Academic excellence IS the best indicator of Potential for success in life

It is hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world… talent is but natural but excellence is choice and anything worth doing, is worth doing right.  Academic excellence is the demonstrated ability to perform, achieve or excel in scholastic activities. Academic excellence has been identified with achieving high grades and superior performance. But academic excellence is more than just making good grades. It is the maximum development of your intellectual capacities and skills in service to humanity so as to be able to flourish and make great contributions in the society. Is there really a key to success or a magic formula to succeed in life? Success means different things to different people. Success for some means making a lot of money, getting all the awards and honors. For others, it may mean becoming famous or just mean doing the work you love on a schedule that meets your own needs. Most people wait for success thinking it will find them. Usually, it doesn’t. You have to leave space for success to happen. Just as there are many kinds of success there are many ways to achieve it. Success does not depend on wishing or on luck. It requires two things – working hard and dreaming harder. If you don’t have both, success will always just be out of your grasp.

There is not one, but many keys to success and in today’s day and age, academic excellence is the golden one. It carries with it a sense of responsibility and attitude that will help flourish and make an impeccable contribution to society.

One of my seniors once inspired me by the following words, “I have proven to be an outstanding student, one who excels both in academic and extra-curricular activities in school and the community. Such experiences indeed prepared me somehow to face the realities in life because the real battle lies outside the school walls – in the so-called real world.

Having the values of academic excellence are what makes one an extraordinary achiever. After all, being an achiever does not always lie in succeeding in everything, but in how one picks up the pieces and stands up to fight once more after each and every failure.

After all, Sir Henry Wardsworth Longfellow rightly quoted, “Heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night.”

Very Strict Indian Parenting

We had just settled into the class when dimple walked in… there were welts on her hands, her eyes puffed… And it became very evident that she had been up all night, crying… We knew what must have happened because this was not the first time that we had seen her in this shaken state… Just that she had scored an 18 and not 20 on 20 in mathematics? Was this one unit test examination result going to mar her future in any possible way? When would her parents realize that her capacity was 18 marks and not 20? No child would deliberately give away those two marks if she could achieve them and if that was the difference between getting beaten up and not, then something desperately needs to be done…

I firmly believe that children having VERY strict parents are not destined to achieve greater success in life. Parents can plant magic in a child's mind through certain words spoken with some thrilling quality of voice, some uplift of the heart and spirit. Most people presume that very strict parenting and harsh discipline lead to extremely well behaved kids. From an external point of view kids of very strict parents may seem polite, obedient and easy to manage.. Many parents view instant obedience as a good virtue. Why? Coz it makes everyday life easier for them… simple!

But very strict parenting often has its price, a high price! If for a moment we look beyond external behavior and adjust our spotlight to what’s going on the inside of these children, we see that the short term behavioral gain of obedience is heavily outweighed by the long term psychological damage, in short, this unreasonable behavior of our parents acts as the sinking sand averting children from success.

The behavioral demand on a child is very high. He is expected to behave in a “mature” way, more or less like a “civilized” adult. However, despite the adult expectations, the kid is treated inferior. An interesting paradox, isn’t it? You must not expect old heads upon young shoulders.

Within this conservative, rule oriented parenting style; there is very little freedom of thought, creative experimentation and independent choice making. Let’s all remember, the greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence to ensure success in life.

Indian Beauties Having International Acclaim

     Indian women have played a pivotal role since time immemorial. Going back to the year 1653, Emperor Shah Jahan was a man obsessed, obsessed with the beauty of his wife. Not having an international pageant in those days he immortalized her beauty in the form of a beautiful mausoleum, ‘The Taj Mahal’,  one of the Wonders of the World, a tourist destination of international repute.

      From an excellent homemaker to qualified professionals and being economically independent, our beauties have made the world sit up and take notice. In the year 1994 when Indian beauty Sushmita  Sen vied for the title of  Miss World, all eyes were glued on her.  With the aplomb of an international icon, she glided through the slash of the ramp.  Her very high-fashion, international look set her instantly apart from the ‘dumb bombshell’ category.  Here was someone intelligent, sophisticated and amazingly beautiful.  The world recognized that and she was awarded the Miss Universe Crown circa 1994!  Of course, she was not the first to receive this acclaim, long before her in the year 1966, Rita Faria, the daughter of a Byculla hair-dresser had also won the coveted  Miss World  title.

