The Hindu Education Plus Career Counselling Fair 2013 on Saturday had words of greater wisdom for the participants and laid stress on social consciousness as a much-needed element for the contemporary society.
District Collector Anshul Mishra, who is a postgraduate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, delivered a speech, laced with a sense of rationalistic ideal. Citing his own case as a reference point, he explained how important it was to believe in hard work than horoscope and astrology.
“Prior to my Civil Services interview, an astrologer friend using my date of birth had predicted that as per my horoscope it would be difficult for me to clear the exams, and posited that I would be a failure. However I cleared the exams,” he said.
“I do not have belief either in astrology or horoscopes, but in hard work. One has to minimise the luck factor by putting that extra effort.”
Mr.Mishra stated that everyone in Tamil Nadu wanted their sons and daughters to be either engineers or doctors. But the students should decide what their interest was and one should not force them. Many students found good careers, earned good salary later, but they failed to become good human beings, he noted.
It was important to inculcate social values and good virtues among students, the Collector said, and added: “It is important to become better human beings than just reading texts and making careers.”
Emphasising that society should come first for students, he spoke about good virtues and listed honesty, courage, fairness and humility as qualities that make a better human being.
He said honesty was not all about not accepting or paying bribe, but about being true in assessing where one stood as individual in accepting the reality.
“The role of a sanitary worker is as important as that of a collector, and we should understand this and treat all as equals,” he said.
Mr.Mishra said it was this mindset to accept the reality that one could call honesty. Courage was the virtue to accept one’s own mistakes and to rectify them, and fairness was all about speaking truth without any fear in any situation.
He said humility was a rare phenomenon in society; success lost its meaning when there was no humility.
He advised the students to respect the old people and women, and asked them not to be selfish. The students should look around to observe what was happening in society.
“A great career without social consciousness makes no meaning at all, and for success hard work should be coupled with smart work.”
