parents do have to give the second thought before getting their child admitted in well-reputed institutions.

3. There is lack of awareness among the common people about the facilities provided by the government, particularly for the purpose of education.

At RPM College, Patna city, while interacting with the students, tried to generate interest among the students so that they can work over their areas of development.

The audience, whom I was addressing, were the students of the intermediate final year. They were appearing for their pre-board examination. Every year, in the month of May, June or July, when the results are disclosed, along with this we do hear about the scandals, malpractices and illegal means applied by the students in some states of India. Who should be blamed for this?

a.      Government

b.     School or College authorities

c.      Students

d.     Parents

On seeing the kind of examination going on at RPM College, one can certainly prove that all the above stated are to be blamed. Government passes the ordinance but hardly there is a counter check to see or analyze whether the ordinance is duly practiced at the institutes or colleges or not? Schools and Colleges they receive the rules and they do understand that the role of any educational place is very significant. They nurture the knowledge skills which in turn boosts the confidence of the students. When they fail to exhibit or stand by the protocols issued by the government, it is the mere failure of the authorities of the school or college. Students do blame for every minute thing. But when it is the time to study hard and do gain knowledge for better career perspective, they are seen stepping back. They believe, by using some petty means or illegal sources they can easily get through the examination and score better marks.

But by just gaining the marks, why don’t the students understand that they are ultimately ruining their own career path. Even if they continue and apply for higher studies, lack of knowledge will create a hurdle. They may find it difficult to study further and could be one of the reasons for their dropout.

Parents who get their children admitted in the government colleges, hardly pays any heed, whether their child attends the college on regular basis, details of the classes and about their studies. I believe, if parents become active, for sure, the students will be under positive pressure and they can excel in studies, even if their education is going on in the government institutes or colleges.

When inquired about the facility which a student can avail by applying for Student Credit Card, students believed that it is very difficult to get any financial aid from the government which in fact is a myth these days. Informing the students, I urged the students to break the barriers and get rid of wrong notions. They must work on their communication skills, practice every day and develop the knowledge skills. Know about the facilities that they can avail from the government so that a child should no longer remain a burden upon the shoulder of their parents, rather they can stand on their feet and prove to be the pride of the family.