Nothing Succeeds Like Success-Bruce, Bachchan & Blue Caramelers

As the eventful month of August draws to an end with the Race4Pace contest in its final lap, there have been some success stories from Team Blue Caramel Jodhpur and to a certain extent Team Jaipur, with Team Mumbai being a work in progress and Team Udaipur, still a disaster. Though the month is not yet over but all Blue Caramelers can learn from the experiences of many distinguished personalities from the World theater that failures are the stepping stones to successes. I will take 2 examples today.

The first person who comes to mind, who garnered success after prolonged periods of failure, is the legendary Scottish King, Robert the Bruce. In fact his adventures gave rise to the idiom, "If at first you don't succeed, then try and try again". The legend goes, Bruce who was one of the greatest of all Scottish Kings, during his struggle with the throne of England, was defeated seven consecutive times. In desperation, he fled and hid in a cave. While he was pondering hard and cursing his fate, he came across a spider, which was trying to spin a web trying to connect one part of the cave with the other. The spider, slipped and faltered seven times, but did not loose hope. It was successful the eight time. Inspired by this incident, Robert the Bruce returned with a new vigor and started inflicting on the English a series of crushing defeats, which finally resulted in him becoming the King of the Scots.

Amitabh Bachchan, the super star of Bollywood, is a living example of the try and try again idiom. Bachchan who quit his job with an MNC to start off a career in acting faced hurdles right from the go. His height and voice were deemed unfit for acting initially by some directors of Hindi movies. But he did not loose heart and got his first film "Saat Hindustani" after a brief period of struggle. Then there was no looking back for this Super Star as he created a niche for himself as the "Angry Young Man". His voice and height which was ridiculed initially became his greatest assets and he started churning hit movies after hit movies. In 1982 while shooting for his film "Coolie", Bachchan suffered a near fatal stomach injury after which he quit films for sometime. He dabbled in the quagmire of politics during this period and was even a member of Parliament from his home town of Allahabad. Realization soon dawned that politics was not his cup of tea and he resumed his acting career.

The mid 1990s were a torrid time for the Bachchans. Amitabh Bachchan's popularity as a Super Star was in wane and the company he floated ABCL was in shambles and filed for bankruptcy. When everything looked dead and over for Bachchan, he fought back with a vengeance, this time through the medium of television. He became the host for the Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and the rest as they say is history. Not only did Amitabh Bachchan gain back his lost glory as a Bollywood SuperStar, he also overcame all the financial difficulties he had to face during the 1990s.

It was very easy for Bruce as well as Bachchan to call it quits and lead a life of  failures but they understood that the tag of being a looser was much harder to carry than becoming a martyr in the quest for success and hence got inspired from happenings, when their chips were down. They learnt from their mistakes and strove hard and did not rest till they were the best. This is the spirit that is envisaged in all Blue Caramelers, the spirit of never giving up, the spirit of dealing with challenges head on and the spirit of succeeding and inspiring others with stories of success because Nothing Succeeds Like Success. 

The Armstrongs, Yuvraj Singh and our WC victory!

The last week has been full of action both within the Blue Caramel world as well in the social world. As the Race4Pace contest comes to its last week, all the locations of Blue Caramel, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur in Rajasthan and Mumbai have strived for betterment. The flurry of activities though have been hampered in Jaipur and Jodhpur because of the incessant rains. In the social sphere, the duo that have hogged the limelight  are the Armstrongs.

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, whose words (while he stepped out of his Lunar Module (Apollo) on 21st July 1969), "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" have become a part of modern folklore, died at the ripe age of 82 years on 26th August 2012. Neil Armstrong (left in the photo) was the commander of the Apollo11 moon landing mission which also had Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin(right in photo) and Michael Collins (center in photo) as his co-astronauts. But it was not always a smooth sailing for Neil into the history books because as a child he was prone to motion sickness and as an Air Force pilot, was susceptible to nausea after long hours of aerobatics. But he overcame these physical ailments through sheer grit, determination, dedication and focus and the rest, as they say, is history.

Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, is an American professional road racing cyclist, who won an incredible 7 Tour de France titles from 1999-2005 and was the undisputed champion cyclist during that period. He is also known for his heroic and successful fight against testicular cancer. The cancer had spread to his lungs and brain and had become life threatening. But it was again through sheer grit and determination along with rigorous medication that he came back from the brink and became a source of inspiration for thousands of people all around the world.

In fact, Armstrong's story was a constant source of motivation for cricketer Yuvraj Singh, in his fight against lung cancer, which he too overcame. A selection in the Indian cricket team for the T20 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka, marks a remarkable comeback for Yuvraj Singh.

The Indian under 19 cricket team won the World Cup when they beat Australia, in the under19 WC held in Australia itself. Indian cricket teams, over the years have been accused of being "Paper Tigers" or "Home Tigers" for their pathetic performances overseas especially in Australia, South Africa and England. This time around also, the cricketers began on the wrong foot as they were comprehensively beaten by the West Indies in their first match. Just when they were being written off by the media and the analysts alike, the team under "Captain Courageous" Unmukt Chand, through concerted focus and great pressure handling, toppled the rivals and became the junior World Champions of 50 overs cricket.

What all Blue Caramelers should learn from these incidents is that "It is all in the mind". You are a winner or a looser based on what and how you think. Many battles in life are won or lost in the mind, even before the battle actually takes place. Lets all look forward to being man enough to take on life and its battles as they come and emerge victorious and not declare ourselves loosers even before we actually face them.

The Indian Olympic Heroes!

