What we need to learn from India's 1 run thrilling T20 victory over Bangladesh

It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.

It all started with a toss whose outcome is in God’s hands. India lost the toss and was forced to bat first. In life, you will have several moments where you have no chance to take big decisions like deciding your name, your parents, your family status etc. Here you have to accept your fate as it is and look forward to improve . But it doesn't mean you leave everything to destiny itself. You will have many future occasions to take decisions. Once you make a decision, its done, its irreversible, so think about all the possibilities before making a decision and then no second thoughts, focus on the upcoming events and you must prove your decision right. India may win or lose but now it had to bat first.

Indian team made a good start with the bat but the runrate was slow. They were struggling to hit boundaries but they kept making ones and twos amid a tight fielding by Bangladesh. We all go through a similar phase. Our start is often very exciting, our opponent seems weak but gradually our focus on work is misplaced, we commit some silly mistakes and we struggle to identify what went wrong. Though we might not be able to keep working at the same pace always but we should never stop pushing forward. We must keep doing something because something is better than nothing. This something will prove to be a milestone in the long run.

No big hitting from Indian side. No big score from a single player. But every batsman contributed something to the scoreboard. This shows the real team spirit. You yourself alone are too small compared to the idea of whole team. When each team member’s effort is combined, it becomes humongous. Our small efforts are often invisible but they create wonders when accumulated.

An average score of 146 was not something India had expected when it came to bat first. Life is full of unexpected problems and situations but it is still not the outcome. Your behavior is in your control but not the outcome. How India would react to this sudden crisis ?

Well, the Indian bowling began. But what is this… a Boundary misfield and then a simple catch drop. Ohh no…. silly mistakes done by Indian players. Feeling like hitting Bumrah for the catch drop. Isn’t it ? On the other hand, Bangladesh batsmen kept the runrate well above the required rate. It seemed Bangladesh will knockout India easily out of this game. It all came through a few catch drops , some good bowling under pressure by Indian bowlers, the game had come to an end with 11 run required out of last 6 balls. First three balls gave 9 runs to Bangladesh and then only 2 runs were required of 3 balls with two good batsmen on the crease.

Many Indians would have shut off the TV, those who watched the last three balls must be really very optimistic. But more than anyone else, the most optimistic was the Indian team. They never lost the hope. Probably Dhoni would never have thought of losing this game so easily. They were determined to win but how would they win was not known to them. They were almost fighting in the darkness. But they were somehow able to anticipate the outcome not out of sheer luck or chance but rather due to a culmination of right decisions that they took keeping in mind the possibilities. 

They could have lost the game or won but they were true to themselves till the last ball. Magically they took 3 wickets on the last 3 balls of the game. It was unbelievable. It was miraculous. They might have thought of the words by Swami Vivekanand “Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God”. It was really good to see how they kept alive the fire within themselves. The world is changed by examples, not by opinions. India has definitely changed the thinking of billions.

A game of cricket was won in the last three balls of the game. Why not apply this learning in your life and see the changes that will follow. Its never too late to start a work. The best time to do something is now. Get up and start doing the work you need to do the most. You will never lose the game of life, if you think you lost it….then think again…its not the end....many overs are still left…you can also take 3 wickets on the last three balls.

I would have said to Bumrah - "When we face weakness—ours or someone else's—it doesn't help to blame someone or something, pretend it's not important, or simply decide to change."

How to Keep Alive the Fire Inside You as the Exam Approaches

“You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself be”       ~ Lou Holtz

Students often write to me about the problems which they constantly face during their exam preparations. Particularly exams like IAS/IES require long term preparations and it is difficult to keep our motivation high all the time especially if we face a few failures. As the exam date approaches, we often creep into low self-confidence. As a result, the urge to study for exam starts diminishing and is plagued by negative thinking. When our mind loses the grasp of our goal, we start searching for alternatives. From here starts, the beginning of our end.

This is a common problem faced by all exam aspirants. But we must not forget that there is no joy in life without problems. We cannot really feel happiness unless we have felt sadness. There is no value of light if there is no darkness. Nature has given us a power that we often undermine. That is the power to decide. We are free to decide what to do with these problems. Either we can solve it and walk over it with confidence or we can just keep worrying.

Understanding the problem is the first step towards the solution. Today, India is a free country only because our forefathers were able to understand the real problem behind British Rule in India, that was Colonialism and Imperialism. In the same way we must understand that these negative thoughts that lurk around in our mind are nothing but an outcome of our own fearful thinking. The high confidence at the start of preparation turns into low confidence as the exam approaches. Isn’t it ? The last two months before the exam seem so less that our human mind involuntarily assumes that we haven’t prepared much for the exam. That is bullshit !

No doubt, IES preparation is like walking over an Agneepath. But this path is of finite distance ( say 100 kms ). Nobody has the clear roadmap to reach the destination. Everyone takes his own route to reach the destination. Some lose the direction and keep roaming uselessly while some follow the right directions and reach their goal. My aim is to act as a bridge to help you reach your goal.

It all depends on what choices and sacrifices you make during the journey that determines your successful landing over the destination. It happened with me as well. When the last two months were left before IES exam, I had a doubt over my ability whether I would be able to revise the huge syllabus or not in such a short time. But since I was doing my preparation alone in some obscure locality of Allahabad, there was no one around me to tell that I can’t do it. Infact, I often talked to myself inside the closed doors of my 10x15 rented room. I questioned my ability every now and then. Amidst all the failures that I faced in exams like GATE, SAIL, AAI, BARC etc. one thing that kept my hope alive was a belief that my circumstances whatever they may be, however tough they may be, are not going to affect my final performance in ESE. I will not let my circumstances take away an inch of my focus away from my goal. I never changed my attitude towards ESE despite repeated failures, I only changed my study pattern according to my needs. I gave other exams like SAIL, AAI, BARC etc but always revised the same ESE syllabus that I had studied all over the past 3 months.

I never ever compromised with ESE preparation. For 6 months, I never went out of Allahabad and strictly followed my other commitments to myself. Today I enjoy telling people all the sacrifices that I made during my preparation. In those days, ESE was like a dream for me as may be for most of you. This dream gradually seems more distant as the exam approaches, so my advice to all of you is never ever worry because worrying will change nothing. If you can solve the problem what is the need to worry, and if you can’t solve the problem, is there any need to worry ? 

Don’t think about what rank you will get in exam, instead focus on how you will give your best performance in exam. Get ready to give your maximum in whatever time you are left with. You never know how close you are to your best performance. You might break all the previous records, you just don’t know. You must keep in mind that there is no ‘Teesmaarkhan’ in this battle. This exam is as much in your control as in control of others. So why do you fear ? The world is won by those who are fearless. If your colleagues are fearful of the exam let them fear, you are completely different from everyone. Take full responsibility of yourself. Don’t let others play with your time. Mark my words, “ What you do in your next one hour will decide what you will do in your exam. Never underestimate the power of next one hour ”.

Everyone has the same number of hours in a day. Try to use the time as  judiciously as possible. A lot can be done in the last two months before exam. The whole game can be changed in the last two months. I don’t need giving an example here as I have myself done it. So stop thinking of what is gone, eye over those things that you still have. You are alive, healthy and left with more than 2 months in your hand. The whole climax is left. Picture abhi kaafi baaki hai mere dost.

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”            ~Ralph Waldo Emerson