Sunday, February 14, 2010

Humility

I'm writing here after a while. My schedule has been packed with work and academics. Along with these, some short-term and long-term planning has also contributed in keeping me off from writing! Phew...

The latest inspiration of this article comes from my Professor, whose wisdom, be it any walk of life, is unquestioned, has a plethora of information, helpful yet unbelievably modest. Not only computer science, but you could take some of the best lessons on humility from him.

I have always observed this astonishing phenomenon. Mostly, the brightest student in class is very humble and helpful (however exceptions are prevalent). But the 'so called' or 'self proclaimed' intelligent ones are exactly opposite of it. Same probably is true with teachers. The best ones don't want to force you respect them by scaring you, but they 'earn' it by the aura they carry around them. Even offices are no different. A situation where your Project Lead is very harsh, Project Manager is gentle and his boss is very friendly, is not very uncommon.

My father, who is wise and well-read, is another such person who often inspires me by his humility. People in his age group tend to brag about their past glories and wisdom. I have never seen him indulging in such behavior. He leads by example, instead of lecturing, indirectly forcing you to admire him.

I was just wondering, is it that high status, success teaches such people to be humble. Or is because these people have always shown humility they have risen in ranks? As a sign off quote for this article, I selected this one… "Always be humble to people on your way up, you never know when you will meet them on your way down"

4 comments:

Mansee said...

I think it is impossible to be humble when one is striving to be the "best" or trying to be "better" than others.. the person who is humble would know there is nothing to be scared of when compared to self-proclaimed ;D

Also, i feel the test is to see as soon as one becomes 'unteachable',it is the time to re-evaluate. :)
And there are people who show fake humbleness to get their work done ... but you can figure out who those are... for example, somebody might be very humble to you as soon as his/her task is completed..they would cut you off :D so you would know it ;)

Vijay Nadadur said...

Wow! Mansee, you got it spot on!


I mean, the tricks of thesefake-humbles will not last forever. And in today's world's (considering the rat-race) it's hard to be humble. But, if one has raised above this... humility is natural to that person!

Sutapa Dey said...

In reality, people like your professor or Uncle(your father ...) are very rare. Yes it is true, when people rise ranks with lots of hard work, those hardships imbibes that humility in them. That humility in fact glorifies their sacrifices and success. :)
So I am in full accord with you in this topic.

Vijay Nadadur said...

Dear Shishya,

Happy to see your comments. Oh yes! i have observed this fact lately.. but it's better late than never.