Being Educated

People always attribute things that they cannot do are tough and things they can do are very easy and anyone can do it.

Two weeks back, I called one of my friends in India.He was surprised that I called him from USA to just say "Hi". At the end of the conversation, he also mentioned that "It's so nice of me to not forget him, even though I went to US, became highly sophisticated and started giving me power and in turn he became powerless." This guy was much smarter than me during school days and was (is) very humble and always try to help others as much as he can. Being seen him powerless,I felt sad.

I grew up in a place where there was continuous drought for many years. So, every day, when I go home after tuition class, my mother would be ready with two water cans to get drinking water. I tie the two cans and put them on the bicycle, bike to the near by water supply station, stand in the queue for my turn to get water. There was a girl in my class,much smarter than me, who used to come  to the station along with her brother. Past forward 6 years, I went to my hometown for a visit and I saw the same girl still fetching water from the same water station.I was stunned. She was denied to have a a quality higher education.

The list goes on and on. I was a above average student all through my studies. There were many students in my class who are much smarter than me. Meaning they had the ability to process information much faster.

These were the people with whom I started my education.They had huge confidence, can do anything attitude and worked very hard.But now when I see them I see fear in their eyes and they sound lack of believe in themselves. I always wonder what life had done to them.

I did some research on what had happened to them. Most of the students especially girls were restricted to the same place where there was no quality education, access to information or opportunities to economic growth. They were restricted by their parents' beliefs, fear,imagination and financial limitations.

The ones who were able to move out of the place, got better education, defied some of their parents beliefs to a certain extent but fell into their own fears,beliefs, imagination and built their own mental limitation and got struck in life.

Some in the rest became visionaries. Bottom line is that those people who always kept educating and taking chances in life, gained confidence over the course of life and those who didn't are living in fear. As Mark Twain rightly said, " If you have the ability to read and do not educate yourself, you are no different than the person who doesn't have the ability to read."