13th January 2011
Help and self-confidence
`Trust yourself, then you will know how to live'
Johann Wolfgang
Sometimes we have to choose between two things. If we want one, the other is not available. We have to be intelligent enough to make the right choice. We have to think which is permanent.
Take for example, help and self-confidence. Last weekend I took my father who is over ninety to the temple. As he was walking, I offered my hand to him and requested him to hold it and walk. As usual, he refused and wanted to walk on his own. When I repeatedly requested him to hold my hands, he quipped `if you are around, I will seek your help, if you are not around, I'll feel confident'.
I was stunned at the deep meaning behind these words! Isn't true that when we receive too much of help, we lose our self-confidence?
Sometime back I read about a schoolboy named George Dantzig, who a always used to be late to the maths class. One day as usual entered the class late and saw two math problem on the board. Immediately he copied both of them thinking them to be homework. He worked on the same very hard over the weekend and submitted the homework to his math teacher first thing on Monday morning.
The math teacher was shocked. He asked the boy if he didn't hear what he said in the beginning of the class. He said that the two problems were so impossible to solve and that even Albert Einstein could not solve the same! George Dantzig was not in the class when the teacher said this, and while all other students were limited by what the teacher said, he depended on his self-confidence to solve the problem!
Think: which is permanent – help or self-confidence?
N C Sridharan
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