Before Gitanjali, or maybe after

In a full page ad (Indian Express, August 1) for Chate Coaching Classes and Chate International Academy ("... we GUIDE you to make your own IDENTITY!!!"), I ran across this inspiring message, reproduced verbatim, from Prof. MH Chate (Managing Director, Chate International Academy).

Where do you want to go?

In Ravindranath Tagore's poem, 'Alice in Wonderland': Alice soaks beauty of the nature while merrily wandering. She abruptly stops at some distance, since there are two pathways in two different direc-tions. She is confused to choose the correct path. Suddenly a cat arrives. She asks the cat the query she has. "Which way you want to lead?" the cat asks. Alice says, "I haven't yet decided." The cat reply's "Then follow any way, it doesn't make any difference."

Same is the case with many students. They endeavour to find the way and blame themselves after commuting a long distance. So friends, if you desire to avoid "the Alice situation", seriously think about your career. Which way you want to lead? Be unemployed due to lack of opportunities or accurately grab the job opportunities from India and abroad; this is to be decided by you.

What did you learn from this message? Here's what I took away:

* When there are two paths in different directions, an animal often arrives.

* The animal is a cat.

* If I want to soak the beauty of nature, I should wander merrily. Otherwise I will commute long distances.

* Chate is an excellent place to learn about our Indian heritage of great literature, like "Alice in Wonderland".

* Besides, it's time we all learned more about Ravindranath Tagore, inventor of the concept of zero.

***
A previous post about Chate: What about 1895?