Rural India is not dearth of talent. A strong drive
to achieve puts you on higher pedestal and treads a path to success. It is
immaterial where you are born with a social and economic condition you have
inherited. What matters is the quantum of fire in your belly.
Some people perish in the course of their struggle and only few will rise to
dictate their destiny.
Dodde Anjaneyulu belongs to the second lot. This pride of Andhra achieved his
father's dream of becoming IAS in 2010
Civil Service Examination (CSE) and got
278th rank. His father who was a watchman in a sleepy village: Jammikunta in
backward Telangana region inspired his
son to become Collector and the son took his father's dream to heart, despite
abject poverty.
Anjaneyulu through arduous efforts shined in academics and thereafter completed
his engineering graduation in 2005. He settled as a software professional for 2
years to accumulate the needy bucks for the
Civil Services Exam preparation. Though the sudden death of his father in 2007
somewhat crippled him, but it solidified his resolve to embark his goal.
Getting selected to IAS is no mean achievement. Every year, around 4 lac
aspirants compete the CSE out of which only ten thousand aspirants clear their preliminaries
and very creamy few i.e. 1000 finally gets selected for IAS, IFS, IPS and other
allied Group A & B Services. So it is all merit and hard work that matters.
Anjaneyulu through this covetous achievement, once again proved to the world
that a fire in the belly do wonders.
After reading his story in a local Telugu paper Saakshi dated 19 Nov 2011, I
was totally moved. The way his mother broke down after seeing her son’s
achievement would strike a chord with any reader. It is palpable to understand
the emotions of a mother who wept out of ecstasy, but felt sorry because her
husband was no more to see their son's grand achievement. It is a soul-stirring
story I ever read in my life.
After reading about Anjaneyulu, I could not resist without congratulating him.
But how? That question haunted me for a while. Had it been 20 years earlier, I
might have crushed my desire. But the Information Age prompted me to find ways.
So I jumped into action and searched for his email ID in the Google. Being an
internet buff, it was not a difficult task and I managed to get his Facebook
link through which I got his e-mail ID. Immediately, I sent an email
congratulating him for his achievement. It was so exhilarating that he not only
acknowledged my mail quickly but spoke to me over phone with a full of
gratitude and humility.
I read somewhere that the great tragedy of life is not death, but what we let
die inside of us (talent) while we still live. Anjaneyulu deeply engraved his father's
dream to become IAS by which he not only proved a darling child to his parents,
but a shining star to the millions of aspirants.
DREAMER TO ACHIEVER
ARE U A GOSSIP MILL?
A large chunk of leisure time is spent unproductively by majority of us in gossip. If two people meet, they talk less of themselves and more of the world.
If you involve more in gossip, you will be in utter chaos. Indulging in such unproductive and futile talk not only seep your energies but also negativity corrodes your system. Instead, you could use those energies for self-reflection so that you can tread a path of success.
Socrates gives a Triple Filter Test to overcome this problem:
One day an acquaintance met Socrates and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
Hold a minute, Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything, I’d like you to pass a little test. It is called the Triple Filter Test.
Triple filter?
That is right, “Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be good idea to take a moment and filter what you are going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. "
The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?
"No," the man said, “actually I just heard about it and ...."
All right, “said Socrates.” So you don't really know if it is true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?
"No, on the contrary...”
"So, Socrates continued,” you want to tell me something bad about him, but you are not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS.
Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me? "
"No, not really. "
"Well, concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?
If everybody prevails on the wisdom of Socrates, we could channelize such unproductive energies for more creative pursuits.
LISTEN !
Listening is key to effective communication . If you see your sense organs, it is apparent that the Creator has given you two ears and one tongue for a reason: listen double to what you speak.
Research reveals that people spend 70 % of their work life in communication, and listening occupies a lion's share of 45%. Talking accounts second with 30 %, reading and writing rank third and fourth with 16 % and 9 % respectively.
A good listener is always superior in his actions than a glib talker who runs out of words as well as energies. Without paying much attention, they indulge in futile talk which may help enemy to ascertain his plans.
Listening is obvious to increase your analytical and judgemental faculties. Listening
skills benefit a lot in personal life, like having great number of friends and
improved social networking and more importantly a high self-esteem.
The importance of listening need not be over-emphasized for a marketing
professional whose job is to connect more
with his clients. If you are a good listener, it will give a lasting impression
at personal level and contribute to both to your personal and organizational
growth. For software
professionals this faculty is of
paramount importance to know minutely the user experience for which they have
to pay attention and this
could be possible only through effective listening.
In nutshell, listening gives an unparalleled wisdom to know about the other
person. So next time when anyone try to speak to you, allow him/ her to do so, instead of
interrupting in the middle. It is not only a good manner, but an intelligent
way of tackling other person in consonance with his/her emotional needs.
WHAT IS ELEPHANT'S MEMORY ?
I wonder whether that is within human possibility or not. I can't summarily dismiss that act as shown in that movie. But there is enough evidence to prove the power of human brain through powerful personalities like Swami Vivekananda who is blessed with such photographic memory.
If we go into the mechanics of memory, it is said that our memory works basically on one cardinal principle : Interest is the mother of attention and attention is the mother of memory. If a thing ignites you enough and when you feel the need to memorize, you could do it effortlessly.
When it comes to Elephant's Memory, I read that Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee is gifted with a phenomenal memory power. Even in his ripe age, he used to read a lot and write journal/diary. Why it is called elephant's memory because the elephant never forget. It doesn’t have appreciable eyesight, but it never forgets a face. The elephants in the group check one another out with their trunks. Another interesting fact is that elephants also recall routes to alternate food and water sources when their usual areas dry up.