During school a classical language was compulsory - either Sanskrit for the Indian Language speaking students & Latin for others - so Sanskrit it was for me. For 7 years both my Sanskrit teachers & I suffered from the impossibility of my ever getting comfortable with the dead language that I was convinced was likely to be of little or no value in my future life. So came my senior school finishing final exams & convinced that I was going to fail went sheepishly to my Mother & my grandmother to convince them that I would fail Sanskrit for sure so why don't I skip that exam & instead study up for the History exam where I was sure to score well. Both my Mom & Grand Mom RESPONDED WITH "DON'T BE A COWRARD" because if you miss the exam you are guaranteed to get a zero but if you do the brave thing & sit for it you may still get a zero or perhaps even a few more than zero but atleast you will not be a coward afraid of failing without trying. So I did just that - didn't waste time in studying for the Sanskrit & concentrated on History. In the exam hall I opened the question paper to find to my delight that both the translation questions ( Sanskrit to English & vice versa) carrying 30 marks each were those that I had virtually memorised & so blindly put them to the pen ( securing atleast 60%) & likewise fluked the grammar - thus getting above 80% i.e. a distinction in Sanskrit !! The History exam was a disaster - the mind went blank & the names & dates of the dynasties , battles just wouldn't match & I barely scraped through with a little over the minimum pass score. Phew - had it not been for the lesson in courage or not to be a Coward that was gently taught by my mother as well as by my Grandmothrt I would have messed up my scholl graduation by losing the opportunity of scoring a distinction level pass in Sanskrit of all the subjects. Lesson learnt was that it is easy to duck the scary / difficult things in life & takes some element of courage to meet them head on where the worst that could happen is that the head will get some bumps & scratches or that it may not !! So don't be afraid to take your chances in life - it just may surprise you pleasantly. Vinod Sahgal
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