Greetings and Happy Tamil New-year .Hope you
are all fine. I’m doing great too. It has been lingering in my heart for the
past one year since I completed my under graduation to have the
pleasure of communicating you people somehow, and the thought of
writing letters to you crossed my mind. Our principal sir gladly accepted
my proposal to write to you and God willing , I’d even like to write more
to you in the future. It gives me immense joy to use this opportunity as
a channel through which I could share my experiences and ideas which
stand as my testimony and as a boost to your enthusiasm which
ultimately could kindle your spirits to pursue your dreams.
I just woke up today(April 14, 2018 ) ,after my
morning prayer and routines, I went to plant some seeds of basil,
parsley and thyme in my in-house kitchen garden and immediately
after that I have now sat down to write to you with my cup of coffee ,
so that communicating with you becomes my task number one on this
auspicious Tamil New-year.
First of all I admit that life at SGSSM School is
tough, but, in the end it is all worth it. The struggle ,hardships and
competition which you go through will ultimately make you better
students, competent enough to compete on a national level. Truly I say
to you, we who study in this school are “blessed”. I’m saying this
because our principal and H.M. madam are the best guides I have ever
had and every teacher who teaches here is an expert in their own
subject. Besides the sound knowledge they impart us, their love and
affection is unadulterated and unconditional. Of course, they are strict
sometimes , but as far as I infer, they do it only out of affection they
have on us and their desire to correct us so that we may succeed in our
lives in an unblemished manner.
Having studied at various institutions and having
interacted with many top notch students of our state and other states
all over India, I have not heard about any school which encourages their
students in a multifaceted growth such as ours. All they teach in
majority of other schools is the text book and the prescribed syllabuses
and nothing more. The extracurricular activities and any other process
which are oriented towards shaping the character and morals are close
to nil. I’m bringing this up because, the bookish knowledge is good for
scoring marks but it is our character and intelligence which determines
your success and sets us apart from the mediocre world. And, needless
to say, we get all those life-shaping-nourishment in surplus quantity in
our school.
I myself have asked these particular questions
many times, “why does ‘Sir’ have to speak so much in mic ?, Why
should the assembly be so long?”. I realized their importance only
when I stepped out of our school and joined in another
institution.Those speeches and advises from our Principal sir, HM
ma’am, PJ ma’am, SM ma’am, RL ma’am, VU ma’am, VL ma’am, Late
Mrs. Valliammai ma’am, SVS ma’am, SV ma’am and Sudhakar anna too
have seeped in through my ears and became a part of my thought
process in such a way that, any kind of situation I faced,may it be
academic or personal, I already had the solution inscribed in me. It was
not the knowledge from textbooks, but, those words of wisdom and
the rebukes of our teachers which gave me strength in the needy hours
and is still guiding me throughout.
“Education is not the learning of the facts, but the training of the mind
to think” – Albert Einstein.
The array of systems employed in our school like
“RUBYRAW”, “hardterms”, “yearly motto”, pranayama in the assembly
,exhibitions and a good share of time to extra curricular activities like
Scouts and Guides ,talent shows, crafts, sports , vocals and music were
all innovative and was most useful for me in honing my creativity and
added colors in my childhood life . These activities which they do in our
school fills the major void which is present in our education system in
India and makes our learning holistic and soul-quenching.
Now, coming to the main purpose of letter, I would
like to impart a few words of counsel now and there based on my
experiences and how you can use them in your day to day life. If you
want to learn any kind of valuable stuff from me, I would say, “First
learn from my failures!”. The word ‘failure’ brings to many of us a sense
of discomfort. It is only natural of us to detest failure and love success,
may it be of any matter, from trivial to paramount. But, in order to be
successful, first we must make friendship with ‘failure’; not only with
our failure but also with the mistakes and failures of others whom we
know. The first step towards doing anything of importance is analyzing
our own failures ; learning from them; and not making the same
mistakes again and again, so that failure becomes your life-long friend
who constantly reminds you how not to commit mistakes.
While I was in 10th standard, HM ma’am made me
write in four lines note and two lines note since my handwriting was
poor. Even though I got full marks in Mathematics, PJ ma’am would
reduce five marks for my paper not being neat which did in a way
infuriated me then. Even though they tried to change my handwriting, I
spent only a minimal amount time on improving it. Times rolled on and
in 12th standard I was a topper in the other school too thanks to the
training I received in our school and mathematics was my strongest
subject. I had scored full marks in all model tests and was proficient in
the subject such that I could even act as the maths teacher for a new
set of 12th students. Despite that I got only 198/200 in the final public
exam and the reason being, I mistook my own handwriting; I mistook
‘4’ for ‘9’ while doing rough work. And hence I learnt my lesson the
hard way, why PJ ma’am and HM ma’am were trying so hard to change
my handwriting. It goes with the saying “any advice teacher gives is
crucial”. Since then, I have never omitted any advice given to me by my
mentors in college and have learned to do anything they say for my
betterment, without question and it has proven to very useful and
rewarding for me.
I share this experience of mine so that you,
my dear brothers and sisters can learn from it. And so, this is step one
in the path towards success, ‘learning from failures’ , not only from our
own, as the life is too short commit all of them by ourselves, but also
from the mistakes of others and incorporating that wisdom to make our
lives better and better day by day. No one can succeed all the time ;
and no one fails all the time, it is all part and parcel of our lives.
Everyone has weakness and strength; and it is how we make up for our
weakness and how we utilize our strengths which determines our
capacity to reach our goals .
“Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal
is reached!”- does this mean we can stop when the goal is reached?
Absolutely not! We just have to set another goal and reach even more
further. Sky is not the limit! We have to train our minds to be always
hungry for more and to never be content with what we have
accomplished . It is the struggle and competition that makes us
stronger; it is the hard work and dedication that lifts us higher; and it is
the advice of our teachers which prevents us from failing 95% of times.
Lastly, I would like to thank our school as a whole for
making me what I am now and helping me aspire more and move
forward. ‘Home is where your Heart belongs’ , my heart belong to
SGSSM school and it is my forever Home. I hope this letter was useful
for you , dear brothers and sisters. I would even like to write more to
you about different topics pertaining to technicalities of effective
studying, to aid you in reaching your dream-careers .
Wishing you all a prosperous year ahead.
Yours affectionately,