JO JEETA WOHI SIKANDAR

 

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki

 

I was blissfully unaware of the (ongoing) T-20 World Cup till last night. Someone had invited my family for a Diwali dinner, last night. And, except my wife and I, everyone else over there sounded ‘very informed’. That’s the time we learnt, that our team had just clinched a nail-biter. It was India-Pakistan cricket match, you see… Nothing short of a war between these two neighbouring countries… And imagine when you win a match which you were almost losing… and, that last-run-last-ball victory! Yes, it’s something to set the animal in you free…

Last night, our Diwali-dinner discussion was lavishly flavoured with this sweet victory… “What a match, man!”… “What a player Kohli, bro!” etc. etc. …

It, always, feels great when India wins… There is something exhilarating in every kind of victory, for that matter. Why matches alone? Why elections alone? Why reality shows alone? Why exams alone? In every kind of victory is hidden this mysterious adrenal-releasing something… Victory makes all of us feel on top of the world!

I am a human, too. I remember how great I have felt in my every victory… and how I have sulked in my every defeat. I, also, know how my students and their parents feel when the results are outstanding, and how they feel when my students fail or perform badly.

The world, sadly, declares only the winner as the king – ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’.

Matches, elections, reality shows or exams – you and I will win some and lose some. So, we can not be ‘Sikandars’ all the time. Those who were singing in ‘Hosannas’ for Kohli yesterday, just the other day, were mercilessly bashing him saying, “He is out of form”… “He has made so much wealth, that he has lost interest in playing cricket” and so on…

And, with that one scintillating performance, yesterday, everyone has forgotten what he or she had said about Kohli…

Public memory is very short, you see!

It should be so, in a way… Else, we get caught up in our ‘Past’ and never start afresh…

A couple of days ago, a young girl, who was studying under me during three years of her degree college, had come to see me. She was now doing her final year of MBA course in a premier institution and had been just picked by a foreign bank in the campus interviews. Obviously, the girl was feeling on top of the world… It’s was her moment of victory and she wanted to celebrate it with a box of sweets for her Sir…

I remember how anxious this girl, always, had been. She was very committed -  good in studies and worked extremely hard. Yet, just before the exams, she would suffer from anxiety bouts, feel scared to write her exams… Her parents and teachers like me, who knew her strength, would keep pepping her, so much so, we would say to her: “Don’t worry about  passing or failing… Just face your fears and write your exams.” The same thing would happen when it came to facing even a small audience… She had enrolled twice to do our Public-speaking programme and ended up not doing it. We would motivate her, saying, “How will you ever overcome your fear of speaking in public, unless and until you face the audience? Just face your fears… That’s the only way to overcome them.”

The MBA programme had done good to this young girl. She had learnt to face her fears and overcome her anxiety…

I know how it feels when we beat our anxieties and win… I have umpteen moments, and I still have them. There have been countless moments in my life, when, overwhelmed by anxiety, I, too, have felt like ‘running away’ from facing my fears. And, many times, I have faced my fears head-on – and, yes, I have won… Felt like a ‘Sikandar’…

Kohli’s harsh critics were singing Hosannas for him, yesterday. That’s how the world outside is. The self-critic in you and me, too, can be too harsh. The only way to silence this critic is to face our fears and beat our blues… That’s how the world inside is…

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar… Should it be so, so be it.

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic.: crickettimes.com

 

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