Going Blind

Good afternoon, everyone.

We are at the very first month of new year. How many of you are still sticking to your new year resolutions? How likely are you to achieve your goals this year?  Just like You , I am ambitious too.

One of my last year’s goal was to learn a new technology and get certified. But I didn’t find one till August. Luckily, my Employer offered an alluring Zero cost  GCP training certification spanning from September to November. But that  was an unusual and unconventional training which brought down the joy of learning. Slowly, I started skipping classes. Days and weeks passed and the last month of the year commences.

This enticing zero cost came with a disclaimer that it is applicable only when Exams are taken on or before Dec 30th. As exam dates loomed closer, the anxiety, the fear of unknown started to fill the air. Every one of us were frantically searching for questionnaire and dumps to pass through the exam.

This ambience took me back to my campus days, especially to the endless hours of my grappling with Engineering Mathematics.

Do you remember your Engineering Mathematics???.

No worries, I will take you through my class.

Jackob sir, the professor, a short and stout man who breathes Laplacian Transformation, talks Euler theorem and lives the Engineering mathematics every single day.

Neither him nor the subject excited me and my friends and everyone was restless. Just a week before the internals, we realized how crucial is it to pass Engineering Mathematics. As always, there is a helping hand. Trinetra, a classmate of mine, ready to spare her notes for our preparation. Her notes were exceptionally good that we abstained from worrying about the exams.

Finally, the day before the exam, we gathered at our friend’s house. A calm house, with parents out for a work and siblings out for the school. A sneak peek at Orkut, “Jab we met”  movie, the snacks and all sort of tiny teeny things overshadowed our exam preparation. By the time of disperse, we marked few questions to prepare. Out of that, only one stands out in my memory always.

The starting didn’t make sense. The complete solution by itself sounded like an enigma. But clock is ticking. No time to inquire!  So just go blind, make it hard and vomit it was the preferred approach.

Guess what?

I got a big zero. The mystery behind – its not a multiplication in the formulae but a cross mark indicating that this subdivision “3a” is wrong. Tidy Girl, She doesnt even want to cross a page. Having failed miserably I  looked at myself . Its a Blunder. This blunder raced my mind.  Failure didn’t hurt me. But going blind hit me hard. It still bangs my head!

With this experience, tell me my friends – will I just go blind with questionnaire and dumps? Of course not. The clock was running fast towards the seasonal greetings. The whole world was in party mood, awaiting Christmas and New Year. But I was firm enough that I will not go blind. Whatever concepts I go through, I am determined to  ask questions to myself. Reason out and learn. To my good luck, I got a mentor Ravi, who was able to clear all my queries.

Finally,  the exam proved that dumps was completely outdated. The power of questioning  and reasoning out helped me gain the certification.

It dawned upon me that life is a maze, LIFE IS A MAZE ONLY WHEN WE GO BLIND. Going blind is never going to help us. Going blind will always put you down in our one step or the other.

But Going blind also helps at few instances

Even one of our well-performing Toastmasters attended the open house just to fetch his missed water bottle. Open house opened his eyes and showed a pathway towards honing leadership and communication skills. Yes, you can go blind to open house and wake up with knowledge and power.

It all depends on the situation. Going blind without assessing the situation that counts is a downfall.

Missing to assess the situation implies you are tieing up your eyes tightly and preparing to fail and fall.

Never go blind Because

Going blind makes you feel undermined

Going blind makes you feel resigned

Going blind leaves you behind

Make a promise today, that we always open our mind , ask questions , seek continuous knowledge and

keep growing wisely

I request everyone to standup at their places and  take a oath that

“We shall always asses the situation; ask right questions and will never let the next generation to fall into the trap of going blind”

JAI HIND

Thank You