I met Abhishek during my volunteer stay
at Sadhana Forest, Auroville back in April 2014. I only met him for a few days
as Indian had an option not to stay for the minimum requirement of 2 weeks.
However, he was a very mature person although he was only 20 years old. He knew
how to interact with people proactively, how to introduce two unknown people to
each other in a very positively way, and he always appreciated good things the
other people did. One coincidence about us was he grew up in a country where I
worked as a Cabin Crew. I got his contact hoping to get to know him better if I
had the chance to see him again. Finally, when I headed to Bombay, he was able
to host me and I gotta know him more, but still, I was so shocked when I found
out this young gentleman had already published 2 books.
Studying,
the Only Goal in Life
Abhishek is an Indian but was born and brought
up in Bahrain. He went to Bombay with his family a few times before to visit his
relatives during the summer holidays, but he didn’t really see the city before.
When he was young he did quite well in
school as he could manage his exams easily, at that time he felt life was all about
doing well in exams. However, in Grade 7-9 he
could
not cope as much and his grades started going down, and got worst in Grade 10. He
stopped enjoying school, he took subjects his friends were taking but he didn’t
like them at all. He also noticed even he was good at things other than
studying nobody acknowledged.
After the first semester of grade 10,
Abhishek realized he wanted to improve from failing, there should be more in
life than just standing first in class. He decided to interview students around
him who did rather well, regarding their study schedule, how they prepared for
their exams, what they did in the classrooms, how they learnt at home, and what
other activities they got involved. He spent 1-2 months on that and ended up
interviewing 50-60 people and found a common answer, they all fell in love with
the learning. At the same time, these people didn’t just focus on studying,
they would do so many different things at the same time. They didn’t study
because standing first meaning getting a good job, it was because they enjoyed
learning and studying.
With his findings from the interviews,
Abhishek decided to go on the experiment himself during his Grade 11-12 period.
He started to fall in love with his subjects, at the same time he also attended
different seminars and spoke to the speakers afterwards on how to do better. He
got inspired and decided to do more for himself. Abhishek’s grades started
improving and he got very good grade in the final exams in Grade 12. However,
he thought he would feel happy and satisfied with those good marks, but at the
end he only felt empty and nothing special. It became the turning point of his
life.
To
Share, What Himself Went Through
Abhishek thought whatever he learnt from
his experience he must also share with other students. He tried to conduct some
sharing seminars in Bahrain. He organized everything himself, including making
the presentation, finding venues and promotions. He contacted the local
newspaper and used the event function on FB page as a free event. At the end he
conducted 3-4 seminars and around 50-60 students attended. At the time Abhishek
was only 17 years old.
In 2012, Abhishek decided to go to
university in Bombay to study Journalism because in Bahrain there weren’t a lot
of courses to choose from. Bombay was a vibrant city, a totally different
environment from Bahrain which was a laid back and relaxing place. He had 2-3
months to spare before his college started. He started reading and explored the
streets and met people. He became more open-up and realized there were more in
life than just do what needed to be done. He spent 1-2 months writing his
manuscript for his first book and tried to approach publisher for his book. He
went to different offices, 23 publishers said no, finally the 24th
one said yes after 1.5months’ effort. In Jan 2013 his first book “Academic
Excellence” on doing well in school and falling in love with the learning was
published during his first year of college.
Failure,
is the Mother of Success
Abhishek decided to conduct seminars and
talks in Bombay too. He approached the schools and colleges both directly or
indirectly, physically or through emails, explaining his seminar and it was
free of charge. However, he was always challenged what he would know because of
his young age, he was only 18 years old. He approached almost 600 schools and finally
one said yes. Abhishek conducted his first seminar in Bombay and at the end the
teachers were happy, and the teachers referred him to another school, and then
another school, and so on,
In March 2013, Abhishek started a
campaign called “Empower One Billion - Youth Empowerment Movement”, he combined
and consolidated his knowledge and experience to encourage young people to work
on things they were passionate about. Over the last years he held 120 events in
more than 10 cities and reached 20000 students. It was not just a talk, but
like a conversation. Abhishek said if somebody did that for him when he was in
school before, he would be so different.
