Yesterday SSC Board exam Results got declared. They brought back the memories of my SSC Result I had got in 1994.
I had got 1st rank throughout all the exams in 8th and 9th standards. Infact up to preliminary exams of SSC also I was Standard First (that was the term we used in my school as there were separate Boys and Girls sections then) in all 10th class exams also. My parents never asked me to study or force me into anything. I doubt my father knew also which all subjects I had in 10th class! But I remember that day of June 1994 very well even today and I will never be able to forget it. My favourite teacher C. D. Ashar Sir had once shown me the wooden board in our school where names of all those who were 1st rankers in SSC board since the inception of the school. He said,"Nayak, I want your name to be there this year." But that SSC Board exam Result day came and I stood, not first, not even second but Third in the school. Two girls were ahead of me. I had scored 90.85 % (636/700 Marks) which was not at all a bad score and I was 28th in Mumbai. I had not only missed Merit List by 7 marks but also I could not obtain 1st rank in the school. I was very sad inspite of scoring above 90% marks. The grief increased when all the prizes and praises went to Aruna Gada (The girl who came 1st in my school).My Tution Teacher Kumudben personally visited her home and congratulated her but she didn’t come to my home. All these facts hurted me the young me then. My parents and my sisters were very supportive. They knew I had aspired to be the first and didn't even come second. But my parents explained it is a dream for many to score above 90% marks and I had a very bright future ahead. Had I been depressed and stood there only with my failure to be first in the school, I would not be where I am today. I moved ahead. I accepted my result. So what if my name was not printed on that wooden board where my favourite teacher wanted it to be? I took admission in D.G. Ruparel college science stream and even though I was a vernacular student (Gujarati Medium), I managed to score 93% in H.S.C and completed my Engineering Degree from one of the Best colleges in Mumbai (VESIT, Chembur). Today I have completed my M.B.A also from India's one of the Best Management Schools (JBIMS). Also I am working in one of India's leading and world's one of the Best Stock Exchange's (National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.) technical arm (NSE Info Tech)
Had my parents kept over-expectations and put me in pressure during my SSC or after SSC, I would not be able to achieve all this today. I love my parents for that. They never bothered me with their expectations and always encouraged and let me took my decisions on my own. I am Thankful to them for that.
I urge all parents of the SSC students who got their results yesterday, not to discourage their children if they have failed to score high marks or if they have failed. SSC is not the End. There is a long way to go. And today where we are! We have so many choices to make! Try to learn what skill your child possess and help him/her grow in that field. Don't burden him/her with your wishes and aspirations. Let him/her be what he/she wants to be in life.
I pray for all the students that they achieve what they want out of life....
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Rain Goddess DhundhiyaMata...
I Love Nature and I love all Natural Beauties one of them is Rain! (Ya...I consider it a Beauty!)I love the showers of Rain and the climate it creates...I love the Aroma of Soil when the first rains of the season wets the over heated Earth...I love the clouds, the rainbow, the orange evenings (we call it 'Khileli Sandhya' in Gujarati) and the gusty winds rains bring along with it in the monsoon...
Though some people don't like the gloomy flavour attached to the dull kind of climate during monsoon and some others do not like the water all over the roads and the mud and the need to carry an umbrella or a raincoat wherever you go, I think nobody would wish Rain should not come as soon as possible after a hot hot summer! Everybody longs for it. Year by Year summers are getting hotter and hotter and winters cooler and cooler. So this year when the monsoon started little early, in the first week of June (usually it starts in the third week of June), everybody was happy that they got a little relief from the pangs of summer heat...but after raining for continuously eight days or so the Mumbai Rains seem to have taken rest! It has vanished since a week or so. We all are now waiting for the rain to return. This waiting reminds me of my childhood days.
There are some beautiful cherishable memories associated with my childhood and the waiting for rain. There used to stay an old lady called Prabhaben in my neighbourhood and we children used to call her ‘Prabhamasi’. She was a very strict lady and we all used to get scared of her a lot. But one traditional ritual related to the Rains, she taught us and that is still fresh in my mind after about 20 years.
Come the month of May and she used to call us, all children and ask us to get some ‘Lal Mati’ (soil) and we all sat in a circle. She then used to get some water and made a small figure of a Rain Goddess called ‘Dhundhiya Mata’. Sitting idol of this rain goddess looked beautiful even though it was not in perfect shape or had any artistic touch. Prabhamasi used to stick two small white stones as DhundhiyaMata’s eyes. She used to make a little nose and little mouth also on the face so that the idol looked like a human figure. Two tiny hands and two tiny legs were also the part of the idol and DhundhiyaMata was made to sit on a tile or a flat big stone. Chundadi of a nice clean cloth was put on the head of this idol and on her forehead Prabhamasi used to put a KumKum Tika. We all children used to see the making of this idol and then her symbolic Sthapna in open air on the grounds in front of my home. It was believed that DhundhiyaMata will bring rains early and in good amount, if we regularly pour some water on her head every day and pray to her to send the Rains soon. She was called ‘Rain Goddess’ after all! Daily two to three times we children ensured that DhundhiyaMata get her share of ‘Jal Abhishek’. We enjoyed this game. It was fun to see DhundhiyaMata’s idol decaying with all that water we used to pour on her head. The custom was so. Finally DhundhiyaMata used to ensure that Rain come on time and the last remains of her idol be washed away in the first few showers of it. That is how the Visarjan of DhundhiyaMata’s idol had to take place. I still remember how I used to eagerly watch through my window how DhundhiyaMata’s idol looked in the Raining water and how gradually it used to diminish and finally only the nice clean cloth remained on the tile after all the soil used to get washed away by the rain water.
