'OR'
What should Sachin do? Retire from cricket or continue
playing? Should India play Rohit Sharma?
When we see our life, we come across many similar questions?
Should I go to gym or should I go out to have that sand witch with friends?
Should I attend that 8 o’clock class or should I enjoy the sleepy weather of
Bangalore? All these questions have one thing in common…the word Or.
The Oxford dictionary defines the word ‘or’ as a conjunction which adds two independent sentences. But well! Can a dictionary define the meaning of life?
The Oxford dictionary defines the word ‘or’ as a conjunction which adds two independent sentences. But well! Can a dictionary define the meaning of life?
If looked clearly, the word or represents choices we make in life.
Every person at some point of time stands at a juncture,
where he has to choose from a list of choices. But choosing one of them is not
as easy as choosing a Hot and Sour Soup or Mushroom Clear Soup.
Well, when life asks to choose from the different choices,
you know it will have a long term repercussions. Sometimes, when you look back
at life, it looks very-very obvious what you should have chosen. But believe
me!
It’s not easy! I read a story in class six. It talked about
a student, who was very bright and intelligent. But somehow he failed in his
graduation. And he started drinking, going to brothels and got caught into bad
stuffs. And the story tells that he should have chosen the other way and
prepared again. Anyone would say that it was the pretty obvious choice he
should have made.
But is it that easy. Believe me! It is not. When you think
from his perspective, it’s not that easy. Steven R Covey in his book seven habits
of highly effective people calls it a Paradigm.
I chose to join SIBM Bangalore to do my MBA. I had options.
This college or the other. Continue my office or go for my MBA. I made a choice
to join. It was not as easy. An opportunity cost lost, warning from my friends
that better continue with this well paid job and in two years you will have a
substantial work experience and can go onsite or have a better package. It took
a lot of courage to defy them.
Even today sometimes I look back and think, did I do the
right thing? Wasn’t that stress free life with less work better when I was
getting paid, with some nice weekends with friends! But then I think, I wanted
to learn, I wanted to enhance my knowledge and enhance my competencies. Then
what, there may be recession! I may not
get very good placements! There can be anything! But what matters is the
knowledge I take away, the brilliant friends make. I may have got an onsite
opportunity and earned a bounty for a couple of years. But one thing is sure here
as well that I will not strive to hunger here as well. But the value I will add
will be tremendous which I may not have got being a graduate.
One cannot keep living in the past. Had that man who failed
in the exam not lived in the past may have chosen another way of life. I chose
not to read and did not get good marks in the past. But if I keep cribbing
about it, I may do the mistake again. The mantra of life is to move on once you
take a decision. The best part of life is that you do not know the tomorrow and
hence you make decisions. So once you choose do something, work on to find the
right way with that choice. Great people like Mahatma Gandhi have done that.
Remember! In life, there is no going back! Reverse is not an option!!
Courtesy : Prince Kumar
Batch : 2011-2013