The Stepping Stones

They say, failure teaches us lessons- Lessons of endurance, lessons of not giving up, lessons of not worrying about it, and lessons of being happy. It teaches, but do we learn?

You guessed it. I failed. And, for some reason this time, I’m kind of happy about it. I’m a CA student, by the way. I had written an exam a couple of months back, and got the news of failing it the second time a couple of days back. After working hard for oh-so-many days and going through all kinds of books, the result was failure. Anyway, I was attending/volunteering a students’ seminar when the results were released.

At first, I was really shocked. Like, really really! I didn’t feel like talking to anybody, but I did want somebody to talk to me. However, just to inform all the ‘related parties’, I sent a text message saying ‘I flunked’. Different people gave different reactions. One thought (from my indifferent tone) that it didn’t really bother me, and said, “you anyway don’t seem like you’re aggravated by it”. Aggravated? Yeah, right!. One said, “Big deal”. Another friend called and said “Aww…. You’re feeling bad?”

Then there was one call, at the beginning of which I said, “I don’t really want to talk right now. Can I call you later?” From the other side I heard this, “Look, I know you don’t want to talk. So, I’ll talk, you listen. Is that okay?....... See, everyone fails sometime or the other, you’re not the only one. I know failure makes us feel bad, but its inevitable. I’m sure you didn’t have your dinner yet. Go eat and get some sleep.”

Now this is one good thing about failing. You’ll never know who your best friends are till you fail (in whichever matter). The ones that cling on to you till they’re sure you are alright are the ones you should cling on to for life!

The results were actually out late in the night on the first of Feb. That was the first day of the seminar, and I wasn’t stupid to miss the next day just ‘cuz I flunked my exam. I was quite sure many others in the hall, that day, had flunked too. I was, of course, still upset about the result, and my eyes said it all (I had cried like an idiot the previous night). I didn’t talk to anybody till after the first session. When I spoke to people, starting with a gentle stupid smile, going on to become little tears that I was trying real hard to hide, I started asking myself, “Do I have to really feel that sad about it?”

I had already made quite a few friends there and a few had failed but they didn’t just forget all the work back-stage and sit back like me. That was a lesson. Lesson 1- The journey doesn’t stop just because there’s a stone on the road. Work/responsibility doesn’t end just because there’s failure. So, it’s our choice to go through failure or leave it behind.

One of the speakers at the seminar was Padmashree CA T. N. Manoharan who was a part of the Satyam Saga. He spoke about the hardships that came on the way and how their goal was to ensure that the thousands of lives that had gone upside down because of Satyam’s downfall had to be brought back to normal. They never gave up, ‘cuz their goal was clear. Lesson 2- Persistence. Never give up.

The next speaker was E Sarath Babu. The guy who owns ‘Food King’, serving thousand of people daily, was born as a slum dweller. He worked hard, grew up in the slums of Chennai, went to school, graduated from BITS, went to IIM to study, and now owns a business with a turnover in Crores. Lesson 3-Nothing’s impossible.

When he was younger, he says, they never had electricity in their hut, so he had to study under a kerosene lamp. His richer friends had electricity, light, fan, AC, everything. They could see everything in their house clearly, the photos on the wall, people coming in and going out, mirror, and all he could see under that dim kerosene lamp was his book. And he took this as his advantage over the others. Lesson 4- Be optimistic. Hurdles will come, situations will arise, but it is how you see them that matters.

He also said that when he was young, he had once noticed that his mother would sacrifice her food, so that her five children could eat their fill. That’s the reason, today he owns a food chain and he knows the value of his mother’s sacrifice. Lesson 5- Our parents do so much for us. They’re the greatest assets we can have. All we can do is give them back respect and loads of love. That’s anyway all they want from us.

That’s how the day after I failed was. Though it was meant to be the worst day of my life, I was happy. Glad I failed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have been in the mood to learn all those lessons of life that were presented before me. At the end of the day, I was so happy, I was in the best of my mood despite having failed one of the most important exams in one’s career, ‘cuz I had learnt some of the best out-of-syllabus lessons of my life!