The Value of "Values"

When I look back at the days when I was supposed to be groomed, I believe I have had varieties of people and students to study with. Till my high school, I was in a convent, brought up in a clean environment among the fathers and sisters and where Hindi speaking was a punishment, apart from Hindi period. They really had vision in those days, 12 years ago that they wanted to inculcate this habit which is so very important today. You stand no chance if you can’t speak English. With well qualified teachers who always believed in teaching and making us understand more than what was just written in the book; that was perhaps the best school I could have got at that tender age.

Then for my +2, I moved on to Army School. Contrary to the name and the expectations, the discipline was never the priority there. In fact, it was there, with their students I learnt how to break rules, how to lie consistently with a straight face, bunk classes and play WWE trump cards at the last seat in Maths period. In short, a perfect place to get into the groove to face the world.

And then it came. I completed the most notorious graduation course in Indian education system. And the people there with me were as notorious as the course (trust me, it is not an exaggeration). You might have deduced it by now- I did engineering and totally by God’s grace, finished it in prescribed time. Now when I remember all that days which I spent with them doing nothing, I think I have had a good life. Those were the days that transformed me into a guy who can face the world, praise the goods and differentiate the bad out of them. I met almost every kind of person in those 4 years. All that happened for good.

But this is not about what I learnt in school. What was more important at that time and which has a very big influence on me till date was what I was taught in the ultimate school which every single child goes through- the parenting.

How many times have you heard from your parents- don’t lie, respect elders, learn to say sorry and thank you. For me, it used to frustrate me. Was it not the same thing I am learning in “moral Science’ classes? Then why this additional lecture? And for God sake, I know lying is bad. I know elders have to be respected. Luckily, they never stopped lecturing and I inculcated good things in me.

How boring and repeated they might look but what we learn, hear and observe at our homes, that kind of a person we become in due course. You might change a lot in your life throughout as you keep meeting new people at every phase of life but the crux remains the same. And this is the same crux that was formed when you were in 7-12 years of life. You make a mistake; take one wrong step and life changes into a big turmoil.

Just to give you an honest opinion of mine, I am not a saint. I lie a lot and have a bad habit of manipulating things. But somewhere, I think the more important values are still in me, unchanged, in the way they are expected to be. Honesty and respect for others are those. I hope with these values, I will one day be able to make people understand that those little niggling things do pay in due course in life.

I will try my best that the next generation learns the same, from me or from whosoever, they prefer; does not really matter. But this thing is badly needed in our society.