Came 2006, i was rejuvenated so was Michael. Both were raring to go. Although, i had very less to lose, but it was a challenge in itself.
To be fair, it was easy for me in the sense, i was not depending much on people. Well, Michael had his team, he had to motivate his team along with him. That was the challenge for him.
It started off not so good, I didn't qualify at the IIT-M fest (Saarang) in Sports and Ent Quiz.
I was confident of putting up a good show along with my pal.
Well, i was disappointed but the trip was good fun for me. I just witnessed, the best among the quizzers in India. Best part was, i had my pal Anu, who was part of that league and sitting pretty high.
For me, it was a setback personally. In hindsight it was good. I prepared hard and was ready with my Sports quiz. Well, it was a test for me and i was ready for it. In fact confident.
It was satisfying at the end of 4 years, i got my reward, The Sports quiz was appreciated.
Michael had not so great races initially and he was trailing. He came back to his best at Imola and the highlight was the way he tailored the brakes of Alonso behind him. It was Pay Back time. Exactly opposite happened in 2005.
Somewhere mid-way through the season, Michael lost ground and was 34 points behind Alonso.
Now, what to do??? This cant happen twice in a row, I thought, being a die-hard fan.
Just when everyone in the world, including me gave up on him winning the championship, one person rose. He was the LAST ACTION HERO. He was ready for the action. Race after race he grew stronger and stronger and with two races to go, he was equal with Alonso in points.
The best part was, i stopped having expectations on him winning races and hence i could enjoy his victories even more and also the disappointing Japanese Grand Prix later in the year.
Sadly he, announced his retirement at the end of 2006 season after winning an emotional Italian GP at Monza.
Final two races of his career turned out to be anti-climax,
At the end of it all, he lost the championship due to mechanical failures in successive races. Talk about destiny, his last engine failure was on a dull Sunday of July 2000 at the French Grand Prix.
I did not worry about what happened. But it was little sad, probably, this is how life goes.
Michael, the way he took those twin blows is worth praising. He had absolutely no complaints about his car, he simply stressed to the media, when asked to comment about the car, " the same car gave me 5 championships in a row, why complain??", he replied.
There are good moments and there are not so good moments. One needs to accept it as fast as possible and move on. It was a sport after all.
And in general, life is short after all.
To me, the above incident gave me and everyone an insight about a man, who lived his dreams. He was happy to end his career on a losing team but a fighting team.
He won and certainly he did conquer everyone by his racing at the Brazilian GP and his last over taking maneuvere on Kimi, was the perfect way of showing his supplant that, he's still the King when it comes to dominating on the track. His aura was something which we call "The Michael Magic".
He did quit on the track, which produced many great drivers none better than Aryton Senna, who would have been proud to have seen Michael, the way he raced on that day(22-10-06).
His final day as a driver in Formula1.
If at all, one thing which needs to highlighted is the spirit of hope. The hope which ignited many Italians and Michael's fans worldwide.
For all the people, who were struggling to come to terms in life, he lighted the candle of hope. From no where, he reached to a position of becoming a champion again. He didn't eventually, but better than the way he lost in 2005.
It gave me an opportunity to acknowledge whatever i had and it made me realize a lot of things. One of them is to concentrate on giving my best not only when things are going well, but to be in the same spirit when things were to be the opposite.
Problems are with everyone, the way one deals with it, separates pros from the rest.
It was fabulous me having my own journey parallely with Michael.
His ruthlessness and his one lap runs were a treat to watch. At the same time he managed to have control over himself. Awesome!!!
I always dreamt of being a Schumacher, being ruthless in the things i love, and to be the best with the things i loved doing. Well, all i can say, i did get an opportunity. Or at least i think it was....
If conducting UTPT Sports quiz-06 was like taking a pole position much to my delight...... Here comes .........
"Winning on 22nd April at BMS with my great friend Anu alongside me, felt like winning a Grand Prix just the way Michael did or would have loved to do".
It was a team effort, with Anu constantly encouraging me, but .... With me being ruthless as ever, on that day, all i did was , paid a tribute to my idol who wouldn't be around the way he was all these years.
With me passing out of college and moving into my next phase, it was great and my previlage to have seen and more importantly learnt from a person who did most things right.