While doing his sessions, Abhishek
thought of putting the information into another manuscript which became his
second book, “101 Habits to Greatness – Small Steps to Everyday Change”,
focusing on developing life skills and good habits. This time he chose to
publish it himself, involved more hard work but also more freedom. He wanted it
available everywhere and even had the E-book version. At the end he published
it in Bahrain because he knew a lot of printers and editors there, he even had
a book lounge at the bookstore in May 2013.
Achieving
Dreams, if not Now, When?
Abhishek decided to take a gap year break
from college, a chance for him to do something he really wanted to do, to think
about why he was doing what he was doing, and what he wanted to do in life. He
was interested in learning and education and he started reading on this topic
of different communities in the world. He started traveling to different parts
of India to attend seminars, conferences, book lounge, and even Oscar movies on
all kinds of topics, investment, finances, environments, arts, literature,
safety, he always spoke to the organizers to find out more. He was fascinated
what he found out because there were so much in the world.
Abhishek also decided to pack and go
around India in one big trip. He started in Bombay and went around India
anticlockwise. He had beautiful experience along the way, he spend time
volunteering, he was stuck in angry crowd in Rajasthan, he did a 6 km hike to
see all the ghats, the staircases leading to the rivers, of Varanasi, he
explored libraries and museums in Delhi, he talked to families, villagers along
the way, he also conducted seminars in Students Camps. His travel ended on May
2014.
Now he is busy finding University again.
He wanted to change his major because he realized he is more interested in arts
and literature, education and psychology. He wanted to give more to students.
He believed that every student is special, unique and meant for greatness, and
must be given the chance to fall in love with learning and to explore different
lives around them, not just live according to others people expectation when he
was in that stage few years ago only.
Success,
is Living your Dreams
Abhishek shared some successful tips
with me from his findings,
1. Crazy
passion – do something you love
2. Super
structure – make a list of things from the 100 people who are good at that
field in the world
3. 10,000
hours rule – indepth study and learn what the people did in their journeys
Abhishek also had very good thoughts on
pursuing dreams,
“If you like doing something, just put
in effort nobody can stop it. Don’t let the dream dies within you, there is
never a right time because you are the oldest today in your life, you could never
become younger again.”
“Try combining dreams and passions,
contribute to society so that the dreams are also adding values to other people
life and people will then want to support you.”
Abhishek shared with me his favorite
quotes too, the first one from a Canadian Robin Sharma, “When you were born,
you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the
world cries and you rejoice.”
The second one from an American Charlie Jones,
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people
you meet and the books you read.”
Presents
Exchange, continuing
Abhishek gave me the 10 stones he
collected during his big trip in India as present for exchange. He picked up
those stones only when he had significantly life changing experience in the
particular places.
Stones from
1. Bombay
– he wanted to keep something from his hometown, he picked it while coming back
from the train station.
2. Goa
– He felt happy and free as it was his first time having a big trip, and got
the stone from a beach near the ocean
3. Kanyakumari
– He was standing at the southmost tip of India
4. Sadhana
Forest, Auroville – He went beyond himself and lived with others though doing
services, he got the stone from Marina Beach, Chennai
5. 30
hrs train journey from Chennai to Kolkata – he had a lot of thoughts and he
spoke to many people on the train ride which was transformative
6. Kolkata
– he got the stone in a bank of a river to remind this beautiful city
7. Guwahati,
NW region of India – he and his friends drove around the region and had a very
nice road trip, he got the stone from a cave
8. Varanasi
– he had a 6km long walk in a day in order to see all the ghats (staircases)
along the Holy River Ganga
9. Chail,
Himachal Pradesh – it was a beautiful hill station and he went inside a flowing
river and picked up the stone
10.
Jaipur – it was a literature
festival and he spoke to so many people
Abhishek hoped the stones could remind
the next person never be afraid to live the life you wanna live, even it looks
stupid. Love yourself who you truly are, because you are beautiful beyond
measure.
