My Dear Student Friends,
Greetings!
This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Believer and Mentor, Inspire to Innovate
(i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome to “Letter
to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 2”. Hope you enjoyed reading my
previous letter. I received overwhelming response from various students,
teachers and principals from all states of India. I thank all of you for spending
your valuable time reading this letter series and patiently acknowledging the
same.
In the previous volume, I mentioned
the need for goal setting, need to identify your own natural intelligence and
potential (spot your multiple intelligence), how your passion should drive you and so on,
referred to amazing real case studies of
Srinivasa Ramanujan (Self-Made Mathematician), Shalini of Karnataka,
Ammaji of Peeleru, Chittoor, AP (both scoring high in PUC/+2 exams in spite of
various challenges in their lifes), R. Madhavan of an alumnus of IIT-Madras (IITian
turned most influential engineering driven farmer) and the importance of 10,000
hours of practice (to position you as expert in one particular field).
Again, I appeal you to get inspired
and mentored by someone whom you trust and believe (your mentor). This is
continuous and ongoing process. One day, may be you might stop your studies
(from degree perspective), but you cannot stop getting inspired and mentored.
They are lifelines in one’s own journey towards ultimate goal achievement. In
my letter series, I would like to stress on these two dimensions as continuous
reminder (inspire and get mentored).
Let me elaborate more on how one can
be inspired and mentored. Inspiration comes from various forces. You can be inspired by hearing inspirational
stories, reading wonderful thought provoking words and stories, by undergoing
various challenges and successfully facing them, attending workshops
exclusively to inspire individuals and so on. You can be mentored by your own parents or your teacher who cares about your
future or exclusive mentor who nurtures you. You need to search and choose such
mentor. In this process, you have to take ownership. Nobody is responsible to
provide such platform. It is inner process not external process. Don’t wait. It
becomes costly step if you miss these two steps in your early education.
Recently one of my students who is
studying 1st year Engineering asked me, “Sir, I am attending
Inspirational Workshop every 3 months and also my teacher is mentoring me. Is
that sufficient to succeed in my goals?” My answer is “NO”. I gave this analogy
to her. You are living in 10th floor of 20-story apartment. It is
duplex, 4 bed room, spacious and well decorated 3000 square feet apartment.
I told her, that is your “Degree/Skill/Knowledge”. The ground
level foundation to your degree must be your core “Inspiration”. The pillar
connected to your apartment is your “mentoring process.”
Without proper foundation and strong elevated pillars, apartment collapses.
Hope you understand the importance of inspire and mentoring.
Let me explain further with another
anology. Once one boy enquired me on which course I should join so that I get
job quickly and earn lot of money. Then I asked what inspires you in your life.
He didn’t have much answer and again he told me, “Sir, I want SOME job quickly
and EARN money.” I clearly see vacuum within 2 words – SOME and EARN. Both words
bring down the objectivity in our life. When we don’t have passion towards
particular course and study that course for short-term job, first, we cannot
enjoy the job and we cannot earn money as well. I firmly believe this
philosophy. Let me share a story. Once there is a company called “Ultra
Woodcutting Services Pvt. Ltd.” They cut trees using most sophisticated
machines, shape them and export wood. This company is growing fast as they are
cutting trees fast and delivering them to market quickly. This company is located
near a village called “Bhuvannagar”, close to Eastern Ghats forest region. Lot
of boys from this village are aspiring for woodcutting job as this company is
paying high and you get job quickly. Once a boy called “Lumana” approached this
company for job. They asked the boy to learn certain skills related woodcutting
operation. He is not really interested in this work but money and job lured him
to this profession. He shared his heart to one wise man from his village. Wise
man advised him not to take this profession, because 1. You don’t have
interest. 2. You want to earn money 3. Woodcutting is destructive work. Over a
period, you will lose your job anyway as there will be no trees left. In spite
of the wise man’s advice, Lumana joined this company. Days passed and things are
going fine. He worked for three years. Ruthlessly company started cutting old
trees (some of them are as old as 50 years). Over a period, entire forest
region got wiped out. There are no trees left. One day company asked Lumana to
find new job. Lumana doesn’t know any skill outside woodcutting. He could not
earn money as any trees left. The moral of the story is whichever course you
choose, you need to be inspired first. Such skills should be helpful to the
society in the long-term. Then money / name / fame become by-product. They come
automatically. But money / name should not be criteria to search for a job.
Let me share few real stories of amazing
people. Recently I was reading the life of Jadav Payeng from Assam (greenerpasturesind.wordpress.com).
Jadav witnessed many snakes washed away ashore onto the sandbars during
1979 Assam floods. Many of them died as there is no tree protection in the
sandbars. The 15 year old Jadav inspired to do something in these sandbars.
