This inspirational and motivational short story got published in Gyan Vitaranam
First Impression
-By Vivekanand Rayapeddi
Ph. Number:
+91-9505990521
“You will never get a second chance to form the first
impression”
-Anonymus
It’s about 11 O’ clock in the morning.
Clear blue skies, deep blue sea and enchanting
horizons; Fishermen boats are appearing like small black dots on the surface of
the sea.
Wow what a picturesque scene right in front of the
eyes. The waves are touching the sea shore with a melodious noise. The breeze
is quite gentle.
The sun is not hot. The weather is quite cozy. From
the college window one can see this scenic setting. It’s breath taking and
awesome.
Quite interestingly none of this seems to impress the
restless students. They are all eagerly awaiting Vicky. They are in their final
semester of their engineering course.
Vicky is their soft skills trainer. His actual name is
Vikhyat, but nobody knows it.
Vicky is in his early thirties. Fair in complexion, he
is not very tall, he is of average built. There is nothing striking about his
appearance. Sharp nose, thin glasses,
white kurtha –pajamas are part of his simple demeanour. A soft smile is
inseparable part of his appearance. So far the students haven’t seen a frown on
his face.
Vicky got appointed in that campus recently, hardly a
month ago.
His job is to groom and mentor the students to face
any interviews in general and campus interviews conducted by the corporate
world in particular successfully.
Previously a couple of trainers tried to do that, with
not much impact. They ended up as a laughing stock. They become the fodder for students’
creative comments.
At the first point, they failed to impress the
students, leave alone mentoring.
Vicky is different. He impressed the students; this
could be very simple expression. The kind of craze he generated in the campus
is unprecedented. There are hardly any students who missed his classes. Even
the most irregular students started coming regularly to the campus.
Vicky brought in a sea change in the mind set of the
students. There is an undercurrent of
positivity everywhere. They started believing in the power of team spirit,
spirituality, healthy habits and more importantly the power of living full and
fully the present moment positively.
How did he work
this magic? It is the million dollar question.
Vicky does not speak for hours together. He just
delivers few sentences. He believes in more activity based training sessions.
His teaching is full of practical examples. He involves the students in role
plays and situational dramas.
What he is going to do at a given moment, nobody can
guess. Attending his session is an experience of its own kind. It is
refreshing, thought provoking, motivating and life changing. Usually these are
the phrases, the students use in their feedback sheets about his lectures.
The radiance in his face and the glow in his eyes are
arresting. When he speaks, the listener goes into trance. The listener gets a
kind of pleasure. One realizes one’s own hidden strengths and talents after
talking to him.
He smiled and said, even if I say, that I am a seventh
class drop out, will you believe me? You may say that I am just joking.
In the same way, if an M.Phil graduate comes and
struggles to utter simple sentences and fails to communicate, we will laugh at
him, even though he moves around with his laminated certificates and so called
gold medals.
He quotes the sayings of world’s greatest philosophers
effortlessly. The suitable motivational quotes are at the tip of his tongue.
Nobody respects you based on mere qualifications. Your
performance at the given moment should prove what you are. He usually says,
even your silence should speak about you, your words should speak about you, and
your deeds should speak about you. The qualifications are not the true criteria.
Vicky does not believe in giving big lectures. He
teaches through perfect examples.
His students say only one thing. “He brings in a sea
change in our way of thinking. Our thought process comes to a grinding halt for
a while, we criticize ourselves, we hate ourselves for a while, we pity
ourselves at times. All said and done, we are changed. This change is not a
transient one, it is for good.”
He is the true mascot of change. He is the ambassador
of change.
The college management was more than happy with their
choice of selection. They congratulated themselves on his appointment. But they
too know, it is only by providence his appointment took place. Nothing was
planned. It is only by divine intervention this kind of miracles does happen,
that is what they finally concluded.
The students, the colleagues, the management and the
corporate world. He is adored by everyone equally.
Vicky didn’t turn up.
The restlessness of the students reached its
pinnacle. They got anxious. What might
have happened to our beloved sir? They are worried. It never happened this way.
He is so punctual. Whenever they entered the class, he
was there much before them. This was for the first time they are waiting for
him.
