An Anticlimax..

The day had been a busy one.  The General Manager of a reputed company was invited to our college to deliver lectures to the faculty and the students of the final year class. The prelaunch session was for the faculty which went very smoothly. The speaker gave some management tips using some real life stories to keep the audience interested. 

After the lunch break, the final year students started gathering inside the Seminar Hall which had been built and furnished beautifully only a couple of months ago. The seats are nicely cushioned.  Air-conditioning is yet to be completed. 

The speaker started his speech sharing his own experience as an engineering student.  He was candid enough to let the students know that after failing to get admission into any of the engineering colleges in Rajasthan, he had to go to Maharashtra to study engineering where he faced serious problems due to his weakness in English. He failed in all the subjects except in Mathematics in the first examination he took as an engineering student. That was the biggest shock of his life. But he did not lose hope, started studying hard and came first in the examination that followed. 

After changing few jobs, he joined his present company as a fresh entrant and rose to the present highest position just in sixteen years by dint of his sheer hard work, sincerity, dedication and positive attitude. The story was really inspiring and the students were very much touched.  The students started interacting with the speaker asking him career related questions which were answered well by the speaker. The session ended in a positive note and we, the college authorities were very much satisfied.

We left the seminar hall and sat down in the office for a little refreshment. We started reviewing the day’s activities and everyone present was very happy to realize that a very good program had been conducted for the students. Sipping in the hot cups of tea served to us we started planning for some more motivational programs of such kind for the students. 

To our surprise, came in the person in-charge of the seminar hall with a worried look on his face. We looked at him.  

 “Sir, some cushions of the seminar hall have been torn apart and damaged by some students sitting towards the rear side of the hall”, he reported hesitantly. 

We were shocked. 

“How could the students do this while such a good session was in progress?” someone commented. 

“It depends on from what background they have come", another one of us opined. 

As the head of the institution my first reaction was to decide not to hold any such program for the students in future. 

“But, why should we deprive the majority of the students from such developmental programs only because of few trouble makers?” I reasoned to myself. “ In fact it is a greater challenge to motivate ourselves to move ahead in spite of all such minor hiccups” , I thought

And the work goes on..