Though sandbars are not conducive for plantation, Jadav single handedly started
planting bamboo trees. Then government also supported his cause for 5 years. Jadav
didn’t leave it there. He continued this noble effort for past 32 years. You
know what? As a result of his unflinching effort, today this man-made forest
has grown to 1000 hectares in size. Now this forest is home for tigers, rhinoceros,
special birds, elephants and so on. Jadav got inspired! Result is 1000 hectares
of man-made forest! Jadav is known as the forest maker of India. Do you agree now, how inspiration is so important?
Let me share the real story of
another amazing man, called as “Mountain Man.” Dashrath Manjhi was a poor labourer from Gehlaur village, Gaya, Bihar. In 1959, Dashrath’s wife died from lack of medical access. The nearest
doctor was available only 70km away, traveling around the hills. Dashrath
inspired
to help other villagers and his next generation. He started carving a path
through a mountain using a hammer and chisel. You know what, he did astonishing
work. After 22 years of hard and painstaking work, Dashrath shortened travel
between the Atri and Wazirganj blocks of Gaya town from 55 km to 15 km (wikipedia.org)
!! He carved a path of 360-foot-long, 25-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide in the form of
regular paved road!!! What kind of commitment he must be having? What kind of
vision he must be holding? In today’s world, everybody is looking after their
own stomach and family welfare. Very few people are committed for such societal
cause.
I was reading a famous quote about
good people from unknown source. Good people are like diamonds. They should not
be tested too much. If they are hit, they will not break. But they will slip
away from your hands. My dear friend, May be you are one among such diamonds? Inspire!
Let me share another visionary IAS
officer’s story which I read in Times of India (Nov 3, 2012).
Armstrong
Pame, a young and dynamic IAS officer hailing from North East India,
created huge impact with his societal concern. He proactively initiated a construction
of a 100-km road that would link Manipur with Nagaland and Assam with the help
of local people. Without this road, it takes two days for anyone in the village
(Tousem, Manipur) to reach nearest hospital on foot. Armstrong hails from
Tousem and faced lot of hardship during his childhood. He used to walk as much
as 60 KM to reach district headquarters carrying 25KG of rice back home. After
winning most prestigious civil services, Armstrong didn’t become silent
about woes of his hometown. He donated from his own pocket and campaigned
heavily in fund raising using social media towards this ambitious people driven
road construction work.
Rabindranath Tagore says “I slept and dreamt- that life was
joy. I awoke and saw - that life was service. I acted and behold- service was
joy.” My Dear
Friend, do you want to taste that joy? Joy for yourself, Joy for your parents,
Joy for your mother land!
My Dear Friend, when we see tiny
items through high-powered magnifying glass, same item appears big. In the same
way, when we see small problems, through microscopic heart, issue magnifies,
leads to confusion. Further, it leads to fusion of the problem. A wise thinking
and noble acceptance of the issues are critical skills to survive in this world
today. Let me share a tale published in O Homem que Calculava, a series of
tales (Brazil in 1949) in the style of the Arabian Nights. I read this tale from wikipedia.org. Once there is father
and he has 3 sons. He has 35 camels. When father died, he left WILL stating
like this- 1st son receives 1/2 camels (17.5 camels), 2nd
son receives 1/3 (11.7 camels), 3rd
son receives 1/9 (3.9 camels). Sons started fighting each other and finally
reached to one wise man called Hanak. Hearing this, Hanak first donated his one
camel, making total camel strength to 36. Now using this WILL, he distributed
18 camels to 1st son, 12 camels to 2nd son, 4 camels to 3rd
son. Not only they received their original share, but with this arrangement,
all of them profited with extra number. Later this story mapped to 17 camels,
brining 9 camels to 1st son, 6 camels to 2nd son, 2
camels to 3rd son. My dear friends, attitude and negotiation skills
are highly critical today. First we must believe there is solution exists for
every problem. I wish you would agree with me and try to elevate your altitude
by your attitude.
My Dear Friends, Hope you enjoyed reading
this letter. I appreciate your valuable time. I wish it is informative and
useful. I will again see you in my next letter. Thank you for giving me this
great opportunity to write to you and help me to learn, unlearn and relearn in
this process.
With
Best Wishes
Dr.
Ravi Saripalle
About Author:
Dr. Ravi Saripalle is Believer and Mentor of
Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement. He is also Director, Center for
Innovation, GVP College of Engineering (A), Vizag, AP. Dr. Ravi is having more
than 17 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy, Training, Mentoring and
Research. Prior to this current role, Dr. Ravi worked with Wipro Technologies
for more than a decade. Dr Ravi can be reached at saripalle.ravi@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or facebook.com/saripalle.ravi or https://www.facebook.com/i2ithinkingmovement
Disclaimer:
The goal of this letter campaign is to inspire students through storytelling
and live case studies and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In
this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS
articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing
such insightful stories. To the best of my knowledge, I tried to acknowledge
all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions, grammatical mistakes
and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the readers to understand
spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t involve any commercials. Letter
series is for free distribution.
