Future

The Next Time…

~ Rishi ~ 1 Comment

It was a result I didn’t expect. After months of hard work, long nights, and countless hours of prep tests, this was surely not what I expected of myself.

This was the day when the Common Admission Test or CAT, as it is known in the Indian parlance, came out. I hadn’t scored in the 99th percentile I was wanting to. And in one of the most competitive exams in the country, that 2 percentile gap meant a sea of difference and practically killed my attempt to get into the best MBA colleges of the country.

I was dejected. I certainly didn’t deserve such a low score! I blamed my circumstances, my luck, and everything else. However, thankfully after a couple of days in that mode, I composed myself and carried on with my life, taking the failure in my stride.

The next few years in my life went by with lots of interesting things. I met my wife and fell in love with her. Gathered a lot of experience working in the corporate world. Made some very good friends and learnt tons of new stuff.

I did do my MBA from a good college afterwards. And have had some very interesting experiences post that, enjoyed my life and have done well in general.

This weekend, as we were spending time with our cousins and celebrating my daughter’s birthday, one of our discussions veered around the pulls and pushes that youngsters, specially those who are in the defining years of their life – 12th standard, final year of college, etc. are facing or going to go through due to the Covid-19 disruption to regular studies.

The main focal point of our discussion was – with the competitiveness only increasing every year, there are going to be countless students who wouldn’t be able to perform at the same levels as they expect to. And how they reconcile themselves to the unexpected results and carry on with life is going to be critical to their future.

Our discussion went on to other general things. But as I reflected on this track, I realised that it is going to be true for quite a good number of students – those who can’t concentrate because classes didn’t happen, or they weren’t taught well online, or worse still, couldn’t get access to the right education.

And I recollected from my experiences that life is not just about that one exam. One might fail or not perform once. But what determines character and a winner is someone who doesn’t get bogged down by the circumstances or the limitations and continues to plough along. Perhaps on the same track, perhaps on another.

Life gives all of us multiple chances. It is important that we don’t feel left out ever and continue our journey, the destination is waiting for us. If not this time, then the next time. Or the next time. Or the next time…

What if we knew the Future???

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Would we want to change anything? Or let life run it’s course rather than reigning it in?

As I sat today watching a movie with this as a central theme, life’s harshness dawned on me. And made me put the week gone by in perspective.

It was a sad week. I got news of one of my course mates in the Indian Army passing away. A young chap, just 39 years old losing life in a non-conflict zone is as unfortunate as it can get.

Robert was an affable and smiling chap and always used to take everything sportingly. With almost a zen like calm, which we sometimes used to confuse as indifference. But whatever he did, he always strived to give it his 100%.

He didn’t know his future for sure. None of us did when we joined the IMA. And yet we toiled hard during those days, soaking in all the pressure that was thrown on us, hopeful of a good life. But I can bet that even if Robert could somehow know his future, he wouldn’t have traded his life for something else. It was a good life he led.

As I reflected in these thoughts, I was thinking about how my own life panned out afterwards. The twists and turns it has taken. The highs and lows it has bestowed upon me. And the immense experiences it has provided me.

Perhaps if I knew my future, I may have peeped ahead and tried to avert my exit from the Army. It would have kept me in my dream career. But then, life wouldn’t have happened. And a multitude of things, including I meeting my wife, perhaps wouldn’t have turned out as they have!

Sometimes however, it seems cruel. Like it is the case for Robert. And when it does, we realise that we have been shortchanged. That we had so many aspirations that couldn’t be fulfilled. That we pursued the wrong pursuits. That we spent time on non-important things.

None of us know how long we have. Where we may land up. What we may succeed or fail at. How we may progress. But still, we live in eternal hope. Hope that everything will turn out well. That we will succeed in whatever we are striving for.

Perhaps that’s our guiding light from the future telling us not to worry. Things will be taken care of. That this too shall pass. And shows us the light at the end of that tunnel.

Perhaps that’s what life is…

Terrorism – Can the tide turn?

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

As the world stands shocked by what’s happening in Paris at Charlie Hebdo’s offices and subsequent news updates and reactions and responses, I was stuck by this very starking response, which appeared in the Online and Print media! Kudos to the original creator and please pardon me if I have violated any copyrights, just couldn’t help sharing it!!!

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As I grasped the full import of what this picture said, I was stuck by a rather bemusing thought. Isn’t terrorism almost like entrepreneurism?

The dictionary defines an Entrepreneur (word origin French: ‘entreprendre’ or to ‘undertake’) as a person who sets up a business taking a risk, in hope of profits. We could argue Terrorism is the same. It is a setup which takes a huge risk (of the terrorists lives) for a windfall profit – acceptance of the group’s ideology, and so on. Quite so…

Going deeper in my thoughts, I realised some of the essential traits for an entrepreneur are – a guy next door who has an idea (product\service), is willing to bet on it, takes a risk putting it out in the market, obtains financing from various sources for it, forgoes financial and material gains in the short term while focused on the long term, builds a team and a company that has to be constantly motivated to achieve the seemingly impossible, puts self in the line of fire at all times, fights all fears and uncertainties and emerges victorious at the other end, achieving a disproportionate success for self and society.

Compare it with terrorists – normal people who subscribe to an ideology (ok, it might be skewed by their view of things), who bet their very lives on it, take all risks during operations, get financed from secret sources, focus on the long term fulfilment of their ideals, operate with a team in a state of constant motivation to achieve their purpose(!), are literally in the line of fire, fight all fears to install fear, and emerge dead\captured\sheltered (the last one’s the favourite) to be called a martyr or hero in their circles!

So it shouldn’t be a surprise then – just like entrepreneurism is becoming a preferred choice for majority of today’s enterprising youth, so is terrorism fast becoming a successful way of leading life for some of the other enterprising ones. It has become a mainstream industry today for hundreds and thousands of youth who aren’t hesitating to be a part of it! Not to mention the headline grabbing notoriety and the free publicity that they and their causes get in the media, drawing people into debates of right and wrong, and pushing their viewpoints to influence more and more normal people.

The only difference is while entrepreneurs seek to create something which can endure, terrorists seek to destroy that which endures! And herein lies the key difference, which gives me hope. For those who seek to destroy are almost always destroyed from within! Time and history have been witnesses…

We may be seeing an unprecedented rise in terrorism in our times but I believe it will all come down just as swiftly it has risen and subsume itself in the flurry of time. The factors aiding its rise – lack of opportunities, resources, education, intolerance of others etc. are sooner or later going to go away. And in their place will rise an abundance of opportunities, resources, learning and a belief that we can all peacefully subsist on this planet! It all depends on we, the people within this society, to make it all happen.

And then perhaps those youth who turn towards the extremism of terror will instead utilise all their “enterprising” traits to start creating things that endure, which will not only change their lives but will be so much better for the society that they and their families and children want to live in – a society which respects their faith and ideals and let them be, in lieu of they respecting the society and letting it be… Imagine what a wonderful world full of possibilities it will be then.

Amen!