Thursday, June 09, 2005

Whom do you wanna be like?

"So whom do you want to be like?"

Someone asked me when I was a kid. I went through all the famous personalities in my head, but could not decide on a single person I wanted to be like.

About twenty years later, a.k.a today, I realised that the person you want to be like, does not have to be a famous personality. It can be someone you bump into on the roads or someone you see every day of your life.

Today, I scheduled a meeting with the
teacher I'd mentioned in one of my earlier posts. The subject he teaches is new to me, and since I am going to be working on a book on it, I figured he'd be the best person to get some background information and pointers from.

So I emailed him and fixed up a meeting. Went down to his school, spent a good two hours talking to him. I also got to see the models his students had made in the workshops. Seeing him view the subject as an art rather than as a science, I suddenly felt a sense of extreme excitement about this new project.


He showed me around his office, his lab and his workshop. As I watched him interact with his colleagues and students, I saw how much they adored and respected him. And at that point, all I wanted to do was to be like him. What an amazing person. How happy, how excited, how positive about life.

In my job, I meet scores of teachers who just want to complain about how busy, stressful and miserable their lives are. Not this guy. No hint of a complaint from him. Inspite of teaching at a not-so-rich school (he even showed me broken chairs and said, "Look, broken chairs!"), he told me how much he loved the place and the happiness teaching there gave him.

As we talked, I made two amazing discoveries about him.

Discovery #1
His grandparents are Indian, and he was telling me how great it felt when he visited some relatives in India a couple of years ago. "I love India. I want to visit India again." He said. "And also, all the Aishwarya Rais are there!"


Discovery #2 (This one totally made my day!)
He also graduated as an engineer in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, but chose to get into what he loved.

Woohoo! :D


Looks like I am one step closer to being like him, doesn't it?



12 comments:

Young Master said...

you are lucky that you found someone you wanna be like.

i have big trouble focusing on one person coz angelina jolie keeps changing her boy friend. :(

Sayesha said...

Hehe! Ro, God help you.

On a serious note, you dun have to wanna be like one person, you can define the person you wanna be, by making your own composition from observations of different people (including yourself), which is what I do.

Princessse said...

Totally agree with you Sayesha - being able to admire the positive attributes of a person is a process which can happen multilaterally, and we all are blessed with the chance to cross the paths of so many people who are successful in their own definitions of success. There is no reason why we can emulate their various positive qualities and internalise them, as long as we are sincere about who we become when we evolve in the process.

:) and I totally agree with cabbage patch as well :)

Anonymous said...

So this is what it feels like to be up at this hour. Seems like i'm one step closer to being like u, haina?

And as amazing as it is to want to be like someone else, its also so fullfilling to know that someone else wants to be like YOU. When you realise that, somehow you feel so responsibile, that your thoughts and actions are shaping someone else's life....

Anonymous said...

I think each person is so unique that even if we want to b like a particular person, there will be qualities we possess that person does not.

And on cabbage patches's comment..rgdless of what I m doing, I make it a pt to read your blog Sayesha!!

virdi said...

hi sayesha,
this is my god... Professor L.S Ganesh. http://www.mba.iitm.ac.in/hssweb/people/ganesh.html
he is the HOD in MBA dept in IIT Madras. The same way you found the students of your "Teacher" around him, we were always around LSG. He was a treamendous source of inspiration and knowledge. He says "try to be always with people who are passionate." makes sense to me atleast. "Do your Karma forget the rest" is the geratest gift he has given to his students.
Thanks LSG.
V..

Anonymous said...

My idol is... the late Ayrton Senna. I know it's a bit improbable to be in my life what he was in his, or even come close. That's why my copy of F1 '99-'02 (the PC game) and the time I spend playing it are precious to me. It's more than just a pastime... it's my way of being like someone I adore, if only for a few fleeting moments in a virtual world.

God bless his soul... he gave a lot of people a lot of joy. I only wish I'd seen more of him when he was alive...

anubhav said...

I rather believe in taking best qualities from everybody around me...and I agree some of the great people around us are our teachers who shape our life ...

thanx for linkin me...

Sayesha said...

Thanks, Cabbage Patch, Princessse and Angelsera, for the support! :)

Sahil, what on earth were you doing up at 5.41 am?? Trying to beat me at my game, huh? :)
Sustainability, my friend, is the question. Yeh sabke bas ki baat nahin hai :)

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