The Rise
Hello everybody, making a blog post almost after a month. The last one was “The Fall” posted on 11th December. I am really extolled by the overwhelming and comforting response that I’ve got for The Fall.Well, after a downfall comes, the rise that is a part and parcel of human life. After every sunset, there is a sunrise. Sunrise marks the advent of a new day, the advent of those 24 hours which are going to completely explicit from the previous 24. The same holds true for THE RISE after the DOWNFALL. This blogpost- THE RISE- is the sequel to THE FALL and bears within itself the story of gradual rise from the pit. I hope you all like reading this. Here I go:
I concluded my last blogpost, THE FALL, with the words:
I had been burnt in the fire to be made gold, I been rubbed against the rocks to be polished. I had been buried to rise, I had been charred to reconstruct.
I haven’t used these words to make the blogpost more flowery or melodramatic, but I meant every word of what I had written. When I said-” I had been burnt in the fire to be made gold” , Yes I had been burnt in the fire of rankling and remorse, when I said “ I been rubbed against the rocks to be polished” , Yes I had been rubbed against the rocks, rocks were such circumstances which with I battled, yet I ended up banging my head over them learning my efforts were futile. When I said, “ I had been buried to rise”, Yes I had been buried. The person I was till 10th was not seen ever after, that Anish which the world saw till 10th was buried in the High School Pages only. When I said, “ I had been charred to reconstruct”, Yes I had been charred and destroyed by the circumstances to be made a new Anish after the FALL.
To justify and expound my above statements, I would like to cite the example of reconstruction of old buildings. When a new building is to be new at the same place where an old one already exists, the contractors don’t rectify the old one, they just destroy it right from the scratch to make a new one over there. And this is what the world calls reconstruction. Same was with me, God had made sure that I lose all my academic form when I fall. The transition from 1st to 9th rank is pretty jerky for any normal human being to sustain and I was no exception. I did make some small & big attempts here and there to regain the academic status, but all futile. After an instance, I stopped battling, cause I had known that nothing had been working in the direction I wanted. May be this was the hint given by the almighty to fulfill his will through me. God, the superpower might have already written my DOWNFALL, and needless to cite that he had planned the rise to it well in advance. Before I started falling, I had begun my expedition towards RISE.
In couple of years of my fall and rise, my personality had achieved many new dimensions. From just a 1st Ranker and an average Orator, I had become Quite a Popular Orator, A Popular Host for school events ( All thanks to you Becky ), A Web Developer ( Webmaster ) and last but not the least a mediocre WRITER. Today when I look back in time , the vista of those 2 years compel me to believe that, those 2 years of my life were meant for these priorities of life and not academics. Had I not fallen then, a lot of things would have remained undone. I was unaware of this fact then, but after 12th Board, when I sat down to contemplate over the two years in Science Stream, I learnt that I hadn’t fallen, but indeed I had risen. I shall now mention in detail, the stages of my recovery from the FALL.
Betting over the tamed horse:
After the first term result, the majority had known about my FALL. People knew my results and at times it would become a good point to discuss and mock at me. After a point of time I had been hearing such things so often that I had become indifferent to the situation. I had hardly been bothering then about my academic status. But, at the same time, there were people who made me realize that I wasn’t an empty jug then, there was still potential, and if I couldn’t rise completely, I could atleast get my situation better. I owe my academic restoration to all my teachers and friends who had provided continual encouragement to me to rise back and fight back.
I remember one very special incidence. It was 11th standard picnic to Hathidara. We had reached the hill there. I was with Darshan Sir, Ali Sir, Rebecca, Ritika and Co. Somebody I don’t remember who took out the topic of my result and it came out ki I don’t come 1st now. Ali Sir was like “Consistent rehna bahot difficult hai”. I had no answer to it because I knew he was cent percent correct. But I was too surprised to hear what Darshan Sir just said to him next moment. He was like, “Anish you need not worry. Its time to leap! Ali Sir, when you are to jump, you first put your foot backward. Have you seen a frog? When it jumps, it first stances backward.” I had no words to thank Darshan Sir for what he had just said, therefore I kept mum.
Also I remember, I had just started going on Activa to school after 1st Term Results in 11th. I and Savitri teacher used to almost leave togather many a times. So I would drop her till the Bus Stop. She happened to ask about my results one day, and as expected she too was left disgusted hearing my result. She said surprisingly, “Why such marks Anish?” I argued, “Teacher these are not bad marks. I am in top 10 of my class, isn’t that enough?” She was like “You ask yourself and tell me if it’s enough.” I had got my answer. I had known ki teachers, whom I consider my best well wishers after my parents still had the same level of expectations from me. I remember my meeting with Shekhawat teacher just after the results. Shekhawat teacher had called me up personally and said, “Anish we have high expectations from you. We don’t want people saying Anish WAS. We want people saying Anish IS and Anish WILL.”
