Strengths (!!!), where do they come from? (Part 2)

I am privileged to have been borne in a joint family and had more than two parents to take our care. Whereas, Papa instilled into us discipline and made that our habit, uncles pampered us and took care of other creature comforts.

Ma has a complaint that I remember too little from my childhood, and that is not wrong. But I remember enough to relate my strengths to the gift I received from them.

We had a humble beginning. Papa was hardly in secondary school when my Grandfather passed away. Being away from their home town in Saurashtra, in the interior of Maharashtra, schooling was in Marathi. Papa mastered not only Marathi but also Sanskrit. He was a gold medalist in school in Sanskrit and was an ace orator when it came to English.

I am mentioning about languages only to bring to fore the contrast in studies. He must have scored well, since having cleared Matriculation exam, he got into Science stream and eventually into medicine. Only an avid “Learner” can demonstrate such mastery.

That was just the beginning. He had to drop out of medicine, since he got a job in the state police. Job was more important since he had to support families.

Learning did not stop there. He mastered law and was acclaimed as an ace investigator, having proficiency in handling medico- legal cases. He was drafted to investigate complex cases being an officer in CID. Promotions in police must have had some linkages to qualification. He felt the need and cleared his graduation with Hindi as special subject, when he was around 40 years of age.

I see clear genetic linkage. My last formal education ended when I was about to take charge of Computer Systems, at an age of 52 years and took last MOOC course in Social Psychology this year.

And now the other source of “Learner” as a talent theme.

My Ma did not complete her schooling before she got married. But that meant nothing. When we were taking extra exams in Hindi, while in middle school, she competed with me and cleared 4 such exams up to “Kovid”.  I was in engineering college, when she decided to appear for her SSC Exam and was stubborn enough to insist she will have mathematics as a subject. This cost her one trial, but next year, at her age of about 40 years, she did clear SSCE. I have her mark-sheet as souvenir .  Which better sources can I present than these two for my talent theme?

My parents and uncles were compulsive readers. I remember they had membership of one of the best libraries in Ahmedabad way back in early 1960s. I developed habit of reading by observing these elders. All of them can rattle names of books and stories therein written by Kanaiyalal, Gunvantrai, Ramanlal etc. My mother completed her reading of “Parth Ne Kaho Chadhave Ban”, all 5 parts, umpteenth number of time, very recently in her 90^th year.

And learning comes so naturally to her. One reason she has very sharp memory at this age is, she is a subscriber of magazines of crosswords and other puzzles. She completes 5 every month.

She is a creative person, always in lookout of artistically knitted or woven apparel. She is expert at handling pins, needles, crochets and can create designs of her own. She has only to look at the specimen or a picture of the same and she can create one better than the original. Here are some samples.

Her latest triumph is using a Tablet. She has explored the web and created another master piece. Here are the evidences.

Talent is innate, we are born with it. And I am a “Learner”.

More about strengths later. Comments are welcome.