The Tortoise and The Zebra

ToTo, the tortoise, and Jhabru, the zebra, went for a walk one fine day. They are known to be best friends.

ToTo: It's a wonderful evening! Ain't it?

Jhabru: Maybe. Mind if I ask you a question? 

ToTo: Ha Ha. I know that you are a collector of questions. You ask me questions, I answer them and then you come up with more! But then, can I take away the pleasure of asking questions from you? I can't.

Jhabru: My dear friend, you are so wise, that I suspect that one day, you will have answered all my questions. But for now, tell me, why do you call it a wonderful evening?

ToTo: Oh, a question to which I have an answer! It drizzled a couple of hours ago, the wind is fresh and the leaves are rustling. I find each of these is a factor in my conclusion of this being a wonderful evening. 

Jhabru: Ah! I can see that you are describing some external factors here, and hence your answer puts me in deep thought. Tell me my friend, would you still find this evening wonderful, assuming that you had quarrelled with me yesterday?

ToTo: Horrors! You speak of horrors in your last sentence - first, you call me friend, and then you talk about a quarrel between us! May God bless us, and such a day never occur. 

ToTo: However, to answer your question, let me assume that some misfortune did fall upon us, and as you say, we quarrelled? Would I still find the evening wonderful? I'd say it depends on the perspective from which I am looking at it. 

Jhabru: Well, there can always be two sides to look at the same situation. Enlighten me with the perspectives. 

ToTo: The first perspective is obvious. I quarrel with you, I look out through my window, see the drizzle, hear the leaves rustle, yet, be grumpy about it and choose to ignore it. I keep thinking about our quarrel, why I was right and you were wrong, and how could I get my message across to you. This will result in sadness.

Jhabru: And which is the other perspective, by which you could enjoy this evening?

ToTo: Isn't it obvious? I first see it is a wonderful evening. I notice the fresh air, I then notice your absence. Think about our yesterday's quarrel. Think about it from the fresh perspective, and try to listen to the message that you were trying to send across. Understand what is dear to you, and then, walk out to meet and greet you. Don't you see, the fresh wind gave me a fresh perspective?

Jhabru: Well, well. O wise Toto, your argument somehow reminds me of a comic strip, in which a boy and a tiger stand beneath a star studded sky, and the boy says, "If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently".

ToTo: I think I know the one you are talking about. Six out of seven days, the tiger's stripes look just like yours! In some places, I'd have placed a huge bet that it was you, and not the tiger, if I had not seen all his pictures.

Jhabru: Yeah, that is the one. But, tell me, why don't people look at the stars or smell the fresh air everyday?

ToTo: Ha ha! Your questions will never end, Jhabru. God willing, we shall find an answer to all of them sooner or later. For now, give me a ride on your back, and we'll be home in time for a nice hot soup on this wonderful evening!

Learnings.

"Your dad had studied in this school." - Mom said, standing outside the examination center.

 ----
It was the first paper out of the three papers scheduled on that day. There was an unexpected format change. Till last year, candidates had been given empty notebooks to write the answers (that allows you a sort of freedom to attempt and reattempt the questions, if you get them wrong in the first go).

Not this year. We were provided with a booklet containing 12 pages. Each page had a question written at the top, and we were supposed to answer the questions in one shot. A shiver ran up my spine. I was not in the habit of answering questions in one go. I needed my reattempts to get an answer correct.

I looked at each and every question, trying to find a simple question that I could answer at one go. Not one question seemed to match the requirement, and each and every question seemed to have some trick involved in it. Sweat broke across my face, and I couldn't move my hand for a long time. Eventually, I tried to attempt a question or two, but couldn't scribble beyond two lines, meeting a dead end in both the questions.

I estimated that I had lost around half an hour in my feeble attempts to solve those questions. I stole a quick look at the watch, and then did a double take. The watch told me that I had already spent 1 hour 15 minutes in the exam, and only 45 minutes were left. Fresh sweat broke across my face, and my whole body was drenched in a few seconds.

