A lesson learnt

Life teaches us her lessons in so many different ways. Sometimes you learn by experience - your own or others, sometimes by failure or sometimes through some friend or stranger.

I learnt a lesson today... and I learnt it from a friend! Amit shared a beautiful story with me today in response to my 'Why Me!!!' blog series. It's his version of the story of tennis superstar Arthur Ashe and his take on life. It surely is a must-read for any of you who has 'ditto'-ed (or will 'ditto' in the future) my thoughts on 'Why Me!!!'.

Here's what Amit had to say...
The story is as follows.. it is in my own words since I do not have the original story... but the essence is well captured. I guess you can take the learning from this... this is MY FAVOURITE STORY !!!

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Arthur Ashe was a 3 time Grand Slam winnner (including the Wimbledon in 1975) who was later on diagonised with HIV in 1988, to which he eventually succumbed in 1993. Given that he was an extremely popular man, he used to get all kinds of fan mail when he was in hospital. One day, he received a letter from a woman asking, amongst other things, 'Why did God have to chose you for this dreaded disease?????'

To which, Arthur answered as follows: (again the numbers might not be accurate)
'Nearly 500,000 kids start playing tennis year...
Of which, about 5000 reach the proffessional level of tennis
Of which, only 128 are good enough to play in Wimbledon
Of which, only 2 reach the final
Of which, only 1 wins the coveted Wimbledon trophy'
So each year, out of the lakhs of kids that take up tennis, only 1 is chosen by God to win Wimbledon.

So when I was standing on Centre Court in Wimbledon all those years back holding aloft the men's singles champion trophy, did I look up to the heavens and ask God, "Why me????"


Here's what I said in reply...

Hey Amit,

Thanks for sharing the story with me.

Truly touching and definitely teaches me to take things as they come in true sportsman spirit.

I fully agree that life balances the positives we have with a few not so positive moments. It takes a lot of grit to accept that reality and move on with life.

I started off my 'Why Me!!!' blog only because I also believe that to 'move on' despite all odds you need to shed them away instead of holding onto them. Sharing stuff with friends and well-wishers will only attract sympathy and philosophy. 'Why Me!!!' gives me my own personal space to yell out as loudly as I can without still being heard :). Has helped me vent out my 'gussa' through my writing and makes me feel a lot lot lighter.

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Thanks Amit for letting me put this up here. I'm sure it'll somehow impact those who spend some time around 'Why Me!!!'

The Bulls, The Bears, The Me

The Stock Market was always something that I kept safe distance from. Somehow in the winter of 2007 I fell to the temptation of the bulls and the bears.

I am a safe player. I did all kinds of calculations, kept away from the costly blue chip scrips, chose some small yet promising ones and invested around 20 grands across 3 stocks.

I kept track of the market daily and monitored my portfolio on an hourly basis. This is what is called First Time Investor Syndrome... and it had struck me big time.

Over the next few months the market leapt to record highs... I was ecstatic. The small investor in me had made some extra dough. But then First Time Investor Syndrome didn't prompt me to sell my stocks and enjoy the extra dough :( I decided to wait till the extra became a little more extra... the 'thoda aur chahiye' symptom of the Syndrome perhaps.

After accounting for the global meltdown, record lows that the Sensex has fallen to... 20K now stands at around 8K. 12 grands may be peanuts for the rest of the world... but for someone afflicted by the First Time Investor Syndrome... I'm left asking myself... 'Why Me!!!'