     Indian beauties like Ujjwala Raut and Rhea Pillai have been selected as the face of the international brand, L’Oreal. The beauty community has not missed the sultry, dark-skinned models.  They have made their mark on the world scene. The Elite Fashion House, USA , offered her an assignment with them, instantly recognizing the exquisite ease with which she could  capture attention on the ramp, the elegance that was so natural to her, that  even a discerning audience stared at her, and the clothes she displayed. Priyanka Chopra, one of India’s highest paid actresses, also stole the crown of Miss World, ____________

        Yes, India has produced a number of beauties,  some dusky, some fair and wheat-complexioned, all tall, with the  most stylish of bodies.  Persis Khambata comes to the mind for her foray into Hollywood.  She had won the Miss India Beauty Pagent and participated in the Miss World contest. , her very thin, waif-like body, enabled her to act in the ‘Star Trek series’as the character Ilia against the much touted Captain Kirk. She set a new fashion trend with her bald look!

       In fact, along with Sushmita Sen who was selected Miss Universe, 1994,  Aishwarya  Rai was crowned Miss World 1994.  It was a double victory for the Indian Beauty.  The creamy skinned, green eyed model  was a definite winner as she sashayed down the catwalk.  Her exquisite good looks were such that Aishwarya was featured as the world’s most beautiful woman on the cover page of ‘Time Magazine’ . A rare and lasting honour.   Today she is the most sought  after actress in the Indian Film Industry.  She has also had the honour of being  a judge at one of the world’s most prestigious events, the Film Festival at Cannes. Her prowess  as an actress, and her glowing grace and good looks are recognized by the world community.

        It is not by accident that India has managed to produce so many lovely winners.  As in all major human accomplishments, it is sheer grit and hard work.  Long hours of honing looks and skills, a laborious climb to the top rung of the ladder of beauty.  A professional training is given to the finalists, and the face that India shows to the world is one which is polished, refined and totally beauty queen stuff.

 Frieda Pinto was selected by Danny Boyle to play the female lead in the Hollywood Award winning film, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.  The lovely Lisa Ray, was voted the 9^th most beautiful woman of the millennium.  The very first Indian to win the Miss Asia Pacific Contest, 1970, was the ravishing Zeenat Aman.  She went on to blaze a career as an actress in the Indian Film Industry.  Diana Hayden, Miss World 1997, Lara Dutta, Miss Universe, 2000.

     The list goes on and on.  Many, many beautiful women in India, who have the gumption, the staying power and the determination to make a name for themselves in the world of fashion and beauty. They have put India on this map.  No more is the Indian woman the shy, behind the shawl, peeping shadowy figure, afraid to show her face.  She has stepped forward, bold and unafraid, very sure of herself, proud of her toned body and lovely face.

     One has to only look around our rural areas to find what a wealth of beauty abounds there! The features, the colour of their skin, the grace with which they carry themselves….if only they all could be polished, they would shine like diamonds on the international scene!! Indians are naturally beautiful…and given the opportunity would be leagues ahead of women in other countries.

    Beauty, power and determination define an Indian woman. She can take the world and win.

What the youth must do

Raise your voice and shout! Let anger boil up inside you so that like a stream of fire your voice carries the hurts and atrocities that are perpetrated around you. Let your angst build like a dark storm over a sleeping sea. Let like minded people, courageous people meet and merge so that you form one, heavy, unbeatable storm, raging and flashing and mighty in its strength. Only then can the youth beat down the terrible monsters of greed, corruption and unabashed criminalisation.
     The ideas and ideals of our leaders at the time of India's Independence have not lead to the Utopia we dreamt about. Instead, over sixty years of self rule have only led to poverty, to the extent that today, there are more dispossessed people in India than the entire population in 1948! Rape and scam are not rare cases that turn up in CBI files but are unabashedly, 'The Norm'. The word governance and corruption are synonymous! Let's be very clear, their ideas have not worked and today's youth HAS TO be the change.
     How nice would it be if with one sweep of the duster we could mop up the scawly marks on the blackboard and rewrite in neat, legible handwriting. But the hand that holds the duster is itself tainted, is itself stuffed with crores of ill-gained money. It tells itself that it must clean up, but the hand holding the duster is left aloft, and will not touch the blackboard.
     They youth must be committed and courageous and should be the harbingers of change! They must not succumb to various influences like media, politics and religious fanatism. Ajmal Amir Kasab wasted his youth... need I say more?
       And so, we must struggle! Not a lone voice, not 8 or 10 thousand righteous individuals, but the YOUTH, the entire youth of the country must raise its voice. The energy, the anger, the innate goodness that shines in the eyes of young people must emerge, must flow in a strong current. Do not suppress it with mealy mouthed prayers or apathy. Write about it, shout it out, and only then can you vanquish this depravity.
      It is time for intolerance, it is time for anger, it is time to fight! To tolerate wrongs only makes one a criminal, to stay away from required action only perpetrates the wrongs. So, wake up, summon up those feelings and storm inside you, question the last generation, shake them and ask them why and how did they allow this to happen to our country. Hold them accountable, and now, hold yourself accountable for the next generation!