Motives of motivation
Sajan Raj N
Athul Mohan T M
Meet Ganesh Kailas, A true charismatic motivational speaker with a lucid flow of perspectives. Son of a police sub-inspector, with a childhood watching khaki uniforms and dreaming for the same. He proudly tried to follow the same path and appeared for the Sub Inspector test and got a job at a medical company even before the results. May 5th of 2006 shuffled the scenes without any mercy. He had fixed an appointment with a doctor and was going for that. A Jeep came from the wrong side of the road and hit the dreams of his life. Years later, life took him to the role of a motivational speaker who is giving more than 500 sessions to people among various age groups. He aims at the per capita awareness for the society by enlightening children and youngsters about life, family, relationships and responsibilities, necessity to understand the parents and elders and how to be empathetic to the fellow beings etc.
“A healthy mind can bring miracles. I was not a fan of talking for other people. At a point, I lost the passion to talk to myself.”
In his words, he was 99% disabled and hopeless about the future by the time he was hospitalized. He started to believe that the ability above his neck was the only 1 %. He met many people in the same ward suffering from their post- accident traumas. The people around him figured his ability of speech and power of words. “Why can’t we be hopeful if Ganesh can”- the cancer patients and accident survivors whom he met commented. Those were the first words of motivation.
Factors that are not required for a motivational speaker.
“I personally believe no one needs to be well dressed, good looking or highly read to become a motivational speaker. If one has good communication skills, originality, genuine concern to share and care, they can easily become one.”
He’s not a typical motivational speaker wearing a coat and standing among myriads of speaker boxes as you may see on screens. For him, the motivation device is his mind, the content is his life experiences. The question here is ‘how a highly hopeful person started to look at the world after a mishap?’. He delivers his speeches to youngsters, patients and people who are under palliative care. He reads books and listens to people.
“During 2005, I felt society was under a huge stereotype. Seeing others in those four walls of their room was the common folks’ attitude towards persons with disabilities. Their movement was more of a rocket science back then.”
In his opinion, the graphs of socialization and social situations have changed between the time he met with the accident and today. The lifestyles have changed. Social media was not active in those days. People used to look at me with sympathy like they do to every other person with disabilities. Nowadays, the person in a wheelchair is not a liability but a possibility to society. Perspectives have changed. Society still has to change more; with their inertia to change and resistance to inclusion.
Wishlist
“Life wasn't planned one. I don’t remember carrying a wish list. My family is everything for me. Nothing else can replace the bonds and love for each other. I adore the support they are giving throughout these years.”
Where will you be after 17 years?
“It's not about a post or position in which a person like me should stand after some years”
He is a person who imagines short term goals, a fan of carpe diem. He hasn’t planned anything big so far. All he wants to do is to bring a ray of hope and change in one’s life till his last day. His ideas are so strong and deep. He belongs to the school of thought of keeping mind strong and healthy. He believes all other factors will follow if you are sane and mentally strong.
Health, education and livelihood
Being a post graduate in Economics, he seconds that education is a true power. After 2005, he found his drive for studying things other than the textbook and the world outside the books are his subjects of speech when he meets the children. In his words, the education helped him to understand himself more. He could meet many people and see many lives during the time of his former Senior Under Officer days of National Cadet Corp at NSS College, Ottappalam,
There were liabilities after the accident. Most of the money from his father’s pension fund washed out into the treatment and therapy. When he was in hospital, he saw people whose poverty forced them to connect the urine tube of their bed ridden relatives to the toilet-buckets since they were not affordable for new ones. He realized the suffering of people in those days.
Why did it happen to me? Why not to someone else?
“I have never wished the same situation to happen upon anybody else. I have never wasted any drop of tears thinking this shouldn’t have happened. I never wanted this catastrophe to be placed on someone else. I have seen the good side and the bad side. I can understand what would happen if the same situation falls on to somebody else. Nobody can tolerate it. I have seen the youngsters cry during the climax of our classes of speeches. They love the way my experiences are shared to them.
Nature, human, God or government. Which one do you pick?
Ganesh believes in humans. Human perspective can be moulded into anything. Remaining things shall follow if the humans are good. A person with disabilities makes one rupee through various sacrifices. He suggests that tuition classes are better options. Phenyl making and other skilled works are better options along with the pen and umbrella making. The simple step-by-step completing of tasks will help them. People can prepare for the competitive exams and try small scale marketing classes as a threshold. The change of existing designs of things are mandatory. He is optimistic, hopeful to the people they meet and thankful for the fortunes he has got.