May be I am not good enough...

The son has no liking towards having a formal training in music. However, his ancestors have been traditionally rooted in classical music. So the boy is forced to learn music. Unless the heart is rooted, talents don’t branch out. The boy prefers football to music. Excellence isn’t something that can be thrust upon. The urge for excellence has to come from within. The boy doesn’t do well in music. His teachers criticise him, “Hailing from such an illustrious family, it is a shame that you don’t have interest in music.” The family denounces him saying, “Don’t spoil the family name. Football will not feed you. Drop it and focus on music.” Everybody screams, “Practice more.” How much ever you may practice, a donkey’s bray will never become a cuckoo’s song. In not being able to live up to the expectations of his loved ones, the boy starts feeling less about him. This feeling, “May be, I am not good enough,” begins to show up in all his performances.

I feel it is prime parental responsibility to give children avenues by which they feel like a success. From relationships to career, more than what I do, how I feel about doing it forms the foundation for my future.

The issue isn’t football or music. During growing years, either in academics or in sports or in theatre or in arts or in social work etc., the path is immaterial. But in some path, children should feel a taste of success. A girl who feels that sense of success in BA Economics will do much better with her future than the girl who feels like a failure in BE Electronics.

We say the overall standard of education has dropped!! Why wouldn’t it?

His marks didn’t get him into engineering, but his dad’s money did.

His merit didn’t get him into medicine, but his caste did.

His performance didn’t get him into management education, but the letter from the Minister did.

We end up building a society with Chartered Accountants, who do not have the flair for numbers, doctors who lack sensitivity, engineers who lack analytical abilities, teachers who can’t feel the subject... and then we cry “Why is the world like this???” How else will it be when we have architectured it this way...

Success or failure is not about potential, but it is a matter of interest. The mind will easily follow the heart, but the heart will seldom follow the mind. Competence cannot always cause passion, but passion can always develop competence. Not all first rank holders come first in life. Not all backbenchers remain a backbencher in life. Our past is never equivalent to our future.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that suggests that it can be a butterfly, and yet it becomes one. What we were and what we are, turn inconsequential to what we can become in life.

Give your child a chance by choosing a path where his best will come out. Not everybody can be good at everything, but everybody can be good at something.
Let us stop the perpetuation of the feeling “May be I am not good enough” !!

Ever Loving
Ganesh Ramachandran

Institutionalised !!

A Tribute to all my near ‘n’ dear ones @ SASTRA !!!
I’m not a poet. Never have I attempted to be one. This is not an attempt to be one either. But never knew a means to share what I feel... Other than ‘WORDS’ !

As I walk through these deserted corridors
I find an inherent emptiness..
In my heart...
Everytime I go home, even for a few days
There used to be happiness n joy
I tell almost everyone around
And it pisses them off to the core...

Today I’m leaving back home forever
But I find the happiness missing...
For it’s at the cost of moving away from my dearest friends!

How many days would I have cribbed about this place...
But it is the same place which has transformed me into what I am today!
How many times would I have badmouthed the ‘mess’ food
But it is the mess hall where I have had life changing conversations!
How much would I have talked ill about the hostels...
But it is the same hostels that I do not want to leave now!
I will be missing it all!

The ‘Chota’ Canteen that gets crowded
Even before the stroke of the 11.10 bell
Guys ‘obviously’ waiting to catch a glimpse of at least one good looking girl!
And the girls ‘secretly’ trying to peek at ‘their’ guy!
Missions impossible... Never forgettable!!

Ice creams that could burn... A hole in your pocket!
Gold Cups that sell hotter than Pepsi & Coke!
Gtalk – the only free channel of communication!

Classes... Free hours... Exams... Results...
The cycle continued for 3 years!
Acquaintances, friends, dear friends, best friends...
Tiffs, Squabbles, Cold wars, Fights, Reunions...

Festivals added colour to our lives...
Fests added flavour to it!

The foundation was getting laid
For the ‘Friends Forever’ tag!

Its time to get a job they said...
And everyone sat with those aptitude books!

There came a final semester, nevertheless different!
Lesser classes, more time spent with friends...
A streak of placements happening with
Loads of companies coming and going by
And thats when everyone started to know...
How much a friend could inspire you to do!!!

The early morning talks over breakfast...
The messages that fly across benches and buildings in the afternoon!
The never ending saga of ‘treats’ in the evening...
And the long late night walks on the sands!

To remove it all in a flash from my life...
Gives a crushing pain!
I’m not a person who cries...
But it certainly pains when a layer of skin is peeled off!!

The first ‘Bye’ wasn’t that difficult...
It went off before I could realise we would never be back together at this place..
The further ones were becoming heavier...
Do not know what the final ones got in store for me!

I decided to leave on the last day from this place!
So that it would give me time to meet all people I wanted to...
And I can travel with the dearest of my friends...
Now I feel how stupid a decision I have taken...

To exchange byes every day, with somebody so close to heart
Is one of the worst things that you can imagine of doing!!

5th July 2006 is like yesterday...
And tomorrow seems empty!

‘Friends’ should have been a longer word...
For the amount of meaning it stores in it!

How fast these four years have been!!
And how much have I learnt from it!!!

As I wish to write a few more lines...
A drop of tear slides down my cheek!
It is that moment when I realise...
I am completely INSTITUTIONALISED!!!

Love you people!
You made my college life memorable!
Will be missing you all...
Do stay in touch!

Ever loving
R Ganesh