Thank you St. Pauls
I would like to share a couple of experiences in Paul’s that transformed me from nothing to something in this world.
A shy, average kid who never was into sports or extra-curricular activities, who often shied away from even talking in front of a set of 10 audience, well that was me in my early part of school days. I never got good rank in school but I wasn’t bad either. Today I am 22 doing my Engineering in Electronics & a proud Event Manager, handling an entire Vertical of Artist Management and a Zone for a company called Grand Mantra which is into Event Management and is spread across the country. My job takes in a lot of Interaction with lot of people from Labourers to Celebrities, addressing audience, etc, etc. Well how did this happen? All the credits goes to my School & my Teachers who made me realize my strengths & overcome my fears.
When I was in school I never like the way things were made compulsory to participate in the competitions. First was the Elocution Competition where Teacher Anita the Head mistress of the Primary told me that I should participate and there was no way out in the competition, I wasn’t pleased with it at all, but she somehow she made things easy for me by giving me the poem which I was supposed to mug up n vomit. Well things went on well, although I dint win the competition, it was the first time I had faced a set of audience of 100-150 people and it wasn’t bad. Well days went by and I joined NCC (Army Wing) and it gave me a whole new experiences. I was made the CHM of the cadets. I was expected to lead the group and under the guidance of Sir Parvathikar I somehow managed to be a good CHM and then I was made the BHM the battalion head of the JDs. This experience taught to be a good leader and also it pulled in a little limelight on to me and I was feeling good about it & the other thing was it made me famous over night was I had to visit Joseph a couple of times for some work (Only a Paulite will understand the logic behind that). During my time there were a lot of new things introduced like the clubs, youth fest. As it was compulsory to be a member of 1 club and I picked up Debate Club, where we had to meet up on every Friday at 1:45 PM. The staff in charge was Teacher Eugene, she made the club quite interesting with her tips & conducted regular debates. 
I learned how to talk, when to talk & what to talk in that club. I was kind of exposed to the whole new world where I also started being something. The fear of public speaking was getting down day by day and all the credits to Teacher Eugene. And then followed a Youth Fest at the school level where we had a number of Competitions and it was compulsory to take part in 3 contests. I choose Debate as I had learnt something about it, Second I choose Essay writing cause you could get rid of it by writing a page on pollution & third I choose Extempore where a topic was given n we had to talk about it for 3 mins. Somehow this contest made me realize my potential in a greater way. I was writing an Essay Contest for the first time, I ended up writing a 6 long page Essay on Pollution and I was taken by surprise, as while entering I had thought I wouldn’t write more than a page, but the intensity of the competition such that I felt I should give it a sincere try to win. It made me realize how well I could express my thoughts, this whole thing created a kind of new self Confidence. Debate was just a regular affair for me by then and my team did well. Next was Extempore wasn’t prepared at all, somehow I managed to speak till the buzzer was off, and it had killed my stage fear to quite an extent. I was done with Youth Fest though I dint win any of the contests, deep down a new Shiv had taken birth, I was full of confidence was capable of talking to a set of audience and most importantly I had learned to express myself. After the youth fest I started taking part in various competitions like GK tests, Essay writing, etc, etc, etc although I dint win any of these the amount of things I learnt about interaction with people was something worth. The Teachers at St. Paul’s were of great support and thought me so many things. I still remember the way Father Roland gave me a pitch to maintain the notebooks neat and the next note book was maintained it so well that he showed it to the class and it set an example. It taught me how discipline plays an important role in life. The wonderful words by Father Mathew – “ Aim the sky so that u land of the Coconut tree, if u aim the Coconut Tree you will be 5 feet below the Ground” is something that inspires me to aim big in my life even today. And off course the Great Battle with Joseph that existed during my time..! The Love & affection that our teachers had on each student was something unmatchable. No sooner moved out from School to a college, Teachers become Maam’s and the sense of affection that we got by our teachers was lost amongst the Lectures in college. One remarkable thing that my School gave me was the Strength, Ability & Confidence to Chase my Dreams. All these small incidents helped to realize my potential, had the things not made COMPULSORY I don’t know what I would be now in my Life.
As days moved on, I was once called in for a Judging a certain rounds in a National Level Management Fest for BBA students. There were so many students participating in the event I was judging but one student out stood among the rest and just blowed off the minds of the audience and other contestants. Right from the start he caught the attention of the people around and at the end he was undoubtedly the Winner, I later remembered that he was from my school, It was Aditya Hardi, a Paulite! Later in a BVB college fest, there was an outstanding performance in Rapping, it was performed like a duet with Rihanna, and it was appreciated by the audience a lot, Later I found out that he was Shivraj Kutre from Paul’s. This is the way all the Paulites have been making a name for themselves in the world at a very tender age.
I would like to tell to fellow budding Paulites, Don’t let the thirst for success fade off. Like Father Mathew says Aim the Sky..! There will be your set of disappointments, Frustrations, Unfairness that you will have face in various parts of life, and also you will be given with the options to flow into depression or to fight back, the choices will be made by you so choose wisely. Have your part of experiences and enjoy your life to the fullest but make sure you don’t cross the limits because once the barriers are broken then it gets difficult to get your life back on track. I would like to end this article with the famous quotes of Steve Jobs “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” I wish you all good luck for your future. Go ahead and create your own Legacy of success. Good Luck, God Bless.
Shivkumar Mamadapur,
2006 Batch.
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