The Motivational Speaker

I'm going to these AIPMT [All India Pre-Medical Entrance Exams] classes and today, they announced that we were going to have motivational classes starting at 2 o' clock in the afternoon. Many were rather disconcerted about this, because being the real hard-working students, they saw this as a waste of time. But I was rather overjoyed [partly because I love philosophy and partly because I dislike classes]. At first someone gave us an intro and then, the motivational speaker arrived. He was a pretty tall man and had a long tilak on his forehead. He was some sort of engineer and had got distinction from ILO and UN or something [I forget].

I have no idea where he started, because the class went on for two whole hours... non-stop, and a lot of things happened within that span of time - The first half hour I sat straight, my shoulders squared and all alert, determined to prove my sincerity in whatever was going on. The next half-hour, my shoulders had drooped and I was joggling my legs impatiently. Next I was rocking to and fro... and by the end of two hours, I was praying for an earthquake to get away from that class.

In short, he would have been a good stand-up comedian [if he limits the time], but definitely not a motivational speaker. I had to struggle to motivate myself just to keep myself awake.

He talked about friendship. He asked us to be friends with class toppers and 1st rank students... and to let go of all other friends for another two years [even if they think you're a bad fellow]. He told those who are 'in love', to fix targets for their partners... like 'Only if you get into IIT will I marry you' and stuff. He said that if people can't help their parents by getting into IIT, they should commit suicide [he said that we should not raise false hopes for parents and then not study, wasting money]. He then went on to say how Sachin Tendulkar and others succeeded. He also mentioned the difference between successful and unsuccessful people.

According to him, successful people say "I can", "I'll finish it", "Never Give up" and unsuccessful people say "I will", "I can't", "Give up", etc. Maybe that was rather rational... but he made it all so objective. He ruined the subtlety of success steps and made it all sound like that's all that was needed to succeed. I have been at the peak of academic success and at the ditch of it, so I know for one that 'academical success' is more than just a couple of steps - It is a subtle and subjective thing - the ways of which need to be learnt by careful study and experimentation. It's almost an art.

The reason why I'm over emotional about this is because it's people we are talking about. I have learnt to make  myself immune to people's ramble... But what about the others? Making them think that IIT or AIPMT is their life dream and if they don't get in, they are lost... Is not the point of education.

He was wrong about why we study and how to study... But it wasn't an entire waste of 2 hrs... Because one can learn lots from such a person. He praised Sachin, but failed to mention that he was very poor in academics. He thought we had to study for our parents, for our nation and that we can do anything after getting into IIT. He seemed to think the point of life was earning a lump salary and settling down to do all the stuff you missed in 12th, because you were concentrating on getting there then.

"Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live." ~ Margaret Fuller

He was asking all of us to be that... just that.