22 Aug 2014
written in Dubai home
今年四月份在印度曙光村環保森林做義工時認識了印度男生Abhishek，我和他只相處了三數天而已，對他的印像卻非常深刻。雖然他只有二十歲，言談舉止卻非常成熟，他很主動認識新朋友，也懂得把兩位陌生人互相介紹給對方認識，他還會常常欣賞別人的長處。很巧合地，他是在我當空姐的中東國家長大和讀書，於是我拿了他在印度的聯絡資料，若果有機會重遇他的話一定要好好了解他的故事。當我的旅程來到孟買時聯絡上了他，他也很樂意接待我到他家借宿，於是我便藉此機會好好認識這位新朋友，但當我發現原來二十歲的他卻已經出版了兩本著作時，我仍是嚇了一大跳。
讀書 就是人生的全部
Abhishek 是在中東巴林出生和長大的印度人，讀書時候每隔兩年暑假他都會跟隨家人回孟買探親，卻從來沒有好好逛過這個城市。
Abhishek小時候讀書成績很好，那時候的考試都很容易過關，以前他覺得人生目的就是要讀書考試。七年級到九年級時期他的成績開始下滑，十年級時最差，他變得不喜歡讀書，選科只是因為跟從朋友一起選，自己對那些科目完全沒有興趣。另一方面，雖然他讀書成績不好，但課外活動的奬項卻沒有太多人欣賞。
來到十年級第一學期結束，Abhishek發覺他不可能再這樣子下去了，除了讀書外，生命中應該還有其他事情的。他決定去訪問一下身邊讀書成績不錯的同學，他們的學習時間表、怎樣備課、在課室怎樣上課、在家怎樣温習，還有參與甚麼課外活動等，他共花了個多月時間去做訪問，最終訪問了五六十個學生，得出了一個共同的結論，他們都很喜愛學習，同時，他們並不只是讀書，他們也參與不同類型的課外活動，他們讀書不是為了將來要找份好工作，而是因為他們真心喜歡學習。
有了這些發現， Abhishek決定在自己身上測驗一下，餘下的十一和十二年級他學會愛上他的科目，同時他也出席不同類型的講座，也和講者交流希望讓自己變得更好。他受到很多啟發決定要為自己做更多，Abhishek的成績開始進步，最後十二年級的終期試更名列前茅。不過，原先他以為自己會因為成績好而雀躍喜悅，最後他卻沒有甚麼特別感覺和只有空虛感，那成為了他人生的轉捩點。
分享 自己所經歷的
Abhishek覺得應該要把自己的經驗與別人分享，他嘗試在巴林舉行讀書分享會，自己一個人安排所有事項，包括整理演講、找場地、做推廣，他聯絡本地報紙，也用臉書活動功能推廣自己的免費分享活動，最後他舉行了三四場分享會，大約五六十人出席，那時，Abhishek才十七歲。
然後， Abhishek決定要到孟買升大學主修傳理系，因為巴林的大學沒有很多科目可以選擇，孟買是一個充滿動感的大城市，相對於巴林卻是一個節奏緩慢和輕鬆的地方。由於還有兩三個月時間才開課，他開始看書和到街上發掘和結識不同的人，他變得越來越外向，發現人生除了家庭學校的基本要求外原來還有很多不同的東西。他用了一個多月的時間創作了他的第一本書和找出版社，可是找了二十三間全部都拒絕了他，直至第二十四間終於答應，那是經過了一個半月後的成果，於是他第一本書 “Academic Excellence”出版了，那是關於怎樣在學校做得更好和愛上學習的著作，那時Abhishek才是大學一年級生。
失敗 乃成功之母
Abhishek決定在孟買嘗試舉行學習講座和分享會，他直接地間接地，親身或電郵聯絡了孟買不同的學校，向他們介紹自己的免費學習分享講座，但是，常常得到的回覆都是他只有十八歲，他懂得甚麼。聯絡了接近六百間學校之後， Abhishek終於找到了第一間答應給他機會的學校並舉行了第一場學習分享會，最後那些老師都很滿意，然後，老師把他介紹到另一間學校，再另一間學校。
Abhishek把他的經驗和知識整理，然後把它命名為「一千萬青年充權運動」，他希望能鼓勵青年人向自己有興趣的事情出發。過去一年多他已經在十多個地區舉辦了一百二十場講座和接觸了二萬名學生，那其實不是純粹演講，反而多似是和學生交流對話。他說若果中學時期有機會聽到這樣的分享會，他對學習的感受一定會很不一樣。