Like all people, even he committed mistakes. But he corrected them and became a better person.
Like Sir Don Bradman, people will remember Michael the way he ended his career.
I guess, it happens to the ultimate inspirational guides. Sachin not winning the World Cup, Pete Sampras not winning the French Open and many more people like this leaving a void in their illustrious career.
I am in tears, writing this, because words cannot explain the impact he had on me.
Well, i am little emotional, hey, this is how i am. My strength mostly, and weakness, very little by being emotional, in the way i do things which i love.
"A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them
into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals"
Thanks to this winner, I can enjoy my journey of life, a beautiful life indeed.
People asked- "What's Michael gotta give"- This would be it, at least for me.
If there was anything in 2005 to Michael Schumacher, it was seeing his rivals go past him and disappear into the distance. To be frank, he gave his best, but his machine wasn't up to the mark and ultimately it made him look like a miser in spite of his royal stature as a world champion.
Following my idol since many years, i was not ready to accept this sudden change in fortunes but like all legends, he just took it by his stride. It was his worst year or to say was going to be his worst in his illustrious career. One can't rest on past laurels. One needs to strive hard to maintain. Its easy to lose, like we saw in 2005 season. It was not that he fell for the occasion, his opponents rose to the occasion.
It was for me, this time around i did lose my focus because of some goof up in my academics. I was confident though, but sometimes, results mattered more than confidence. You don't win just by having confidence. Having confidence is like a consolation to the people who didn't quite make it.
I managed to clear, thanks to my self-belief, but my idol couldn't. He was helpless.
One thing, i learnt from this guy was, He didn't complain when things were going wrong for him, instead he was keen on improving himself and hoping things could turn this way. Unfortunately, it didn't.
To be frank, his attitude helped me a great deal. I was just being quiet, not reacting to what happened, instead concentrated on what i had, trust me, this was the beginning for me.
I just went about my business and i started enjoying this new phase of my life. I started accepting things which came my way without doubting some of the decisions. If i wasn't clear, i made sure i got answers to it.
I had failed, and first thing i did was to accept this fact. I didn't lie to myself, it was tough comforting myself initially. I turned to this guy and i was convinced to go his way.
He had failed as well and he was the first person to acknowledge this fact.
Towards the end of the season, it didn't change for my champion. But things changed, for the better and it was for me not for him.
The attitude with which he took this disappointment was something which i wanted to imbibe.
He knew he was the champion, just because he failed, it didn't tarnish his self-confidence.
He had enough time to recollect his past deeds and be contend with what he had.
At the same time, if given an opportunity, he would be the first to seize it.
My life changed or to say started to evolve in a different way than previous to it.
I didn't know whether it was right way or not, but i was enjoying this process of evolution within me.
The year ended, with a hope to win his 8th title and for me, i was just hoping, i shall continue enjoying this new found path.
2006 looked promising, i , like Michael, believed in going out there and do my best.
It was a forgotten story to most of them, but for me, it was it was the first stop.
First Pit-stop to put it in a better way on my road to success.
While i am travelling on this road, there comes situations where something stops me. It can be lack of motivation etc. Now, i begin to think, is this the road, i always wanted to go??
There are neither road signs nor road lights ahead, but road is there. Sometimes, no navigator.
Just because it feels great initially, doesn't mean the enthusiasm and motivation should last long.
Purpose, Is this road, on my map of Purpose. Even half convinced, i wouldn't mind going and fulfilling it. I say to myself, Purpose is focusing the full power of what i am and what i want to achieve.
With this belief, i am sure of taking this uncertain part. Its a challenge, which i want to face it whole-heartedly. Challenge is the law of life.
Once i accept this challenge, there still would be doubts coming within me about my abilities.
One of the things, is because of my past and hence i am reluctant this time around.
In general i believe, While choosing between two evils, i shall always take the one which i have never tried before. This way, i am very unsure of things the way it could turn out, but you never know, it might just be a blessing in disguise.
Convincing becomes an important issue here again with the bigger picture in mind. But one must not ignore to enjoy things which come our way on this path. Appreciate whatever comes and embrace it. Everything has a purpose in this world, its just that how well we relate to these things and make it more meaningful.
