Medical sciences categorize diseases in to two divisions- hereditary and acquired. So, what about that spark of intellect that makes a child a class apart? Recently, this longstanding quest of mine ended satisfactorily, thanks to two experiences glaringly different, yet answering the same query.
When I walked in to my beautician’s last week, I met her six year old son roaming in the waiting room aimlessly, like a zombie. His urge to start a conversation with any total stranger stunned me.
From my observations, this is a commonly found characteristic of children
- with both parents working and spending less quality time with young ones,
- with elder sibling(s),
- living in a joint-family set-up.
Within a few minutes of our conversation, I had a list of his likes, dislikes, names of friends, amazing facts about animals… The real surprise came to me when he sang a few songs to me– or rather the first few opening lyrics of some songs. I was baffled at the way he handled his voice. What a maturity, melody and confidence! Certainly unexpected of a tiny six year old! I knew that his parents lacked inclination towards music. The bubble burst when the boy’s mother told me that his great-grand father was a renowned classical singer. “I suppose that music runs in his blood”, she said with a smile. I saluted this little genius.
Another experience was a gift to me from the print media. A news item about one Sairam Kuruthuri, hailed as ‘Rose King’. I learnt that he has acquired land that is eight times the size of Mumbai in Africa , cultivates roses by employing cheaper local labor and markets the flowers to the craving European market. He is listed among the top twenty-five floricultural businessmen of the world. “But my aim is to find place within the top ten”, says the ambitious corporate giant.
Are you wondering what relevance this millionaire has with our topic? Well, in his childhood, he was rejected by not one, not two, but SIX SCHOOLS as ‘a difficult child”, until he fell in the hands of persevering and love-filled Principal and teachers of a school (Ramakrishna Vidyashram in Bangalore), at last. This school simply refused to give up on him. Though he came from a family of electrical cable business, Kuruthuri learnt to think differently and ventured in to untrodden areas of floriculture in a distant land. And he made HISTORY. I salute his commercial acumen, the genius in him.
The two experiences delivered a set of questions:
- Is it necessary to ‘ inherit’ the qualities of a genius?
- Can an individual make it to the top in spite of a wasted period in the early childhood?
- Or, are these two cases distinctly unique and exceptional?
I set out to look for the success stories of some individuals who had been rank-holders and exceptionally brilliant all through their childhood. I found that most of them were to some mundane activity or the other and lost in the oblivion among the multitude of humanity.
With underlying disappointment, I leafed through the biographical sketches of successful personalities of today. To my excitement, nearly three-fourths made it to the top with hard work and FAMILY/SOCIAL SUPPORT.
That led me to the age-old question: Should we associate the success in life with name, fame and money? A simple answer emerged:
- Heredity could hasten the blossoming of a PRODIGY. Unless nurtured, prodigies loose their specialty as they grow older.
- A ‘non-prodigy’ could embrace success with just one tool: Undeterred receptivity (or love for learning).
Parents and Teachers hold one set of keys each to the same lock, the success of the child. Our children are special to us. Let us stop being parents with special needs.