I realized that I won't be able to clear the exam, at least on that day. But somehow, I was not ready to buckle down. No part of my mind was ready to accept the defeat. I did what my mind told me: "Do one question at a time. Forget about the one page issue. Just solve, we will see what to do if more space is needed."

Next 45 minutes passed in a ziffy. So did the other two papers of that day.

---

One month later, I was queuing up outside an internet cafe, with at least 5 set of parents and children trying to have a look at the results. Something cringed inside my stomach as I hit the submit button, and the five seconds needed by the website to fetch the result seemed like an eternity. And then, there was the result in front of my eyes. I closed my eyes, breathed a sigh of relief, and mumbled a thanks to God. When I opened my eyes, I was probably the happiest that I had felt till that date.

---

In retrospect, whenever I look back at that JEE exam, I think about what could have happened if I had not wasted that hour and fifteen minutes. The reflections have taught me not to be surprised by life's surprises, but to prepare an action item and work on it.

Each and every candidate who has taken that exam, has his or her own learnings from that exam. I believe no other exam could have taught what JEE taught me, and the learning derived from this exam is what makes it special.  Its non-repetitiveness, surprises, application of concepts, tricky questions are unique features, and should be available for future generations to derive their own learnings.

The struggle within.

Everyday, you are hopeful. One good meeting, and life can change.

You get up. Get ready. You try to look your best.

Then you go for meetings. And you get pulled down. Into a spiral with no end.

At the end of the day, you are crushed and broken. To the extent of no will to rise up again.

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Next day is here. And you rise up again. With a determination to succeed. Because, failing is not an option. And you put a smile on your face. 

:D

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This is the life of a startup. :)

Music: Hum hongey kamiyab, EK DIN.

To Today!

PLAY.

Today, I am very happy. Very very happy!

On this day, I have just two things to say:

1. Do what you truly believe in.
2. Do not settle for anything, and I mean, anything, that you think is not the best. Go for the best, till you are satisfied that it is THE BEST.

Yours truly.

p.s. I am saying it again, everyone loves games. Come on, lets PLAY. :D

Sorry

Was the word sorry invented so that you could do (almost) anything wrong and get away with it?

Perspective

I always thought it would generate interest in students if there was a '?' (question mark) or an '!' (exclamation mark) in a title.

Only till I read the following: (Courtesy: Dear Blank, Please Blank)

Dear Teacher,

Please don't put ! in the titles - it irritates me because I dont know whats the fun in there!

Sincerely, your student!

--
Well, everyone is titled to his/her opinion.

:P

The past one month..

It was hectic. It was sleepless. It was tiresome. It was chaotic. With those 50 IIT interns sitting in basement and churning out work at such a furious rate, it was mindblowingly busy.

But somewhere, amidst all the chaos, there was light. One small ray of hope, shining, growing brighter every minute, calling us towards it. Keeping us going.

The journey was characterized by the intellect, zeal and enthusiasm of all the 50 people. I have seen and led many teams in my life, but leading this team was entirely different. Every team I led till now, it was more like directing them; earlier, if I said that 'x' was to be done in a certain way; there was no fighting back; it was completed in that way. But with these IIT interns, it was different. Everyone fought back with their ideas, discussed it at depth, and it was literally a mental masturbation before we arrived at a common point. We worked, we discussed, we fought,we roamed around, we laughed, we joked, we partied.

This was one of the best periods of my life; and all thanks to the 50 IIT interns. I sincerely hope that each of these guys has taken away more than just the stipend. I hope they got topics of conversations to last atleast for a year, memories and friends to last for a lifetime.

God bless the day when this idea was born - it has certainly lifted the mood of entire team upstairs; it has brightened the light at the end of tunnel in a fast fast fast forward mode. Still a long way to go; but the momentum given to us by these guys will push us through the finish line. It will.

Amen!