Base camp of my life, our lives..

Another afternoon and gossip at the college canteen and then I was heading towards next class on marketing.

It was a normal, dull looking day that gave an entirely new direction to my life. I couldn't imagine that it would set up a launch pad for my life. If you've to scale the summits of the mountains, the base camp has to be strong and this one incident became the base camp of my life.

I don't forget to touch it, every time I need to rejuvenate my spirits.

My Marketing class had started but ended up sooner than it was supposed to be. The reason being, an event was scheduled at my college that was named as "Ad Mad" show. Two batches of MBA students, around 100 in number, were there to attend it.

Mr. Nikhil Mehta, I always takes pride in sharing his name, my marketing teacher, who was the person behind this major change in my life. I still bow before him.

He had identified the participants for the show a day before and named them out in the class. I was surprised to see my name in the list as I had never volunteered for it as I lacked confidence to perform in front of the huge crowd. After the class, I went to meet Mr. Mehta [referred as "Sir" in the later part, with due respect to him] and told him that I wish to withdraw my name from the show as I can't do it. He did not react much and said "Fine, I'll remove your name from the list".

I was so relieved and got very excited to be a part of the "audience" of the show.

The day came and the show was about to begin and sir pulled out a list with names of the participants that he had identified. The show was about selling a product, branding it and creating its punch line. Preparation time was just 10 minutes and the products were very unusual, like "Comb for a bald man", "Jeans for Sadhus" etc.

Sir started calling names of the participants [each group having 2 members], assigned them the products and sent them out of the hall for preparation.

I was shocked to see him calling my name and was feeling angry that despite of giving me a confirmation about removing my name from the list, how he could call it up at the last moment. I had no other option than to go out with my partner for preparation.

In a rush of fear, hurry and confusion, I prepared a punch line for the product and added it to the concept and ideas suggested by my other partner.

The show started and then it was our group’s turn to perform. We performed the act and at the end I narrated the punch line for the product that was given to us [We had got "Jeans for Sadhus"]. Our act had barely finished and the entire hall was there to give us a standing ovation. Tears felt flowing from my eyes and now I realized why Sir had not withdrawn my name from the list. Over the top of it, we were the proud winners of the contest and also for the “Best punch line for the show”. I couldn’t feel more proud of myself ever than at that moment.

After the show I went to meet my Sir, I thanked him for his decision and asked him why he had not withdrawn my name from the list.

What he said at that time became a launching pad for every decision of my life. He said, "I wanted you to learn a lesson: Do try it and never stop before you try!".

I still ask myself, had I not given it a try that day while being apprehensive of failures, would I have been able to take the major decisions of my life with lot more confidence..

So never stop because of the failures 'that may happen' else you'll never try and reach out to the hidden happiness within you.