My Journey So Far...
To start with, I must acknowledge that I truly love my profession. I am following my heart and my profession is my calling. It is always exciting to see my students proceed towards betterment and their progress in life is the definition of my success. There is nothing more rewarding than to see them becoming confident with each passing day. There is nothing more pleasing than to receive those lovely words right from the bottom of their heart on some special days (be it my birthday or Teacher’s day). And, there is nothing more satisfying than to see their winning smiles with a job offer letter in their hands on their ‘Campus Placement Day’. Yes, I am a trainer cum coach cum teacher (I train, coach, and teach graduates and postgraduate students). I am always happy being surrounded with these young minds bubbling with energy and enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, my journey to the place where I am today has not been that easy.
I belong to a very humble background. My father worked as a clerk and his earnings were not sufficient enough to bear the cost of education of his three children (No doubt, those were tough times and they ended only after three of us started doing well in our respective careers). Being the eldest one, I had already decided to bear my educational expenses all by myself. I carried forward my education sometimes through school scholarships (as being a bright student since my childhood) and sometimes by doing some part-time jobs (like tutoring students very junior to me and even going door to door selling books as a salesman in later years). These early experiences of mine taught me not to give up in tough circumstances and helped me boost my confidence. And above all, my early days of struggle gave me a significant insight into the value of education since it came to me as a reward through sheer hard work.
I still remember how my father used to tell three of us the importance of English in one’s life. He used to see our report cards starting with our scores in English subject first. It was a ritual for all three of us to learn at least 5-7 new English words every day. He used to feel glad whenever any one of us would try speaking up in English even if it was incorrect. Today when I look back, I realize that my early brushes with English played a huge role for me to fall in love with this fascinating language. And for that I owe a lot to my visionary father. I was so much in awe of this language that I decided to do my post graduation in English and I managed to accomplish that. I think there was always a hunger in me to learn more and more. It was my zeal to become better that I never let any opportunity available get vanished. (Be it my online certifications from Coursera or my regular certifications from Infosys and Pearson; or be it my Training & Development diploma from Indian Society of Training & Development that I completed in the recent past).
I know that I put a great deal of hard work and took considerable amount of time to become a confident English speaker from a shy student with a Hindi medium background (and it took me years of efforts to learn and I am still learning). My bond with English language was so strong (which I felt later on) that even after completing my MBA in Human Recourse and starting a decent job as a Recruitment Manager in an IT firm for a year, I came back to ‘my first love’ once again. (And that was the best career decision ever for me so far. It seemed as if I discovered myself again.) I commenced afresh my career as a Communication Skills Trainer. Being a trainer, I felt fulfilled and enjoyed every bit of it. A major part of my profession was to assist my learners with their language skills. Most importantly, these students were would-be professionals in the corporate world. In fact, their ability to speak and write in flawless English is one of the most important parameters used by the employers in India and worldwide. Surprisingly, only a little over half of the five million odd graduates that India produces annually, are employable in any sector of the knowledge economy. Inadequate English is one of the key factors holding back students, especially those from smaller towns.
I know firsthand how it feels in a classroom of fifty-sixty students who can speak and write in English much better than you. My students too found English language a little frightening initially. This is why I went a step ahead and started conducting their extra ‘evening sessions’ to learn English without fear. I had to don many hats in my additional sessions. I acted as a motivator, facilitator, counselor, mentor and sometimes even as an entertainer too. I added interactive activities, communication games, student presentations, group discussions, role plays and other fun exercises to my regular teaching. And all this resulted in their active participation with great learning experiences both for them and for me. I have also been active through my professional blog to connect with my students and create awareness on the issue of employability for last several years. According to the reports, only 20% of the Indian population can speak in English, and only 4% would be considered fluent. I am also associated with a social service initiative (which is presently in its nascent stage) Project Utthan through which we give special emphasis on issues related to education and employability.
Besides personal enrichment and professional growth, I aspire to take our social service initiative to the next level by reaching out to the maximum number of teachers and students in India and spread out the message loud,
"Life skills are necessary for success in the twenty-first century, both for healthy communities and for prosperous employable entrepreneurs."
******