All these inspiring instances with my teachers made me feel how indebted I am to them for their trust, love and the knowledge they’ve given me. It makes no difference to a teacher whether Anish comes first or somebody else, but I thank God for that special bond in which he has bound me to my teachers, which makes my teachers wish to see me on the peak in whatever I do.
Not only to the teachers, but I owe a lot of what I am today to Ma’am Mrs.Best. I had been sitting on the last bench near the backdoor of the class in 11th and 12th both. It had become a routine for me to receive Madam in the class through the backdoor everyday and greet her first. There have been number of instances when Ma’am would tell me “Work hard, I want you in Board. You missed it in 10th , I don’t want to miss you to miss it in 12th.” Whenever I have met her personally, she used to tell., “ I am praying for you , so you all get good marks and be at good places tomorrow”. To hear these encouraging and soothing words from Madam in person would boost up my moral. I am so indebted to her for all her encouragement and prayers. I had been telling it to my friends also. Some call me Madam’s and Teacher’s PET due to the special respect they hold in my heart. If people think I am Madam’s PET, I am proud to be one, if people think I am Teacher’s PET, then I am proud to be one. In return to their blessings and prayers, me being their PET is a very meager compensation.
Till date, these lines, these encouragements and these moments are fresh and alive in my mind. Due to this little encouragement from my teachers and Ma’am I could manage to get the situation better in 12th and get admission in a well reputed institute like DDU(DDIT).
To justify the title of this section ”Betting over the tamed horse” , all these people, specially teachers knew very well that I may not be able to make in Top 10 in the Boards, Top 10 in the boards was MORE THAN MAKE BELIEVE, even being in Top 10 of the school was difficult then. Still, they prayed and they wished for the OPTIMUM, the rank the position in board. I remember Pillai Sir, whenever I had missed a single lecture, he would sit with me in person and get the portion covered up. It was too difficult for a busy professor like Mr.Pillai to invest his 1 or 1.5 hour explicitly to get the portion covered for a single guy personally. But still he did. He could devote this 1 or 1.5 to a guy of better academic potential than me. He could give this 1 or 1.5 hour to a guy scoring 95+ so he could get a 100 in boards and get good name to his classes. But he didn’t. I will remain indebted to him for this kind gesture of his. All these people, placed their bet over a tamed and impotent horse (ME), who had already lost the race even before racing. Rather it will be appropriate to say that they had placed their bet over the horse which was not in the race for TOP 10 even. But still, they did.
And all thanks to their bet(which came in the form of their trust in me and their encouragement to me), that I am in a good Engineering University today.
Making of a Host:
I had been quite a good orator till 10th. I had been very comfortable over the stage in front of huge crowd. Never had stage fear hampered me. But hosting the events in the school, I thought was not my cup of tea. But there was a twist to it. On 15th August 2008, we had a small function in the school on account of Independence day. Rebecca was supposed to host it. She was searching for a co-host, but I guess she couldn’t find one. She asked me if I could do it. I said I don’t mind but I don’t know how to host and stuff. I said if the script is prepared, I can speak well. She was like no, you gotta be spontaneous there and don’t worry I will be with you there and hence I agreed. At that instances, I never knew that would be one of the biggest turning point for the coming two years. I went to school then, dressed up in a Host’s attire, Professional Shirt-Pants and tie. The event started and we begun to introduce the performances one by one. Rebecca in the midst of the event had some work to address so I was given an opportunity to do majority of the work, and I did. The whole program went on smoothly. And after it, I was flooded with compliments and appreciation from everybody. I don’t know what extraordinary thing I had done that day, that people liked me hosting the events. I still remember, after the function that day, I was standing with Becky and Ma’am when Kalpana teacher called me. She was standing with a group of girls, probably our seniors who had asked her to call me up to them. She was like, “Anish good job. See, these girls want to tell you something.” I had got an eye of the situation and yes I was expecting compliments from them. And yes, those girls were like, “ You know what you did a fantastic job. For the first time we have seen a guy hosting an event so like……..” Hearing this , I was on cloud 9, I literally wanted to dance then and there. I couldn’t let the happiness stay with in me. And above everything, compliments from teachers and Ma’am meant a lot to me. Those memories are still afresh in my mind.