The unsuspected audience were taken aback with the
abrupt entry of a dark, lean man.
The man is looking like a peasant. He is appearing as
a brand ambassador of thousands of farmers who are committing suicide in the
country. He is in dirty dhoti and kurta. He is bare footed. The man is very odd
in his appearance. He seems to be an illiterate. Poor and malnourished. Unshaven
face, with stubble. Unkempt hair. With a cigar in his hand.
He entered the class silently. He looked at no one.
Slowly he walked to the window. Simply, he started gazing into the vast expanse
of the sea.
There was a pin drop silence in the class. Audience
were dumb stricken. They were clueless,
they were too stupefied to react.
Who could he be? Every staff member of the college, a
gardener, a driver, a sweeper, etc has got his designated dress code, ID card
etc. He doesn’t have these accessories.
So he is not the part of the college personnel.
It was an odd sight. An unauthorized person walked
into the classroom of an engineering college. And he could manage to escape the
eyes of security, staff and other students. It is something amazing and unheard
of.
Their college is not that reputed one, accepted. But
it does not deserve this kind of treatment either.
Students started thinking in different ways.
Has this poor and dejected farmer come to our college
to commit suicide, to make it sensational? Naturally it gets lot of media
attention?
Now the students started watching his moments
carefully. They are alert and agile now.
The man turned towards the students. He smiled.
Students are confused further. They thought it must be his ‘last laugh’.
He reached on to the dais. Their surprise found no
limits. They were in utter chaos.
In that chaotic mood they could not see Vicky who is
standing at the entrance and smiling in his mesmerizing style.
In the mean while, the depressed man, who is on his suicidal
mission, adjusted his voice and greeted the audience, with a powerful ‘Good
Morning’. The audience fainted almost. They were blinking and were holding
their breath.
The weak peasant continued to speak. He is quite
assertive. His voice is mesmerizing; the voice has got a natural ability to
take the people into a trance. There is a kind of firmness and authority in his
tone.
He appeared to be a seasoned speaker.
“Dear friends, My name is Ranga Rajan. I am a close friend of
your soft skill trainer Mr. Vicky. I am working as an HR manager in a software
company. I am on my way to take part in
a fancy dress competition in our office today. When Vicky looked at me today
morning, I don’t know what prompted him, immediately he requested me to come to
your college and do this antic, what I did a while ago. He pressurized me to
come in this outfit to your campus. He must have something in his mind. That’s
the reason I just could not turn down his request
I know that you guys are flabbergasted. My appearance
is quite ridiculous, I know that. Today, I am on my way to my office. We are
conducting various competitions as part of our anniversary celebrations. As a
part of it, I am participating in fancy dress competition. I am sporting this
outfit, to represent an illiterate, depressed farmer. “
His speech continued.
He touched various aspects related to communication skills,
HR interview process, campus interview selection process etc. in his speech. He
motivated the guys in such a way that they all got carried away. They forgot
the time, their being, his dress and for that matter, they even didn’t observe
the presence of Vicky who gave a glimpse for a while and disappeared silently.
Ranga Rajan’s speech is so powerful. His spell was
magical.
Finally he concluded the speech and went off. His
driver came and escorted him to the car. The news spread like a wild fire.
There was a standing ovation in the campus.
All the students were summoned to the main auditorium.
They were clueless. What is going on?
By the time the audience come to their senses, Vicky
is on the dais, with a microphone in his hands. He is in front of them with a
wink. They thought that he would speak. Instead, he caught them off their guard
and shot a question at them, “What is your analysis”
The audience started responding at random. They are
sharing their ideas. Vicky listened to all the answers with great relish. He
nodded his head in approval. He appreciated their view points.
Finally, he started speaking,
The first impression eeees….., he dragged the last
word ‘is’ to give a dramatic impact, then he paused.
All the audience shouted in unison, ‘the best
impression’, implying ‘the first impression is the best impression’. They were
quite impressed with their answer. In fact, they expected an appreciation as
well from the speaker.
To their dismay, Vicky proclaimed. ‘I am sorry. It
is wrong.’ He continued, ‘The first impression need not be the best
impression. Today I am going to change your perception about the first
impressions. Our literature and the old school of thoughts successfully made us
agree that the first impression is the best impression.
