Yeah, Hope!The one thing that drives my life. I am sure it drives yours too. They tell me that it was this hope alone, this very dream and determination that got the Wright Brothers soar in the skies. Where will my, where will your dream take you and me? I am tired of playing around with my backspace key for the zillionth time now and I still hope to complete this post before I loose my train of thoughts.
This post will be a frank account of the roller coaster of life that I have been on for the past few years. And of course, most of the people who have been with me through this trip. I will declare names at my will (it is really tempting to do so!). So, if you wish to start, lets get going!
The first things first. I am a human and it is human to dream. Therefore I dream. But they never come true. If you know me well, you must be cursing me right now. Fine, I am not being modest, but what is the harm in listening to my side of the story? I agree I have been an achiever in life, high achiever some would say. But that is in the eyes of the world. “Who am I in my own eyes?” – Isn’t that the real question that matters? I believe that I shouldn’t care for what the world thinks about me, and yet go ahead with pursuing my goal. I believe that we should let our passion shape our self and not our marks or whatever for that matter.
Allow me to cite an example. In the 9th grade we had this Science Seminar competition and seeing my senior do a very good job at it I was really motivated to make to the Nationals like him. Unfortunately for me, I did not manage to even clear the school round. Oh yes, I had the passion, I felt I had whatever it takes to make it there. I ended up 3rd, a miserable 3rd in my own eyes. The world thought I did a good job, hah! It still has an impact every single time I dream of something.
Another event to be mentioned is this particular quiz, the Monginis Quiz that used to take place every year in the state. In the second edition, Shantanu Kulkarni and me ended up second, just by 15 points. We had a fair chance of winning it, all roller coaster all right! But then it was a fair win for the champions. I realised that only losers give excuses, and the people with the killer instinct just accept defeat! Now we did not think we were petty loosers, despite just being in the 8th grade. Our hunger just grew! The next year I teamed up with Jayant Karn just for fun, and lost to Shantanu and Ashray on the last buzzer. The wait just grew longer. The most desired victory just eluded me. The next year I did not give up, but the sponsors did. Another title gone forever. Yes, I did manage to convincingly grab the TOI Big Quiz 2009, but…..the inability to get the Monginis title still pricks me. It is like you yearn to meet your favourite movie star in your childhood but you end up meeting his super-duper star son decades later. But hey! you still didn’t meet your favourite star!
I dream of things, they never end up happening right. Instead things that I never dream of just happen! I couldn’t clear the Balshree regionals, but I ended up topping another national level science exam. I still didn’t get what I wanted. I know I am being a jerk, one should be happy what he has and blah blah. Frankly, what would you do if you were in my position? Hasn’t such a thing happened to you too? However big or small it might be? These were my thoughts, and I would be rather disappointed if all of you reading this (piece of random bullshit?) agree with it.
Back to the present. I idolize Rakesh Rao. I idolize him for whoever he is. It would be not good on my part to talk about his story but just to summarize, he has had his share of struggles and difficulties in life. Overcoming all that, he has just come back from Antarctica and he is gunning for more. That sums it up really well. However I would like to share with you two things that he had told me on ride back home. At that time I was going through a rather frustrating and (cant describe the feeling in words) phase. I still remember two things that he told me. He might have forgotten the incident, but not me!
1) ALL BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO PEOPLE WHO DO GOOD
2) THE MIDDLE FINGER IS THE LONGEST FINGER, JUST SO THAT YOU CAN SHOW IT TO THE WORLD WHEN IT TROUBLES YOU
And he topped the last one with “A great person once said that” to add to the drama and the person turned out to be he himself! Heh! I am not trying to make a point that ‘I am a person who does good all the time’, but rather hope that you remind yourself of it whenever you are feeling low, for it at least keeps you going!
So what do I do? Stop dreaming? Give up hope? Hell no! Let them crash. Luck favours the brave right? So let me be brave, let us all be. I plan to dream bigger this time, my career is at stake. So what? Doesn’t taking risks make us brave? Travel the road least trotted upon. One thing for sure is that we will never know where we would be if we had chosen otherwise (even if they had parallel universes). What happens to me, how high I (or for that matter, anyone) will only be known after we bat our last ball, take our last breath.
To sign off, let me quote a great man.
“If life is a joke played on you, make sure you have the last laugh”No prizes for guessing who the great man is