So, 12th August saw the culmination of the sporting extravaganza- the XXX London Olympics. The USA emerged the greatest sporting power of the world pipping Asian giants China at the very fag end of the games. In fact, China, which won its first Olympic medal only in 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics, has improved leaps and bounds in the subsequent Olympics to emerge as a sporting Superpower with 87 medals in the London Olympics including 38 Gold medals. India on the other hand, though it came up with its best ever medal haul of 6 medals (no Gold), lagged behind at the 55nd position.

The heroes for India this Olympic are all diminutive sports persons from the field of Wrestling, Shooting, Boxing and Badminton. The heroes from the wrestling arena were Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt who won a silver and bronze medal respectively. Both the wrestlers overcame physically superior opponents and also injuries suffered during their respective bouts to hand India, their best ever Olympics wrestling performance. Sushil Kumar, infact became the first Indian sports person ever to win 2 Olympics medals. His silver medal at London was an improvement from the bronze that he had won at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

From the shooting arena, the unexpected hero to emerge was Vijay Kumar Sharma from an obscure village in Himachal Pradesh, a soldier in the Indian army. When his Russian opponent in the preliminary stages broke the world record, he came under immense pressure. He withstood the pressure and moved into the final and held his nerve to garner the silver medal. The other medal from the shooting arena came from the illustrious shooter Gagan Narang who overcame the disappointment of the loss of reigning champion Abhinav Bindra at the prelim rounds to bag the bronze medal in the finals.

Magnificent MC Mary Kom, from a small village in Manipur, that has virtually no infrastructure became India's first women boxing medalist, when she won the bronze medal in her 51 kg category. This pugilist, a mother of two, with a never say die attitude, smashed social as well as physical barriers on her way to Olympic glory.

Similarly, Saina Nehwal from a village in Haryana, notorious for it female foeticide cases, emerged as the first Indian woman to bag a medal in the Olympics, when she won a bronze in the Badminton games. A true tribute to the determination and will power of Indian women.

All in all, a much improved performance from the Indian athletes this time from their previous appearances, though the elusive gold medal remained just that, elusive. The thing that need to be imbibed by all Blue Caramelers from the heroes of this year's Olympics is to understand the fact that all of them had to face tremendous hardships and sufferings in their quest for Olympics glory. It would have been easier for them to just quit and enjoy life. Why would a mother like Mary Kom be away from her family and comforts of her environs? The reason is passion that these sport persons have to become winners. All it takes is to stand the eight time after you have fallen down seven times, to emerge as a true Hero and a winner for life, but unfortunately people with limited thinking and no zest for life, who are sure shot loosers, have difficulty in recognizing this reality! 

Anna Hazare, Saina Nehwal and us!

The start of the month of August has seen action in a variety of spheres but two spheres have dominated the rest, the political sphere and the sports arena. The fast onto death by Team Anna members and the exploits of team India at the London Olympics have hogged the headlines.

The "Fast onto Death" campaign against Corruption and a stronger Jan Lokpal Bill by Team Anna in Delhi caught the eye balls of the masses but in the end turned out to be a damp squib. This turn of events happened exactly an year after the first phase of "India Against Corruption", initiated by Anna Hazare and his team, reached a crescendo and got the support of most Indians. Whereas the last time Team Anna was able to rally thousands who identified themselves with the movement, not only in Delhi but also in all parts of the country, this time neither that the supporters came in hordes nor was there any palpable energy amongst those who came. The end result, Team Anna went the way that will further alienated a large number of its supporters, the Political way. Instead of remaining a social movement as was envisaged, the India Against Corruption movement has announced its political aspirations in the 2014 Indian General Election. As for Team Anna,  which once stood as a beacon of hope for innumerable Indians who were fed up with Corruption in everyday life, it was promptly disbanded by Anna Hazare after the unsuccessful Aug12 campaign. So, a movement which caught the imagination of the Indians, a sure winner if channelized properly became a cropper. The reason?

Saina Nehwal, the ace shuttler from India created history at the London Olympics when she defeated Wang Xin to win the bronze medal in Women's Badminton event. She became the first Indian to win a Badminton medal in the Olympics. Though Saina beat her opponents hardly breaking a sweat in the preliminary rounds, she was beaten in the semi finals by Wang Yihan, her higher ranked opponent. Now, if she had to realize her dream of securing an Olympics medal she had beat Wang Xin. In the bronze play off as well, Saina seemed to be all at loss against the all conquering Chinese. A sure loss seemed imminent. But she won (though her opponent retired). The reason?

There is an English adage "Strike when the Iron is Hot" and that is the reason for the failure and success of Team Anna and Saina Nehwal. Team Anna had all the winning cards with it. The sympathy of the masses, the righteousness of the path chosen, a leader of Anna Hazare's impeccable honesty and simplicity and a government which was on a "political suicide" mission. The masses shared the team's ideology and wanted the team to spur into action to delivered them from the mess that day to day life had on offer. The Team dithered and gave the forces opposing them ample time to re-group and devise a strategy that actually put the main points of the movement in to cold storage. So, the Hot Iron was put into a Cold Storage and the result is for everybody to see.

Saina on the other hand had good fortune on her side as well. Nearing the end of the first game, the Chinese hurt her leg but was back on court after some medication and even won the first game. Saina seizing on this god sent opportunity, started playing shots that put more pressure on Wang's injured leg. The result, Wang retired hurt and the medal was for Saina to take.

For all Blue Caramelers, the simple thing to learn from these two incidents is when you get an opportunity, you have to make it count. If you dont strike the Iron when it is Hot, you will repent the day, when the Iron which you could have molded in anyway you wanted, puts you in despair for its rigidity!