舉辦分享會的同時，
Abhishek又想到了把新的想法寫成第二本書， “101 Habits to Greatness – Small Steps to Everyday Change”，內容集中在發展生命技能和養成良好習慣，這次他決定自資出版，雖然工序繁複但自由度更大，他希望能夠在不同地方發行，甚至有網上版本。最後因為認識巴林那邊的印刷商和編輯，於是他先在巴林出版書籍和舉行新書發佈會。
夢想 任何時候都可以啟航
然後，Abhishek決定要停學一年進行間隔年，他希望能夠做一些自己想做的事情，和思考自己的去向。他對教育有興趣並開始閱讀世界各地不同社會教育制度的書籍，他更到印度不同地區出席不同類型的講座、硏討會、座談會、新書發佈會，甚至奧斯卡電影，各式各樣的主題他也感興趣，投資、財經、環保、美術、文學、安全，他也會主動跟主辦單位的人員交談，期望得到更多的啟發，他對多姿多采的世界著迷了。
Abhishek決定要在印度作一個長途旅行，他從孟買開始逆時針圍繞印度一週，有很多很美好的經歷，他去了當義工，他遇到過一群怒氣沖沖的群眾，他為了看畢恒河的渡口而走了六公里，他在德里發掘了圖書館和博物館，他沿途遇到各個家庭、各種村民，他也在學生營舉行了分享會，他的旅程今年五月才剛剛結束。
現在Abhishek再次忙於找大學，因為他想轉修其他主修科目。他發覺自己對美術文學、教育心理學較大興趣，也想為學生多做一點事情，他相信每一個學生都是獨特的，都是有潛能的，應該要給予機會讓他們愛上自己的學習和發掘生命中不同的生活方式，不要只活在別人的期望當中，幾年前他就是被困在那個境地了。
成功 就是活出自己的夢想
Abhishek跟我分享了一些成功小tips：
1.
做一些充滿熱情和喜愛的事情
2.
從世界各地找一百個在那些事情上出類拔萃的人，然後把共通點寫出來
3.
相信一萬小時定律，深入學習那些共通點
關於追夢， Abhishek也有很棒的想法：
「若果真的喜愛一樣事情，請把全副心機放進去，沒有人可以阻止你，不要讓夢想消失在自己心裏，因為，永遠再不會有一個合適的時間，今天已是人生中最老的一天，永遠再不會比今天年輕了。」
「嘗試結合夢想和熱情，一個對社會有貢獻的夢想，能夠幫助別人增值他們的生命，他們亦更會願意支持你」
Abhishek跟我分享了兩句他最愛的座佑銘，第一句是來自加拿大的Robin
Sharma，「當你出生時，只有你在哭而全世界感到喜悅，請把生命活得當你過身時，全世界在哭而只有你感到喜悅。」
第二句是來自美國的Charlie
Jones，「五年後的你和今天的你是一樣的，分別只在於你遇過甚麼人和看過甚麼書。」
禮物 繼續延續
Abhishek給了我十塊石頭作交換禮物，它們都是他的間隔年時在印度不同地方撿拾留念的，每一個地方他都有一段充滿啟發的經歷。
石頭來自
1.
孟買- 代表他的家鄉，從火車站回家途中撿的
2.
Goa – 他的第一次長途旅行而感到興奮，於是在大海旁邊沙灘撿的
3.
Kanyakumari – 那是全印度最南端的地方
4.
曙光村環保森林 – 能夠跟不同國籍的義工一起生活和做服務，後來在清奈的Marina
Beach撿的
5.
從清奈到加爾各答三十小時火車旅程- 有機會好好思考和跟火車上不同背景的人聊天
6.
加爾各答 – 這是一座美麗的城市的河畔撿的
7.
Guwahati印度西北部地區
– 他和友人一起自駕遊，在一個山洞內撿的
8.
恒河 – 為了看畢所有通往恒河的渡口，他共走了六公里路
9.
Chail，
Himachal Pradesh – 那是一個美麗的山城，他走到一條河流中撿的
10.
Jaipur – 他出席了一個文學節活動，遇到很多不同的人和得到啟發
Abhishek希望收到這些石頭作禮物的追夢者，永遠不要害怕活出自己想要的生命，就算那看起來很愚蠢可笑。請愛一個真正的自己，因為那是最美的，超乎量度範圍的。
23/08/2014
寫於杜拜友人家中
