WHY DO WE FALL, BRUCE?


 

“Dare to fail and you will never fail to dare!”


 Selma Benkiran

 

Thirteen-year-old Aarya was on stage, this evening. She wanted to share with us about one of her major fears -– the fear of failure. I knew about her passion for playing football since she was very small. She played for her school and regularly toured with her school team, both inside and outside the state of Maharashtra. She was a crazy fan of Lionel Messy and had spoken animatedly about him in the class (She had attended our PD programme consecutively for five summers) arguing with others, as to why Messy was greater than Ronaldo… why he was the real GOAT.

Thus, this evening, when she was on stage, I didn’t expect Aarya to share what she did. She told us about her nagging fear of failure -– how, often, it weighed upon her head, made her feel overwhelmed, and even prevented her from taking part in several important competitions… “What if I fail?”

Well, to those, who are not familiar with fear of failure –- and how paralysing its effect can be –- yes, to them, Aarya’s fear may seem ‘silly’.

Oh, yes… fear of failure is a baseless fear, a silly one. But, to convince the one who is its victim –- it’s not, always, easy. Most of the times, the victim has to find a way out of it and convince oneself, that the fear of failure is baseless, silly.

Aarya narrated to us how she convinced herself after watching the opening scene of  ‘The Dark Knight’ (Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy). The gentle words of Bruce’s father (Thomas Wayne) to his little son, after lifting the kid from the well in which the kid had fallen –- yes, Aarya told us how she felt as if the words were being said to her by her own father…

Thomas Wayne carries little Bruce back to the house and says, "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."





How ‘silly’, na?

Aarya, please tell them… how ‘silly’ the fear of failure is; but, not what little Bruce learnt from his father’s words…

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic.: thewallpaper.com

Video: MovieCraze

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