51.Thoughtful New Year Messages

This year  a  young gentleman faculty who held charge of  Principal  commenced his new year speech by praising his stars for the rare opportunity he received in wishing the students of the college on the very first day of the year! But as it is customary in a Teacher Training college to remind trainees of their special role, the in-charge gentleman referred in his speech to many epoch-making and earth-shattering events…from Ebola to Malala, from 3G to Global warming, from Chandrayaan to discoveries in mutation and from the Air Asia crash to the Peshawar massacre!

Another gentleman, who was invited to  speak,  in his speech elaborated on the  significance of  2015 which is intended to be celebrated as International Year of Soils!

Both speakers had consumed  over a quarter of an hour and by the  time, I was invited to speak,  the aroma of plum cake  being served to  the audience  hit the dias and the first thoughts that assailed my mind when I got up to speak had the  flavour of   plum cake, which made me say:

To speak …one needs energy…

For energy… one needs food…

One has to take food to live….

So to feed many mouths…countries have to give priority to agriculture…

Thoughts of  both the Sherwama disaster and the recent bird flu crossed my mind…and  I continued…:

But these are days  when  some…Live to Eat!

Eat to Live…. &… Live to Eat are two different philosophies…

By now I could see a hundred eyebrows raised… each with the potential query….What’s that  got to do with a  New year message?... So I immediately shifted gear…and said:

All of you will soon be addressing students in schools as teacher trainees and of course you will try to drive home the message:

Live to Learn

Then applying the same linguistic strategy I had  applied earlier, I re-phrased and said:

I think the time has come for  you to

Learn to Live...

Yes you should  Learn to Live       

That’s  what the previous speakers referred to …

Everything that they said involves an individual’s effort to learn to adjust with his/her constantly changing  world …be it ICT-related or environment-related….

That is my message… LEARN   TO   LIVE …

I  don’t know  how that idea flashed my mind… but it definitely appeared a master stroke…. With that message I wished all present a prosperous new year and the courtesy applause  followed…

Late that night I tried to reflect on the day’s speeches…

The young-in-charge had obviously brushed up his General Knowledge  before coming to college. The second speaker must have read the day’s newspaper which made him refer to the significance of the year 2015.

BUT… where did I get my idea from?.. It obviously was not prompted by a stroke of genius…I ruminated… I skimmed through my Scrap Pad where I note down ideas which I come across…and I found the following:

There are three constants in life…change, choice and principles   - Stephen Covey

Do not follow where the path may lead…

Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I had jotted down the ‘wise thoughts’ only the previous week from a string of stickers with quotations  pasted on the walls of the compartment of the Super Fast  day train - Janashadabdhi shuttling between Trivandrum and Kannur. 

The ‘punctuality quotient’ of this train in recent weeks hit rock bottom owing to delays caused by track maintenance.

I  then  realized that the genesis of my New year message came from  the thoughtful gesture of an official of the South Indian Railways who took  the wise decision to paste stickers with quotations on train compartments….

This makes our life’s journey less tiring…

Thanks to  the Indian Railways…

Thanks to those wise thoughts….       

                                  

C.P.