In fact, I remember, my passing the SSC Examination – i.e. 11th standard. Those days it used to be not 10th standard or 12th standard but 11th standard. I stood 11th among 1,35,000 but I was about to leave higher education and find a job. What helped me was the scholarship by Sir Dorab Tata Trust. It was just 60 rupees per month and would you believe that 60 rupees per month from Tatas added so much value to my life that I have been able to stand here today before you to speak to you.
I am on the Board of Tatas now and it is very interesting that the same Bombay House where I used to go to collect that 60 rupees per month now one goes and sits there as a Director on the Board of Tata Motors. The turn that these 40 years have taken is very interesting. It has all been possible because of the chance I got to do higher studies at the insistence of my mother. She gave me the values of my life. She was one of the noblest parents I have met in my life. So, my greatest guru was my mother. My second great guru was Principal Bhave, about whom I made a mention earlier. He taught us Physics. Because it was a poor school, I remember, it had to innovate to convey to the young students the message of Science. I still remember one of the interesting experiences when, on a Friday afternoon, Principal Bhave took us out into the sun to demonstrate to us how to find the focal length of a convex lens. He had a piece of paper here, a convex lens here and he moved it up and down and there was a point when there were a sharp focus and a bright spot on the paper.
He showed the distance between the paper and the lens and said that this distance was the focal length. But then the paper started burning. For some reason, he then turned to me, and said, “Mashelkar, if you focus your energies like this, you can burn anything in the world.”
A2. Supply the information from the passage.
(i) Mashelkar could continue his studies because ________.
(ii) The teaching of Principal Bhave’s experiment was ________.
(iii) Mashelkar considers his mother as the greatest Guru because ________.
(iv) The paper started burning because ________.
A3 Word Register (from the passage)
Prepare a word register for the word Education
A4 Modal Auxiliary
(i) I used to go to collect 60 rupees per month.
(Rewrite the sentence using Modal Auxiliary ‘would’)
(ii) Reported Speech:
Principal Bhave said, “Mashelkar if you focus your energies like this, you can burn anything in the world.”
(How will Mashelkar report this to his friend?)
A5 Personal Response
What is the role played by our parents in shaping our careers?