With such experiences, we would gather a lot of energy. Trust me, this energy is very powerful and one needs to channelize it in a right way.
Setbacks are bound to happen on our road to glory or in fact in any road to glory.
Always remember "Its not how hard you hit, it is how hard you get hit and still keep moving forward"
I have two questions to ask...
1. Are we being honest to ourselves??
2. Are we being honest to our guiding force, in my case its my parents??
The first answer is surely related to the second. I shall share my experience.
Firstly, if there certain section of people who shall give us another chance right from the bottom of their heart, it is our parents.
I am helpless for the people who have lost their parents, because life is like that. I just admire the way they live everyday.
How much time do we spend with our parents??
I have heard many people telling, my parents are strict, at least one of them. They don't listen to me. They are orthodox. They want things their way.
Agreed, even i used to think on similar lines. Hence, i wasn't clear on many things i did and certain amount of fear started creeping inside me, this fear was stopping me from doing things whole-heartedly.
Call it my fortune, i did get an opportunity to understand the true value of parents. Its true, everyone loves their parents but we tend to forget that it is very much true the other way around.
But, i don't understand one point. When we both share mutual love, why is it that, we fear our parents??
I believe the best thing a person can do, if he/she gets a chance is to understand them, rather than fearing them. They are the only people who accept the way we are, no matter what. If one doesn't get a chance. Time is still there, do it now. It is always better to give your best shot now than regret later.
It is a failure for us, not to convince our parents, once we are convinced ourselves. Patience is required and at the same time, one must respect their feelings.
I have heard many telling, i wont go against my parent's wishes. To be honest, thats a brilliant line to say. Ask yourself, how many things we have done against our parent's wishes, then why this demarcation in certain issues.
I have done lot of things without telling my parents and i have regretted it for doing so. I am lucky and at the same time i am proud of the fact that, i took the chance when i got an opportunity to correct myself.
Most people who face this type of syndrome are the people who are not confident of themselves but want to put a mask of that of a confident person. The truth is, within us, it gets very disturbing.
Some will be honest in accepting this fact and try to rectify it and for others it becomes an egoistic issue.
Another point, my friends say, My parents are very different from yours!!!
A fair point... The truth is, me and my friends are also not same, so how do we expect our parents to be the same. Maybe just like, we friends have few things in common, i am sure our parents also will be having few things in common between them, i mean ( My parents and my friend's parents).
The difference is not in the parents, its in their background, the way they have been brought up.
How many people do actually think all parents think alike in most aspects of their children.
They do have different ways of expressing it, pity that we wont be able to interpret it.
We spend a lot of time listening to our friends, do we spend a fraction of that time, listening to what our parents say.
One thing is sure, we can afford to lose so-called friends, we cannot afford to lose our parents.
Ask a friend, who doesn't have a parent, he/ she will tell you, how lucky we are...
It took nine-months for me to come to this earth and this is true for everyone else.
Feelings of parents are the same, it is just that we take or assume different forms.
Another issue comes... The gender issue...
Convincing one's parents is nothing to do with the gender. It is an escape route according to me.
For everything, there are certain advantages and dis-advantages.
A loser is one who cribs about dis-advantages while others just do what they have got and succeed.
Be it men or women, parents are the same.
Also, i don't quite understand when people tell, I want to fulfill my parent's dreams and that is my priority.
How many of us know our parent's dreams?? The last line is the most brilliant line to get people's appreciation.
When was the last time, did our parents ask, look, this is my dream, you fulfill it.
I have heard it many times on many issues. Ask yourself, have we fulfilled it???
Now, how many of them did we go against??? Many without telling them.
So, here we are... For the things which can be easily done, we don't mind going against our parent's wishes. When asked, we tend to reply... "Its ok, no one is perfect".
But when things are not easy, escape route. I don't want to go against my parent's wishes.
If that was the case, why did we go against them secretly in the first place??
Coming back to the parent's dreams..... Its a universal truth....
First try to be honest to yourself.... In that honesty, if your parents do exist, never hesitate to be honest with your parents. Never be scared of them, for any issue for that matter.
