It is a very difficult assignment to have to tutor someone who is obviously such a fine person: intelligent, quick-witted, charming, good-looking, but not interested in studying. Why? Because he is obsessed with sports (in which he is extremely good). 

Manilal was such a good person and we immediately got on very well; he really liked me and vice versa; it was just that his only interest was sports, especially cricket. He could not see the point in studying. 

I had to persuade him otherwise. 

At first I just became great friends with him and we did all kinds of things together – talking, walking, playing cricket (he very good, me very bad) – and we got on extremely well. 

Little by little I managed, almost surreptitiously, to get him to understand the importance of studying; his change was almost imperceptible, but nonetheless there. In our long talks together I very gently steered the conversation towards the importance of his succeeding scholastically as well as his obvious tremendous success at cricket and other sports. 

As I tried to persuade him and started making headway, he came to respect me even more. He used to ask me: how could I have possibly persuaded him that it was important to thrive academically? He was amazed that I had managed to do so – and he admitted that I had done so and did not fight me once he had been persuaded. 

Needless to say, Manilal went on to be very successful at school academically, easily got into Cambridge (he would probably have got in on his sports anyway!) and it looks as if he will have a brilliant career as a barrister. We remain great friends. HN