Jean Lee Latham's children's book "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" was a book I found circa 1989 (The Bangla book is called Paal Tuley Dao). I think my classmate Ahsan lent me the book. It had a profound influence in my life.The book is a fictionalized account of mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch, who, at age 10, was indentured for nine years by his poor family as an apprentice to a ship chandler in Salem, Massachusetts. He taught himself French and Italian, and studied on his own to eventually became a leading mathematician of his time and produced the definitive guide for navigation, The New American Practical Navigator.
What did I learn from the book?
- That I need to have patience. I started out studying chemistry, and immediately realized that it is not something I want to pursue. I told myself that if I kept at it, maybe after nine years, some opportunity will present itself. I've kept at it, and life has given me nice surprises again and again.
- That I need to work on something that I'm passionate about. In a bid to study entertainment and communication, I started getting interested in media, and somehow ended up working for it, and now working around it. I've learned that if you can dream, life can bend over to make way for you. But you need to nurture your dream.
- That we need to see the big picture. Day to day occurences, influence of others, often make us lose sight of what's really important, and make us do activities which are transient and meaningless in the context of the big picture. It's okay to get caught up with things, but in the end you need to step back, and make sure you're walking in the right direction.
The simple solution is often the most accurate.