After that day, I was given the opportunity to host almost every event program that had happened in the school. Be it talent, or 15th Aug and 26th Jan Programs, or the Youth Days. I have hosted 3 Talent functions of the school consecutively till now and it feels great. All thanks to Rebecca (it’s she who had made me a host) and ofcourse Nili Madam and Esther Madam for they’ve had a lot of faith in me and they’ve given me lot of opportunities to project myself as a good host. Everytime I’ve descended the stage after hosting the Talent Show, I had been welcomed by lots and lots of compliments from people. To cite a few, the last time I hosted the Talent Function, 30th Oct 2010, being an ex-student I was received so warmly by the audiences. The teachers from Primary section cheering from the front row, the audience responding in a friendly manner as never before and to Top it over, I remember Madam Mrs.Best saying, “Aaanish, you’ve done a great job. You have handled the audience so well. I think I shall call you in every program henceforth.” Same was the reaction of Zilla Ma’am. I was so humbled to hear such kind words. Only a performer knows how it feels being valued for your work. Even today, people 5-6 years to junior to me in the school know me, and they call me by the name HOST and give a sweet smile. It feels so great to receive such warm attention from people. On one hand, when I had been deprived the privilege of receiving attention for my academic rank, I was given the privilege of receiving double the attention for my hosting and oratory work.
Therefore, I consider my being a HOST a part of my rise. I had never been in attention deficit due to this. I had hardly felt the people/audience neglecting me. Hosting gave a new dimension to my personality and reconstruction.
Birth of a Webmaster:
Many people over RTW and outside ask me, “Anish how did you become a Webmaster?” I reply, “I didn’t become a Webmaster, I was made a Webmaster”. Webmaster the term is self-explanatory, which says Webmaster is a person who has mastered the Web. But in Website Terminology it is not so. Webmaster is a person who makes the website. Planning for RTW’s Making had started since July 2008, and you all might have read the four part of RTW’s making, titled Birth of a Planet-Planet RTW. In 11th, specifically the first time, I was too much occupied with the website building part. The reason being, I had just played in shallow waters till then, and I was working with a BIG WEBSITE, a REAL WEBSITE, which was gonna be the Official Fansite of Rajat Tokas. I gave my Ten Thousand percent to that.
I was just a 16 year old kid then, and right from domain registration to Web Hosting setup, all responsibilities had to be shouldered by me. I was dealing with all this for the first time in life. These things which most of the people do after becoming and IT/CS Engineer, I was doing it at a small age of 16. I am not boasting about myself indicating that I had done something extraordinary, not at all ! I would spent my days and night researching about domains, web hosting, forums, coding , this that and blah blah. I didn’t even a have a concrete Development Team at that time to help me. I was the designer, programmer everything. I just had Wagma to help me financially and Priti then in the later stage. All this took me away from the gloomy atmosphere of my fall which had surrounded me.
Soon after RTW started, I used to remain occupied 24 x 7 to address the problems there and making it a success. Handling such a big website was no cake walk. Of course the DEV TEAM had always been there to share my responsibilities, but even after that the residue was colossal. The friendly atmosphere there and my bonding with the DEV TEAM, took me away from the Rank & Academic Business. I understood what I wanted. Making RTW a huge success had become my passion then. Each day I would try out different possibilities to get Rajat Fans a step closer to Rajat Tokas. I would proudly boast in the name of Lord that there is barely any such website on WWW which has got the stars and the fans THIS CLOSE.
As more and more people started joining it, RTW became a family from just a cluster of Dynamic PHP Function Calls and Database Queries. Today, when people on RTW say ki “RTW is our 2nd home”, I felt our (RTW DEV TEAM) being paid off.
I would sound very stupid if I say that I actually feel like a father for RTW. The reason being, I had given birth to RTW. I have seen it from nothing to everything. As a baby fills its parents’ world happiness, so did RTW for me. It kept me occupied making me forget all my qualms. And now today, it has flourished being a damn successful website. The statistics say it all. It’s the biggest website on any single Indian Television Star. More than 7200 members in 2 years and 15,000 average pageviews a day. No wonder, people over other website envy RTW so much.
As a child’s success makes his father proud in his surrounding, so did RTW make me proud. I have always been spreading a word about RTW wherever I have found a television buff. And today, it has just been some 5 months in my college, but quite a many people in the university know that this guy is a WEBMASTER. Indeed RTW contributed a lot in making me rise from ashes…
Approaching the Magnum Opus in Writing:
As a school student I had always been fascinated by literature in whatever language it be- Gujarati, Hindi, English or Sanskrit. I have never considered languages as ancillary subjects. I have taken them as seriously as PCM, but I never knew this practice of mine had a big part to play in my future. I used to write essays in the exams fairly well. I used to help Priyanshi with her writings in the 10th. During this period, I had to raise the bar for my vocabulary and the quality of my writings, because I was writing for a girl studying in IGCSE board and the Gujarat board language and level would not work there. That is when I started my grooming as a writer.
