I don’t know

Today, 5 September is being celebrated as teacher’s day, a day dedicated to a scholar and ex President of India, Dr Sarvepally Radhakrishnan. Print and social media are filled with tributes by individuals, to their teacher’s of their schools and colleges. That set me thinking, down the memory lane, my school teachers and college lecturers..

Why am I not getting a single name to talk about ? School-sister veronica, mount carmel convent, standard 4, Devi Prasad, Sharma until 7^th standard,in Rourkela,  Rosener, Chatterjee, Hari Prasad and and.. in Ranchi.

In the college, Prof Behra, Dr Nagbhushan, Dr Khanijo, Dr Kapoor, Dr  Dash, Dr Mohanty, Dr Prasad  and few others, whose classes I have attended.

One thing I can guarantee, not a single one of them will remember me or know me. Reason, I was always hiding in front of them. Being shy of things I did not know, created a complex and survived with minimum interactions with teachers. I have dealt with my exams with the help from text books

• For me, the teachers in school  and professors in the college were passing on the knowledge from the text books to me. Their hard work was stress for me, home works, examinations, deserving punishments, including caning , put out your hand or bend , one or two on the butt. They were always willing to go to the extent I wanted, it is me who kept avoiding them. My learnings began after I left the learning centres.

There are two types of teachers in academics, for one  it is a profession and the other, a passion. In our country, their salaries do not match their workload. It is the most honourable profession, teachers are the greatest contributors to the nation’s development through their wards, though the back benchers join politics and rule the country.

My learning are from my friends and others who later became my friends. One thing I taught myself is to say I do not know or keep quiet, when I do not know. I will store what you say, accept what I experience. You say there is a GOD, done, another says there is no GOD, ok, I wait for the experience.

My friend Tauro and Itty were discussing about a demo of a software by a third party, when Itty said, menon can develop this, he knows how to do it. Tauro’s response was “ya he knows it but has he done it ?” I over heard this and realized, the value of Knowledge is in what you do with it. Since then if I have not done or shared it, it is not an asset, it is as good as I don’t know.

Jain, who came to visit Bangalore office after a year from Ranchi came to my seat to say hi. I told him, “ how come you are coming after an year”, he said, “I was here six months ago”. When I asked him why did he not meet me, he looked thoughtfully at me and said “I forgot about you”. He went up a few notches in my esteem and I felt good about his honesty. In his place, I would have given a thousand bluffs. From that day I have picked up his style of honesty in such situations.

Parthasarathy, national basket ball player, my friend and colleague, I found him to be very organized, neat and methodical with a good hand writing (I was just the opposite, disorganized, clumsy with poor handwriting).I learnt all these qualities from him, never practiced them. We were in the computer division of MECON, when I would trouble him with doubts, simple and repeated  ones, when he said, “there is a help key, you can get most of your answers there.” A few lessons there, I was wasting his time and slowing his productivity, finding solution yourself is far greater learning than being spoon fed. Respect other’s time, do not waste it for them.

I was running a computer training centre in Dubai, when my friend,  Abraham came to meet me. I told him, this is just a make shift arrangement, so my interest is limited and I have not come here for this job. He said,” you should focus on what you are doing, give your full attention to what ever you are doing, don’t do it as a time pass, treat it as your profession”. I took his advise and raised it to a good level before I left, to return to India, to be back with my family. You may not be able to do what you like, like what you do.

Whatever technical knowledge I have, major contribution is  from my friend Sakthidharan, Rajendran, Electrical Engineers and Dr Gopalakrishnan,Pertoleum Enginner, my brother in law, during our discussions

My cousin brother in law, Purushotham (Aniyan for us), a man of action, make things happen while you are still planning, learnt from him but I can’t.

His brother Suresh Kumar (alias Babu), deceptive in appearance is the coolest of them all, conducted the marriage of his daughter at Guruvayur, Kerala when every body was advising to cancel the event, due to floods. Two days before the scheduled date, it was not possible to reach the venue, however things cleared up to make it happen as planned.. There is no point in worrying, deal with the situation the best way.

Indu menon (my sister) and Lakshmi Menon (also my sister) both non entrepreneurs, are now successful social entrepreneur and ecopreneur. The intention, social upliftment and environment protection over monetory profits, is the key to  success.

My number one learning is to accept what is than crib over what should have been.

Here is a forward I received
Someone asked  Acharya Chanakya

What is envy ?
non acceptance of good in others
If we accept that good, it becomes inspiration…!

What is Anger?
non acceptance of things which are beyond our control.
If we accept, it becomes tolerance…!

What is hatred?
non acceptance of person as he is.
If we accept person unconditionally, it becomes love…!

What is Poison?
He replied with a beautiful answer – Anything which is more than our necessity is Poison. It may be Power, Wealth, Hunger, Ego, Greed, Laziness, Love, Ambition, Hate or anything

What is fear…..?
non acceptance of uncertainty.
If we accept that uncertainty,
it becomes adventure…!

It’s a matter of acceptance.

Resistance creates stress… Acceptance does away with stress …

The more I learn, I realize the more I don’t know.