See the difference... I always believe, only when we are convinced of our actions we can convince our parents. Otherwise, we being egoistic and selfish always put the blame on parents saying they are strict. But deep down, we do realize someday, not convincing our parents or not being honest with them is the biggest failure of our life.
No matter how much success we achieve, it can never over weigh this failure, Thats the universal truth.
Following the ideals which were taught to us and applying it successfully is our parent's dream.
Anything apart from this, is purely materialistic.
Think, when we are afraid of losing our parents, it is also true the other way. So why don't we communicate when we share similar feelings for each other. A good communication with our parents is essential to realize one's purpose. If parents don't exist, their ideals would always remain with us.
While i was outside, alone on a long walk, i was wondering, What is it that makes a legend separate from most of us. Is it the type of food, the people he is surrounded with or just the right frame of mind.
I thought, these people knew what they wanted to achieve and more importantly they also knew how to achieve it. The latter becomes the key to success.
Success and failure are relative.
Once we know, what we are supposed to achieve, we need to take necessary steps to achieve it. The steps will automatically come once we realize the intent of fulfilling the purpose.
So what inhibits us from achieving our purpose??
There are lot of factors and if we talk to ourselves we do realize, many things in our daily life is just a routine which we are stuck with. Ever wondered, why we follow this routine.
I have a common answer which is to an extent quite acceptable. "Everybody does, so am i doing".
If we are vigilant about our own lives, we do realize, we don't quite like following all the routines of our daily life. But we are doing it. It is sort of being in our comfort zone. If something goes wrong there are lot of them surrounding us, who can help us out. It is indeed a secure feeling, not the one we want , if we are honest with ourselves.
It is these few people who challenge themselves and not go with the wind.
They believe, they are born to leave a mark in everyone's life.
Half the battle is won, if we realize our potential. But it isn't enough. We need to harness the potential into a combative weapon so that it can create a great positive impact for human kind.
Be it sports or any other field, There will be a thin line of demarcation between the ordinary and the extra-ordinary.
Sacrifice is an important aspect in achieving one's purpose. But, according to me, one must not compromise. Sacrifice and compromise are two different things. Sacrifice is accepting things willingly where as compromise is something like accepting, wherein you don't have any other choice. These two qualities are strongly held by the limit of "Tolerance".
If we tolerate things which inhibits us from achieving from our purpose, real purpose, then there is no harm in it. As long as one is convinced about what he/ she is doing, it becomes easy to convince others.
Next time, when you are struggling to convince others, Do ask yourself "Am i convinced in the first place??"
The more convinced one is, the better will be once confidence and in that case there is only thing visible, road to success. Even if things, don't go well, we will find an alternative road to the same destination of success, because we have the confidence of reaching there.
Now, to travel along the path of success, its no cake walk.
We want to reach the ultimate point of our purpose, hence we do realize, what we are suppose to do.......
In this position all we need to do is, just concentrate on achieving it.
Here comes the biggest test of all, how strong are we mentally to reject things which retards our progress. This is the thin line i was talking about.
We being humans, tend to deviate from our path and relax. Nothing wrong with it, as long as one is happy being in that current state.
Problem starts when we are stuck in this current state and not being happy.
This takes a tough call, one has ever made and in order to liberate, we need to make this tough call.
It isn't easy initially, never give up till you find it comfortable and at the same time you are back on your road of success. It takes a hell lot to absorb and at a stage it becomes a pain.
One has to take this pain and start enjoying it looking at the bigger picture, i mean overall picture.
I am sure, we are going to gain a lot by enjoying this period of pain at the end of it.
"NO PAIN, NO GAIN". Gain just means achieving, what one has set out to achieve.
"TELL YOURSELF THE ABOVE LINE"
After realizing the path , there are bound to be many obstructions along our way. This is quite natural, we create things, what we think.
Human life tends to have many speed breakers during his progress. Some can be useful to achieve control, some can just ruin life. There shall be perfect things happening in our life and not so perfect things.
Here we have it, not so perfect roads along our way. But is this the sole reason for not moving forward.
People ask me about my challenges and even i ask my friends. I do get different answers from different personalities.
This made me to think, as to define my challenge. After giving a lot of thought in this, i just arrived at something, which i wanted to tell.
