The other
day when I was in the midst of seminar, at the peak of the motivation I was
giving to those assembled there, someone asked me: Who has inspired you
most? Without a moment’s hesitation I
replied: my mother. She had worked hard to see that her 7 children did not die
of starvation or diseases. Without her hard work I would have been dead and
gone long back.
We were so
poor that I had to work when I was five. I had to complete weaving one bamboo
mat before I could be free in the evening. There was no square meal any day (except
on festivals) and we were hungry, emaciated and half naked. My father was less
concerned with the family and the children compared to our mother. She would
work from dawn to dusk weaving bamboos at the same time looking after all the 7
of us, feeding us whatever little she could afford and getting us help or rustic
medical aids whenever we were sick or in trouble.
There were
times when I longed for 1 cent to buy a sweet. How hard I had wished for 5
cents (when I was in the fifth grade to watch a circus show arranged in the
school! There were times I would wait for an ordinary Marigold flower at the
gate of my class mate’s house. (As I was
very poor I never felt like entering the house and he never invited me in)
Every day I
worked and worked and went to school at the nick of the time without having
proper food, clothes or reading a newspaper. I passed matriculation without knowing
one English sentence correctly. Envying those who knew the language well, I
vowed that I would master the language. As my family could not afford to send
me to college, I sought the help of my parish priest who admitted me into the
petit seminary for ecclesiastical studies. In the seminary, we aspirants had to converse either in English or
Latin. It was a golden opportunity and I started devouring English words and
phrases like a lover. I used to read anything I could lay hands upon noting
down every beautiful word and phrase. I would
write down ten difficult words every day in a piece of paper to study and to
commit them to memory on the way to the urinal or on the way back from the dining
hall. I would sit glued to the old radio in the study hall to hear news from BBC. As I wanted to develop the correct accent, it
was important to listen to English spoken best. This practice continued for
more than 5 years. Even while I convalesced in the infirmary, I used to devote
my entire time (there was a lot of it as I did not have to go for mass, classes
and prayers) to improve the language.
I started writing one page a day starting with
simple topics like ‘my mother’, ‘my father’, ‘my school’, ‘my village’ and so
on. In about three to four years what I had written in loose paper was enough
to fill 5 volumes or more. I appropriated difficult words and phrases by using
them in sentences and even in the conversations I had with the fellow
aspirants. I was rather obsessed with the study of the language and in a few
years I could command it. Words would cascade down in an incessant flow and I
had developed a style of my own (These days, as I do not pursue ‘everyday a
page’ writing habit, I feel I have lost the sheen of writing I had so painstakingly
developed). But even today I am very comfortable with English and I can
continue speaking to an audience for a full day or two uninterruptedly and in
good command.
The journey
from an ignorant undernourished half naked boy to a position of strength in a foreign language and professionally which
emboldened me to become a trainer and conduct seminars in a number of foreign
cities is a testimony to the principle, ‘the future is not the past after all.’
‘The rags to
riches’ stories of people are all well known to all. The biographies of Henri
Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Alva Edison et all had inspired me when I was a
little more than a boy. The life of Abraham Lincoln who was so poor that he had to go to the forest, cut down
trees and fend his family from the age of 9 (when children of his age were
comfortably nestled in schools) has ever been awe inspiring. I had read
Napoleon Hill’s book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ when I was twenty and I have continued
reading it for the last two decades (whenever I felt a ‘little down’ in life).
Later I came across the lives of thousands who
have overcome penury and made themselves immensely rich and famous. Some of them stand out in my mind like Wilma
Rudolf who was born in a hut to colored parents and who was struck down with
polio. Her mother’s encouragement, her incessant attempts to stand up and walk on
her legs without the support of crutches is still awe-inspiring. She became one
of the greatest athletes of all times by winning 3 gold medals in the 1961 Rome
Olympics in running. She proved beyond doubt that future is not the past after
all.
Dhirubhai Ambani's life and success
story has impressed me too. It is very
rare that you see people rising from nowhere to the top, especially so in an
underdeveloped society where the society believes in Karma or pre-destiny. His life
is a perfect example to showcase the rags to riches story. He was born in a relatively poor house with
7 children. He started the great company Reliance with just $20) in his pocket
and made it the biggest corporation of India. He once said, ‘24 hours of a day
7 days of a week, 52 weeks of an year I have Reliance in my mind.’ Anybody can
achieve success in this way in any enterprise.
Helen Keller
was blind, deaf and mute. She did not dwell on her disabilities nor appealed to
the sympathy of others; instead she inspired the blind and the crippled to live
their life to the full. How difficult it was for her to learn even one word
without eyesight, hearing and speech. But she mastered the language and wrote
inspiring books in the Braille system and enlightened the blind, the deaf and
the mute.
The future
is not the past. It is not always the well-fed kids who are sent to the best
schools and given every comfort who succeed in life or who climb to the very
top. By and large it is the poor, the
disadvantaged and those who have to surmount difficulties who scale the heights
and sit atop the peak. All the poor and the entire disadvantaged do not do
so. There are millions born poor or
crippled (mentally or physically) who continue to be in the same state. The
main reason could be their ignorance of the fact that one can overcome one’s
hardships and rise up from the lowest levels. Many of them tend to believe that
they are destined to poverty or sickness and they wallow in the mires. But if
their thoughts can be redirected from very young days to believe (like in the
case of Wilma Rudolf) that ‘whatever the human mind can conceive and believe it
can achieve,’ they will have a totally different future which has nothing to do
with their past. Thoughts are all important and one’s success or failure, one’s
poverty or riches are very much dependent on the dominant thoughts of the mind.
Dream, consistently dream, a bright and
prosperous future or anything you cherish and it is almost certain that it will
materialize.
I have
to agree that there is a lot of luck in one's life: the country, state and house
one is born into, the educational and economic status of parents, their
connections and ability to promote their children and much more. One's
intellectual capability, energy level, physical appearance, confidence levels
and social skills are all, to a large extent, transmitted from parents and
early home environment. But there is no point in crying over the bad luck (that
is how the game of life is played); let us try to better ourselves with
whatever we have got. The simple reason is that our future does not
depend on our past. We can create the future of our choice by simply dreaming
what we want continuously, perhaps, until we get them. And when you dream, don’t forget to dream
big.
Stop looking towards your past and
keep gazing at your future. Let your life be always forward and not backward.
Whatever has happened has already happened.
What is in store in the future is all that matters.
Again, let us not regret by looking
back; nobody has ever gained anything by doing so. It is a sheer waste of
energy. Forget that which are behind. It cannot bind nor influence your future
without your permission. Your days to come will not be rosy if you are
tormented by the agony of the past. Stop trying to change the past; it will
always remain as it was. The more you turn your attention on the past events
the less will be the energy left to look forward, to plan and work for future
events. The dreams of the future are not built on the events of the past.
If
you are sad and depressed it will be about something which has already
happened. If you live in your past you kill your future. No one can have a
bright future if he thinks about the past, its misfortunes and follies
