How to connect ...?

5 Happenings/Thoughts I came across in last few days. The question remains - how to relate all of them? I may be asked - why u want to relate them? I don't know.

1. Rajkumar Hirani launched his new film titled "3 Idiots", starring Aamir Khan, Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi, based on Chetan Bhagat's novel "5 point someone".
2. 4 friends started form the same reference point. 2 (X&Y) went ahead a bit as compared to other two (A&B) on first hurdle by successfully completing it. A always regarded this as "failure" at the back of his his mind. 6 years after that he came back with a bang and now with the same reference point he is way ahead of Y & B. X has been able to remain in the same league.
3. A blog of one of my college friends where he talked about "....if life came with a rear view mirror. To see how far is somebody whom you left behind. To see who's coming up to you. To maybe slow down a little at times......"- an awesome thought not easy to forget.
4. Who can be called successful? One who achieves what he wants to? One who do things differently and emerge as unique in his class? One who achieve fame?
5. You talk of choices either in two cases- you are master of many trades to make a choice out of them OR you are not even average in any of those trade to concentrate on that only.

Big Time Final Loser!!

I am a kind of person who is always happy with his past, never giving a thought to what I did - right or wrong. But lately some one's comment forced me to give a thought about it, though it was a sub conscious try but resulted in a factual conclusion. I do realized it and logically deduced it from my past life - I AM A big time FINAL LOSER.

I have almost always been able to come up with flying colours in whatever field I have given a honest try-most of the time in top 2. But may be I never gave that extra punch which separates the first from second, gold medalist from silver medalist and topper from others in the top group. May be being happy with my good satisfactory performances, I never strived for the best. At least, thats what my own history suggests me-

• Silver medalist for 5 district/state TT championship but won only 1 Gold in my whole TT career in school days.
• 2nd in class from VI to XI but never 1st, continuously for 6 years.
• 2nd in XII board results in school.
• 2nd in so many school events- kho-kho, carrom, chess, etc.
  
• Around 98 percentile in my CAT attempts but never crossed 99 percentile, the mark which makes the difference.
• In IIT always remained among the 2nd tier performers (may be top among them:)) but never moved to the top tier performers group.
  
• Lost the elections for House Secretary after coming up as top two consensus candidate; almost guaranteed victory before the election and the small losing margin made the loss worst.
• Most of my skits and plays fell short of the 1st position (always 2nd/3rd) for some or the other reason, irrespective of the applauses. (MM, my best creation, is the only exception which broke all records)
• In campus placement got interview calls from almost all dream companies from different fields (consulting(Mckinsey)/banking(Lehman)/analytics/tech) but finally made into a 2nd tier tech company.
  
• In professional life too - solution developed by myself is contesting with a competitor for the top slot, and is presently placed at 2nd position.

Though there have been few exceptions- JEE, MM, BTP. May be I have always been a jack of many trades but expert in few. But I seriously think that it is the attitude for the top slot which makes the difference. And as it is always known, best is always remembered while next i.e. second, though may receive applauses for very short time, is always next to best. May be someday I too will strive to move from rest to best category with that extra - I need to find that!!

War between Heart and Mind

I have this war between my heart and mind for almost 2 years now. This war has been between creativity and routine well defined algrithm, between what u luv to do and what u r required to do, between risk taking and knowing atleast the minimum benefits, between not taking things for granted and taking it granted, between new challenges everyhour(by everyhour I mean evryhour) and may be new challenges every week or fortnight, between doing every thing of my own and doing things according to other's wishes, between enjoing and trying to enjoy..................

I dont know how this idea evolved in my heart !(mind this), but for past more than a year an ambition of opening my own Ad Agency has been there in my heart. This may be because of something that really interested me in my school days or may be because of the exposure that I got during my IIT life or may be both, but what I am sure of is that this is the thing which i will enjoy doing in my life best. Creating new ideas, new imaginations with really no boundaries, connecting thoughts, linking aspects, evolving background, team work (this is the place where i have seen this working to maximum), using everything that- u have been with-u have passed along-u have experienced-u are trying, learning and reusing and expressing the real thinking, these all are like inviting my heart to chase them. But then this mind comes....

This mind raise a lot of questions....am I realistic? am I practical? Who is going to trust my abilities? Who is going to give me work? Where do i get the money? and most importantly how i am going to start? .....then an important thing that mind always bring is that my all experiences have been with a team who all enjoyed doing all these at that stage of their life....will I be able to carry the same enthusiasm and passion alone. And when I asked people with whom i worked a lot, it helped my mind create a lot many doubts and concerns. Sometimes it gives a feeling as economic security many a times, in fact I would say most of the time, help one chase his passion without any fear and concerns. I saw most of the people, atleast from the part of country to which i belong, just going along with the regular and tested trends without any thoughts and regrets and few not strong enough to chase their dreams if they had any. Exceptions are there (I heard about a guy who comes from a small place and loved cooking from childhood days and presently working as head chef in Taj group) and that do inspire me.

For this moment I may not mind to delay this war for sometime and most probably in near future one of either my heart or my mind will then still stick to its beliefs and thoughts and whichever dilutes its present thought will help me decide in favour of the other.