I realized, my greatest challenge was to be "Out of my comfort zone" and still be the same person. Its like watching my life from a different perspective and trust me, i did get a different answer. I stepped out of the protagonist role i play in my life and for few minutes observed how i was from a third person's point of view.
Now i am back donning my role and i am doing things differently or at least trying to do it differently, when i encounter similar past, not so pretty situations.
To be nobody but Rajan in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make me everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which i can fight or in fact any human can fight and i believe i or that matter anyone should never quit fighting.
Its a like a feeling of being in a Lost highway, if appropriate measures are not taken.
Knowing this, it becomes easy about things which are under my control i.e Being myself and improving on it and not worry about things that are not under my control.
Its a simple belief .... "If i can change, you can change, rest assured the whole world can change"...
If there is one thing in our lives which is constant throughout, that is "CHANGE".
And if there is one big room in this whole world, that room is nothing but the "Room for improvement"
Riding seems to be fun even when the destination is unknown.
All i want to have is a beautiful journey!!! Its entirely within me to make it adventurous and at the same time enjoy it.
We do face a lot of challenges in our daily life. I do have them like everyone else. Instead of playing the blame game, i am trying to learn the art of getting it solved.
It is lot better trying to find a solution, finding answers to our queries than just passing the pillow of our miseries to others.
Answers can be good or bad, important thing is to keep on finding these answers rather than forming a bubble of questions within us.
Passing the pillow can be a good time pass and with which one can get rid of our worries for a short time. But have we wondered "Whose pillow is it anyway"??
I am a human, i wont be 100% efficient in following the ideals... But i am at least trying to increase my efficiency.. That reminds me, what exactly one means by efficiency??
I have heard people including me using the word, inefficient.
For me, efficiency of a human is just in a more scientific terms--
Efficiency= Work done by a certain human / Total capacity or potential of that particular human.
In reality, the denominator value is much much higher than that of numerator. Hence, the efficiency is bound to be very very less.
If a machine can give a efficiency of 36-40% according to Mr. Carnot. Our efficiency will be very less. So, in that respect, i am in-efficient, and the worst part is, everyone is along with me.
Now, to increase our efficiency, it is important to know our boundaries and these boundaries are relative. Just like engines have temperatures as their boundaries, we do have time with us.
A engine performs better once its mechanism is known, we perform better when we understand, who are we... Our strengths and weakness and the way we utilize these two parameters translates in our mechanism.
A single engine cannot perform all the activities and in analogy, a single human cannot do all the things that a humankind can do. But a engine can be linked with many other accessories to improve its efficiency and we have a similar option.
So, its important to know, what are these accessories and where is it???
For that, its essential to know, Who am i?? Unless i know completely about myself, i would be making wrong choices in choosing my accessories. Thats ok, as long as we are increasing our efficiency, even by a few margin. A lifetime is not enough to recognize one's capacity, but it is possible to give it a shot.
Once we understand ourselves, we can understand others. We can connect pretty well, thereby increasing our chances to improve our efficiency.
Now one thing keeps coming back to me... "Why do we need this improvement in one's efficiency"
A simple answer to it "To satisfy our purpose in life and to live the life we always wanted to live"...
To put it in a much easier way... Its a universal truth that a building can withstand many storeys with a strong foundation. Similarly, unless we have a strong foundation within ourselves, we cannot expect our relationships to stay for a long time.
With a strong foundation, we can withstand any calamities and still retain those relationships.
Its important to be decorative and attractive from inside. That is where, we live. Be it a building, be it our life, its important to be beautiful and attractive from inside.
Not all are blessed with exterior beauty and one should not be taken aback for this lone factor in life.
But everyone is blessed for being beautiful from inside. From my little experience, its always the inner beauty which has the capacity to translate into external beauty and never vice-versa, no matter what.
Its natural to get attracted to external beauty, but persistence and longevity of this attraction is purely because of one's internal beauty.
This is precisely why most beautiful people in this world do not have beautiful life to live and not so beautiful people having beautiful life to live.
Very few can pull off being beautiful both exterior and interior. Thats a great piece of architecture. Mind you, everyone can be that architect. Architect of our life.
"Life is always beautiful, its a pity that we aren't that beautiful enough from inside so we tend to blame it on life"
