Skip to main content

Be a Stepping Stone

In January 2022, 2 things happened which really made me happy. 

One my juniors in Office, who I know since 2014 and has been working under me since then got promoted to a higher grade. For the promotion, he had to qualify a written examination and a personal interview. It was his third attempt and probably his last. He had narrowly missed being qualified for the exam in all the two times. I knew he had potential and was a sincere guy. We were constantly working together for the examination. But somehow he used to fail. In 2020, when he did not qualify for the written part of the examination, he was so demotivated and depressed that he did not have the courage to talk to me or face me. On a December morning that year, we had met in the park near our quarters and I had advised him not to lose hope and try again with an sense of purpose / mission. ('Junoon" is the hindi word we had used). In 2021 he got selected. He visited my house on 16th January and profusely thanked me for the small contribution I had made.

In the second incident, when I was in the Learning and Development Center of the refinery, one 22 year old came and greeted me by touching my feet. I was surprised to see him since he was a trainee few years ago under me doing his 1 year industrial training. He had succeeded his examination and was joining our corporation.

2 other person I know, always wish me on teachers day, every year since 2014. Both are working, one in Infosys and other in some government NGO. During 2013, I had taught them Physics, for helping them prepare for JEE. 

To be true, my contribution in all the above stories are minuscule as compared to the effort they have put. We all have persons in our lives, who help us climb the ladder of success. Some are with us throughout our lives and some are with us for a brief periods. They can be any one, your parents, teachers, siblings, relatives or friends. Sometimes you do not even know that they have helped. 

It is a great feeling to have helped someone achieve their potential or dream. Be that person. Start with your children & relatives and help them achieve excellence. Be a mentor. If you have a mentor, then also try to succeed in life since it will definitely make them happy.

The day my junior thanked me for his success, it made me immensely proud and happy, more than when I get promoted. The feeling is priceless. Another priceless feeling is when your mentors are proud of your achievement. One day in March 2020, one of my Primary school teacher I met in a function introduced me to her colleagues as a highlight of her teaching career. That compliment, till today, is the best complement of my life.

Always be a mentor and a mentee, because life is a process of learning and try to be the best version of yourself.

*****


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holidaying Among the Stars

One of the best things that attracts me to North India are the hills. Although I have an aversion to travel in four wheelers in the hills since the U bends make me sick, still the charm of the mountains is irresistible. Driving, I have driven up to Shimla/Nainital only, has been a better experience than being a passenger. Trekking among the lush greenery or just resting under the woods is my idea of a good holiday.  We had a trekking club in NIT and we had trekked to one of the hills on the other side of the Koel. But my first serious trekking experience, in terms of height and difficulty, was when we had trekked to Gomukh from Gangotri in October 2006. Gomukh is about 20 kms from Gangotri and was only accessible by foot or horse. Since we started in the afternoon from Gangotri, we had to stop at an intermediate stop for the night. At night when I came out of the tent, I was surprised to see the night sky filled with stars brighter than I had ever seen. At that high altitude in the...
2 comments
Read more

Where are the "Wheeler's"?

On a recent trip to my home state, I happened to travel in the three most common modes of transportation, i.e. road, rail, and air. During the train journey, I was thinking of how our travel and the associated habits have changed over a period of time. Of late, air travel has become a necessity, which was once a luxury as recent as 15-20 years ago.   Forget air travel, in our childhood, even a car or a jeep journey was also a luxury. Most long-distance travel used to be via bus only. I had my first train journey at the age of about 7-8, which was for about 70-80 kilometres only. I had to wait for another 10 years before I boarded a train again in May 2002 (that too without a ticket). Bus travel was the cheapest and the only affordable option we had in childhood. We mostly travelled to our ancestral village or to our maternal uncle’s home. For a distance of about 90 kilometres, it used to take about 3 hours. The worst part of my summer vacations were the 6 hours of bus journey to ...
2 comments
Read more

Agony & Ecstasy of being a polling officer.

Luck, fate or chance, whatever you call it, gave me (and many of my colleagues) an opportunity of being a presiding officer in the on-going general elections. Personally, it was an enriching experience, except a few hiccups here and there. I had glimpse of the  process and the efforts that go into making election a successful exercise in the world’s largest democracy. Here is an account of my experience of being in charge of a polling booth in Od isha’s Jagatsinghpur district. 2 nd phase of the general election in Odisha was  scheduled  to be held on 17th April 2014, but we were supposed to report to the district administration on 15th April to meet other team members, collect the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and other related materials and then to proceed to our designated polling booths.  Before going for the election duty, all of us were given training on our duties,  responsibilities and were warned about the consequences of a failure. The training...
4 comments
Read more