As I had mentioned in my earlier post, we had an exciting session of interaction with the students of Kunnammangalam High school. We reached there a bit late …Straight away went to the HM’s room, got the permission in no time…(The brand NIT really works.) One of the teachers guided us to10 I. It was a small class…There were some 35+ student, and I could read a sense of excitement in all their eyes…When we started to talk, there was pin point silence, which was great relief to us.
We introduced ourselves and explained to them why we were there…The term ‘career’ itself was quite unfamiliar to them, let alone all other things. We had planned for a 10 minutes pep talk so as to motivate them. We really wanted their attention through out the class and for that matter it was essential to charge them up. With that end in aim I began my Kathi…mentioning abt KR Narayanan, A P J Abdul Kalam, Alphons Kannanthanam, explaining in very detail how these people, irrespective of their poor back ground, worked hard to climb up the ladder in the society. We also wanted to convey that whatever their past be, there is enough time left to make a remarkable change in their lives. To assert that fact, I mentioned how Mr.Kannanthanam went on to become one of the top rankers in the coveted civil service examination after scoring a mere 43% in the SSLC. We tried our best to highlight the hard work, will power and perseverance behind the success of each of these persons.
We realized that it is not enough to mention abt two or three great lives. It is sure to give them a push but that won’t be lasting. So I explained the story a person whom I know very well, who despite a not so good performance in SSLC, is earning something around a 30k. I explained how this fellow, with a taste of drawing, studied PHOTOSHOP and other related software’s and established himself in a promising career. Students were really excited when I mentioned that his clients are some of the top rated models and actresses in bollywood. That was more than enough to make them believe that u one need not get good grades so as to become successful in life. But we stopped our pep talk session by mentioning everything we knew about Sri P N C Menon, His early life and how he went on to become the richest malayali.
Well, it really worked, I suppose. We then went on to mention abt the higher secondary scenario, Abt HSE, VHSE, Diploma and degree courses. We did not want to do something and get out from there and we tried our level best to cover the minute details of each and every course. Students were really wonder struck when they heard that there are arts colleges in India from where on passing out you get a salary of Rs 50,000.Students were keen on courses like B.Com and Journalism. We explained to them abt the courses like Company Secretariship .CA and Cost & Work Accountancy, that one should take parallel to the B.Com course so as to have a flying career in corporate sector.
One of our aims was to break the misconception that only engineering and medicine are the promising career. I was really excited on mentioning abt the courses of Commerce stream, which I feel, that I would have chosen, had I known abt that sector in detail at the time of my career decision.
We tried our level best to highlight the importance of each course, and their career prospectus. Throughout the talk we tried to convey the importance of studying a subject that they really love and or they feel that they have a real taste in. Also we mentioned the importance of doing it from a reputed college…The students were really energetic and involved. They were elated partly because of the reason that they escaped from their routine classes, and may be partly because of the reason that they were hearing something of that type, probably for the first time in their life. We were trying to give them an aim for their studies, which we believe could be reflected in their SSLC grades too. When it was the time for interval, I had expected that all would be leaving so as to escape from our KATHI… But to my surprise and immense pleasure, they insisted on continuing the talk and that they didn’t want to go out…And that was a real energy booster for us, at least we got the group we targeted at, the group we believed, in whom, motivation and proper guidance could create wonders. We finally were forced to leave them when the long bell rang. Up on the bell not a single student stood up from his or her seat and we realized that they were interested in listening as long as we talk. But some how, we had to say good bye. And with filled hearts of having done something useful, we stepped out leaving behind some copies of various national magazines which contained their annual rankings and other details abt various colleges…
The experiences at Mukkom High school in thee next post………
Signing off
RK
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