Then somewhere in September 2008 in 11th standard, we had THE SCHOOL POST people visiting our school. We had been called to submit our Newscast Reports to them to be published in the Newspaper. As I got to know ki its a newspaper, I got hooked. At that time, I was tracking the Nuclear Deal between India and the States quite closely. I had a nice piece written on the same. I submitted it to Shreeti Ma’am(Co-Founder of The School Post), and I was fortunate enough to get my article published in the first go. They liked my work and since then till date I’ve been writing for various sections of THE SCHOOL POST regularly. The fact that I was writing for a newspaper made me more conscious about my writing skills. I started brushing up my grammar, increasing my vocabulary and reading magazines to track the current issues. Also, I won’t forget to thank my English teacher- Deepa Teacher- who actually took the initiative to take our English to a different level.
Gradually, I found my writings getting better. I started receiving positive feedbacks from The School Post Management and the Subscribers. They had been loving my articles in TEEN POST Section. The ones like Except Expectations, Obsession, Success and its Changing Definition have received great appreciation from the readers. I was never interested in writing. But Time and Priyanshi made me one. Today, I include Writing too in the list of my hobbies.
The best part of writing I feel is, you can put all your feelings out in the piece. I am such a guy who has hardly been sharing his joys and woes with anybody. Therefore, writing plays its part here. I put all my feelings out in this and feel light. Whatever comes out on the screen is direct DIL SE. May be due to that I have got acclamation as a writer, though an average one. Thus, writing too gave shape to the new Anish who was rising.
Finally the Dawn:
This is the concluding section of the blogpost. I mentioned 5 major attributes that contributed in building the new ME in ME. At the end of the 2 years i.e. the 12th Board, I was transformed as a person. I no longer owed my identity and existence in people’s minds and heart to my 1st Rank. God had induced a lot of attributes in me to make people remember me over various occasions.
Not only did the FALL end up in reconstructing me, but also it ended up in fetching me decent results in 12th Board. I had fared quite well compared to the 11th standard to live up to my parents’ expectations. I have been so thankful to God for showing me the FALL and the RISE so gently. I was in his safe hands during every hardship. Today I thank him each day for making me rise at the right time. It feels great to see my parents being happy seeing me studying in DDIT(the 5th Best Emerging University in India as per CSR). Had I not been able to fare well in 12th Board, I might have never been able to forgive myself for defying the expectations of my parents and teachers. I know they did expect a lot more than I fared, but compared to the circumstances I had been through, my result was pretty good. Had I not been lifted by God, I would have ended up scoring a 50-60% and studying in a not so good college. But praise be to the lord, who held me in his hand continually and bestowed his grace upon me at the right time.
I don’t regret at all for losing my 1st Rank, instead I thank God for showing me the downfall. Had I not been through that, so many things wouldn’t have existed today. I would not have been a WEBMASTER, I wouldn’t have been a Writer, a Blogger, I wouldn’t have been a good HOST/ORATOR. Had I academically ranked 1st in Science, I would have ended up in being a nerd who just keeps on studying day in and day out without any extra curricular activities. I give all the praise to the Lord who made me learn the philosophy of life along with physics and chemistry. I give all the praise to the lord who made me a Webmaster and a Writer along with making me an IT Engineer. I give all the praise to the Lord for reconstructing me. Had I been the old Anish, I would have just been a High Scorer and not a High Performer.
Having sailed through experiences glum and joyful,tough and turbulent, I’ve fortified myself to face such downfalls (God forbid) again. All humans are prone to fall and I am no exception. But in the name of my Lord, I say if I encounter a Fall again, it wont affect me. IT WILL BE JUST A SLIP AND NOT A FALL………
Here I end my blogpost, THE RISE. Let me know through your comments here: http://ibelievethat.in/blog/the-rise if you liked it.
P.S. Please excuse me if I have been boastful at places, I give all the glory to my Lord for whatever prowess I bear within me. I know from the points I have cited about me, I’ve spoken quite a lot about myself, but from the bottom of my heart, I believe, its just God’s grace that works for me. God deserves all the praise for all the good and miraculous deeds in my life.
Love & Regards,
Anish.
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