Impatiently patient…

This is how it starts… from home to school to college and then on it continues in the professional corporate world. The “Hurry up” phenomena has become a distinct part of our lives!

Honestly, I feel we all lack “practicing” and being patient… isn’t it? Think it over with a cool mind and you would find it is true!!

In a home, kids are asked to “hurry up” always… be it studies or errands or anything. And in the schools, the teachers sometimes get unruly when they “hurry up” with more academics in a small span of time and students expected to fare well in the examinations… completely aware of the fact that all the students aren’t with the same aptitude levels. Then comes the college days when students end up in bullying themselves. Enjoying and loitering around during the days when they should have studied a bit. And then they “hurry up”, trying to finish the entire syllabus in the eleventh hour when examinations are at the doorstep.

And what happens in the corporate world… as soon as a newly recruited employee joins the organization, he is expected to deliver with the shortest possible time; failing which, he is considered either dumb or useless or a “wrong selection”!!

It isn’t like preaching a sermon, but sharing one very good thought for everyone to ponder upon and try to incorporate or practice in his life and reap the benefits of patience. I guess I was blessed and glad I discovered it. Staying patient is a tough virtue to be observed by all…parents, teachers, professors and bosses.

My experience is that almost always, we are in a hurry for unknown reasons. Apparently I don’t also wish to subscribe to the idea of being extremely patient so as to allow things to get out of control. Let me support my statement with some examples…

The present day academics are slightly more demanding for the little minds that get into kindergartens and the like. Is it not a crime to put a just about three year old or less in a school? And then load him with alphabets, numbers and rhymes. The kid is barely enough to take it all and he reaches the Class level where his mind is made to exert itself. And his body is made to carry the extra load of school books and heavy bags. And we pray… for his excellence in academics/schools. Isn’t it too much of an asking?

Come to modern day schools and with deep regret, I should share my experience of some parents who complained of the syllabus being covered up in a hurry by the teachers, irrespective of the capability of the students. Home-works and assignments have ruined their childhood life because the kid is unable to play. While the teachers should have been considerate and careful of each and every students’ performance, schools have made their tasks even tougher by admitting more than the students they could have handled in a given class. And when the student is unable to cope up with the speed of the school, private tuitions become imperative. The irony is that everyone including parents, school teachers and private tuition teachers, all have their expectations glued up with the poor child. Again this is mostly true…

And in the colleges, it is the students who commit blunders in majority of the cases. Much of the time is spent with friends because “free” and “fresh air” is available in abundance post school days where there was binding. And this freedom makes the life of the college-goer more miserable because it is only when the exams close in, that he realizes that the books aren’t in place and the syllabus is almost or partially unknown, because classes were bunked when they shouldn’t have been. When this happens, God is remembered. For an easy paper. Or a lenient external. All with the aim of passing off…. Somehow!!

Come to the corporate life. The grass isn’t greener here either. You’re lucky if you have a good and matured boss or mentor. More often than not, you are subject to assignments and tasks for which there are stretched time based targets. Something similar to saying that a baby is expected in less than half the time it usually takes. And in majority of the cases, you become a victim of over-expectations. With very few “real” helping hands and more critics or cold-shouldering people around, most of the trainees usually curse themselves for graduating so quickly and joining a company. God is remembered again. But the content of the prayer is different.

Patience practiced by most of the above would have resulted in some more brilliant minds being discovered…isn’t it? If the parents were patient enough to admit the child in a school at the appropriate age, if the parents and teachers were patient enough to mentor the student before he entered his college and if all the bosses or managers or supervisors were patient enough in handling the training of new recruits and allowing them the requisite time for displaying their efficiency, talent and usefulness to the organization, then God would have been remembered with gratitude. Quite certainly the “grades” in each of the idealistically optimistic cases above would have been far superior, I suppose.

However, because old-habits-die-hard, the prayer still would have been “O God… give me patience but, yesterday!”

Be patient… anyway!!