Of course, it is right to a great extent. But we
should be open enough to change our perceptions. Usually the first impressions
are formed based on appearance, dress and the body language.
A while ago, all of you have practically witnessed
that your first impression need not be true. The impressions are not based on
values, truths etc. They are simply our emotional conclusions. Naturally they
need not be the best impressions.
It is all the conditioning of the mind.
The way ‘we look’ at the world, the world appears to
be. It may not be true. The reality may be glaringly different.
Imagine; a gentle man in a very sophisticated outfit,
with latest gadget in his hand, wearing trendy shoes, is getting down a swanky
Mercedes. Naturally we form very good
first impression. If he can’t speak sophisticated language, if he cannot
articulate his ideas, will you respect him? The kind of awe which was in your
eyes a while ago, will it continue?
No. That is your answer.
It means what? The first impression is the best
impression is not true. This may lead us to generalize the things. We may stop
analyzing and we may stop rationalizing. That is not only dangerous, but self
destructive also.
I observed that most of the talented youth have many
psychological complexes. The inferiority complex, lack of self esteem, worried
about their complexion etc, they are worried about their physical appearance and
other minor physical lacunae.
The ad world, is cleverly exploiting this weakness in
you.
Their objective is not to elevate your standard. They
are making money. Do you really believe that the girls make a bee line for you
and swarm around you if you use a particular brand of perfume? Does it make any
sense?
When you are attending an interview or a social
gathering, you should be presentable. There is no second thought about it. You
have to wear neat outfit, polished shoes, and should be clean shaven. Done.
There is no confusion
But mentally if you are worried about your complexion,
height, weight and other physical features which you cannot change, I can
confidently say, that you are insane.
The impressions that are formed based on the physical
appearance are quite transitory. They are neither the best nor permanent.
A while ago, you all emotionally concluded that he
must be a farmer, he is depressed, he is about to commit suicide, he is poor,
he is illiterate, he is uncivilized etc.
These are all your emotional impressions.
But the moment, he started speaking, what attracted
you? His powerful motivational speech captivated you. You forgot all his
physical limitations, his appearance, his dress and everything about his
appearance.
What does it mean?
People regard you worthy, if and only if you work on
your soft skills and communication skills. The world does not know instantly
what your qualification is; the grades that you acquired; or what the position
that you are into is. The world forms its impressions based on your soft skills
and communication skills. Then everything follows.
Now , let me ask you one more question. Listen
carefully, ‘Do you want an exclusive seminar by Mr.Ranga Rajan?’
The frenzied audience replied thunderously ‘Yes’
You see, the real first impression is not formed on
the basis of outward physical complexion, body structure etc. The lasting
impressions are formed by your communication skills and soft skills.
Mahatma Gandhi, APJ Kalam, Stephen Hawking, Satya
Nadella etc can’t be categorized as the real hunks the world has ever
witnessed. We can’t call them handsome, by conventional standards. But we
regard and revere their charismatic thoughts, speech and the path that they
showed us.
The most handsome onscreen hero may make the headlines
for all the wrong reasons. The judge has pronounced punishment. The judge has
not taken the hero’s physical charm in to consideration.
At no point of time in your life, the complexion of your
skin, height, weight, physical attraction etc play any role in getting you the
approval from the learned society.
If you are attending an interview, think in the shoes
of an employer.
Just imagine that you are an employer for a while.
Just imagine. In front of you there are two people. The most handsome man without
soft skills is there and not so handsome man with excellent communication
skills is there.
Who do you choose? The answer is quite simple. You
know what the world wants.
Stop worrying about things which are unimportant and
frivolous. Start working on the real assets of you. Mind you, being presentable
is very important. But let your concern be more on being good at soft skills
and communication skills. Don’t misunderstand me; I am not propagating the
concept of being uncivilized in appearance
What I would like to drive home is, the first
impression is the best impression. No doubt about it. But it can never be
formed through your physical charm, beauty, complexion etc. The true first
impressions are formed through your behavior, speech, communication skills,
soft skills and through your performance”
He concluded his speech, amid a pack of mesmerized
audience.
“The first impression is the lasting impression”
-Anonymus
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