For a few years Prabhamasi made DhundhiyaMata idol and then I took on her legacy and made it sure to make the idol with my little hands for some more years till the time I got adult and got busy with my higher level study and then Job etc. As a child I always had great faith in this ritual and Rain Goddess DhundhiyaMata. Don’t know whether it was DhundhiyaMata who brought the Rains or not but then certainly we all children believed so. And we all religiously and regularly followed the ‘water-pouring on her head’ ritual with sincerity.
I wonder Today’s generation children would do so? They would hardly get any time out of their busy school schedules and then their videogame or internet sessions.
This year I feel like making a DhundhiyaMata Idol again! To call the Rain back who has vanished since a few days… (And I promise if I do so I would surely click a picture of the idol and post it here in this Blog!)
Though some people don't like the gloomy flavour attached to the dull kind of climate during monsoon and some others do not like the water all over the roads and the mud and the need to carry an umbrella or a raincoat wherever you go, I think nobody would wish Rain should not come as soon as possible after a hot hot summer! Everybody longs for it. Year by Year summers are getting hotter and hotter and winters cooler and cooler. So this year when the monsoon started little early, in the first week of June (usually it starts in the third week of June), everybody was happy that they got a little relief from the pangs of summer heat...but after raining for continuously eight days or so the Mumbai Rains seem to have taken rest! It has vanished since a week or so. We all are now waiting for the rain to return. This waiting reminds me of my childhood days.
There are some beautiful cherishable memories associated with my childhood and the waiting for rain. There used to stay an old lady called Prabhaben in my neighbourhood and we children used to call her ‘Prabhamasi’. She was a very strict lady and we all used to get scared of her a lot. But one traditional ritual related to the Rains, she taught us and that is still fresh in my mind after about 20 years.
Come the month of May and she used to call us, all children and ask us to get some ‘Lal Mati’ (soil) and we all sat in a circle. She then used to get some water and made a small figure of a Rain Goddess called ‘Dhundhiya Mata’. Sitting idol of this rain goddess looked beautiful even though it was not in perfect shape or had any artistic touch. Prabhamasi used to stick two small white stones as DhundhiyaMata’s eyes. She used to make a little nose and little mouth also on the face so that the idol looked like a human figure. Two tiny hands and two tiny legs were also the part of the idol and DhundhiyaMata was made to sit on a tile or a flat big stone. Chundadi of a nice clean cloth was put on the head of this idol and on her forehead Prabhamasi used to put a KumKum Tika. We all children used to see the making of this idol and then her symbolic Sthapna in open air on the grounds in front of my home. It was believed that DhundhiyaMata will bring rains early and in good amount, if we regularly pour some water on her head every day and pray to her to send the Rains soon. She was called ‘Rain Goddess’ after all! Daily two to three times we children ensured that DhundhiyaMata get her share of ‘Jal Abhishek’. We enjoyed this game. It was fun to see DhundhiyaMata’s idol decaying with all that water we used to pour on her head. The custom was so. Finally DhundhiyaMata used to ensure that Rain come on time and the last remains of her idol be washed away in the first few showers of it. That is how the Visarjan of DhundhiyaMata’s idol had to take place. I still remember how I used to eagerly watch through my window how DhundhiyaMata’s idol looked in the Raining water and how gradually it used to diminish and finally only the nice clean cloth remained on the tile after all the soil used to get washed away by the rain water.
For a few years Prabhamasi made DhundhiyaMata idol and then I took on her legacy and made it sure to make the idol with my little hands for some more years till the time I got adult and got busy with my higher level study and then Job etc. As a child I always had great faith in this ritual and Rain Goddess DhundhiyaMata. Don’t know whether it was DhundhiyaMata who brought the Rains or not but then certainly we all children believed so. And we all religiously and regularly followed the ‘water-pouring on her head’ ritual with sincerity.
I wonder Today’s generation children would do so? They would hardly get any time out of their busy school schedules and then their videogame or internet sessions.
This year I feel like making a DhundhiyaMata Idol again! To call the Rain back who has vanished since a few days… (And I promise if I do so I would surely click a picture of the idol and post it here in this Blog!)
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