Medical Chronicles Part 1

I have completed my engineering. But, this post is not about how awesome my 4 years at IITM was. This is just a post I had written long before, but I hadn't published it. I would be releasing the story in parts. This is the first part.

“Swagat hai aap sab ka break ke baad iss adhbhut khel mein jise hum kehte hai KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI!”, boomed the voice of the star himself, Amitabh Bachchan.

The guy sitting opposite found himself staring blankly into the red and blue neon lights. And then the familiar male baritone sounded again, “Mere saath aaj hot seat par baithe hai Durgapur ke Mr. Sayan Roy aur wo 25 lakh rupaye jeet chuke hai.”

His heart skipped a bit; one wrong answer and he would be out with only Rs. 3,20,000. He turned to the audience stand, he could see his Mom and Dad beaming, but dangling on the edge of their seats. 

Big B propelled the game forward by asking the penultimate question; “50 lakh rupaiyon ke liye ye raha aapka agla sawaal.”

Q. Which one of the following tranformations accurately describes “Apospory”?

a. Embryo from nucleus
b. Embryo from integuement

c. Embryo from egg of an embryo sac developed directly from megaspore mother cell

d. Embryo from egg of an embryo sac developed directly from a cell nucleus

It was a tough question, but deep down he swore that he had seen the question somewhere. This was the moment of truth, if only he could crack this, nothing could stop him. He was quite confident of his eidetic memory.  In his mind, he ruffled the pages of the botany book. The term ‘Apospory’ ringed a bell, but not so loud that he would point out the right answer. He had used all the 3 lifelines; one on a question of history, one on politics and the last one on Olympics! None of these were his strong subjects.

But, this one was his childhood buddy. Biology was his life. He could have thrived on chromosomes and cancer for his whole life. But, he couldn’t believe that biology was ditching me, when he needed it the most. He murmured to himself, "Et tu Bio?"

He eliminated the first 2 options by logic, but couldn’t pick between C and D.

“Megaspore or Cell Nucleus?, he whispered, seeing the saint-like face opposite to me from the corner of my eyes, begging for some kind of help.

He only got a reassuring smile, but no answer came forward. He had to take his risks, after all that is what he had learnt till now.

“Option C”, he said, removing the cough in his throat.

“Confident? Lock kar diya jaye?”  Big B asked in his male baritone, about whether he should lock the answer.

 “Yes”, He replied.

“Computer ji, please lock option C”

He felt a sudden thrust from above, like he was caught in a whirl wind of some sort. The answer clicked in his mind now. He had made the wrong choice. It was D. But, he could not come back. It was like all his dreams were being washed, one by one.

Just then a sudden jolt woke him up. It was his room-mate, Anand. He spoke in a hurried fashion, “Wake up dude, it’s already 8.30. The exam starts at 9!” 

Rising from the Ashes

This is a post which was long overdue. My last post was in last summer and I almost forgot that I even had a paltry blog of any kind. I had predicted long back that this would happen. I always knew that I would never keep up blogging! But, somehow again, miraculously, I have the zeal back in place. 

To be honest, two things triggered this "Rise from the Ashes". One, an Indian victory in cricket! Yes, that too can happen! You, read it right! India, after 16 matches finally won an International match! I know, its not a big deal. It was a T20 after all. But, sometimes, it is important to come back to winning ways. As Anita Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle point out in their book "The Winning Way", winning is a habit which is inculcated by winning teams. I remember a cricket match described in the same book, pertaining to this same phenomenon. It was a test match in 2006 between Aussies and Bangladesh. Bangladesh was staring into victory because Australia were tottering at 145/6 at end of Day 2 after Bangladesh scored 427. But, then Gilchrist, led from the front and scored a marvelous century. Still, the odds were in favor of Bangladesh. And, after that century of Gilchrist, Bangladesh just collapsed like a house of cards in their second innings. It was disastrous and Australia won the match by 3 wickets. This happened because when you lose strings of matches, you don't know how to react when you are in a winning position. Hence, the importance is rise from the ashes. Rather, to be precise, it is to know how to rise from the ashes. To be mathematically sound (which I am not!), India had a good probability to win one game out of 17 matches! But, the important thing is they grabbed it with both hands, when it arrived.    

The second thing today which taught me the importance of rising from the ashes is an interactive lecture by Sunil Handa. He is an IIM-A professor. You can read about him in the chapter called "The Alchemist" is Rashmi Bansal's Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. In short, he is a successful entrepreneur who gives entrepreneurial motivation and lectures to students. His mantra in life is simple: "Fight, Fall down, Get up, Fight, Fall down. Get up, Fight......." For him, his 7th idea struck gold. So, he rose from the ashes 7 times before taking a plunge into the limitless sky. You can savour the sweetness of success only if you have worked your ass off! You can't just sit around waiting for the right opportunity. You need to keep fighting till you win!
Something which I feel is most important in keeping the fighting spirit going is Perseverance. In sports, they call it "stamina". If you would have seen the recently concluded Australian Open final, you would have understood what stamina actually means! If there was one parameter in which Djokovic was way ahead of Nadal, it was STAMINA! In a high-octane tennis grand slam final, which lasted almost a record 6 hours, it is safe to say that the only thing which drove it Djoker's way was his perseverance. It is similar in entrepreneurship, as Mr. Handa points out. You need to "Be Stubborn". Yes, you need to be nagging wife to be a good entrepreneur! 

For me, this lecture was more about knowing things which one always knows. Its all common sense, but again in the complexities of life, the simplicity gets lost somewhere. Hence, I would just like to jot down a few points which I felt that it would help me in life, not only in entrepreneurship.

1. Fight for yourself:  In life, you would only fight for things which belong to you. No one else would come to fight your war because its your money, your company, your baby. Your life is at stake and hence it is logical that you would do anything to win the war. No one is going to play Jesus, so stand for yourself.
2. Inspire Yourself: You are your own teacher. Why is it that in a class of 100, only 1 or 2 people turn their start ups into successful companies. The teaching is same for everybody. It is on the concerned person how he actually inspires himself by the sermons!  Even if you are down, keep inspiring yourself. Keep looking at the positive side.
3. Have Faith: If you keep running in the race, there is good enough probability that you would strike gold. Just have faith in yourself, your idea, your belief, your strengths. No one knows you better than you yourself. Have faith on your winning spirit.
4. Carve your own path: You would not learn on how to run your own company from other's experiences. Every one carves their own path. That is law of nature. So, keep experimenting, keep an open mind, keep questioning others and steadily move about carving your own path. You have to solve your problems on your own. People can advice, suggest, give consultations. But, it is you who needs to solve it!
5. Be Inquisitive: You need to ask questions, if you want to make it big. You won't get the answers immediately, you would need to strive for it. Keep questioning status-quo, else you would never attain innovation.    
6. Be Stubborn: You need to act like a persistent kind to become a successful entrepreneur. You need to be have that tenacity to stay steadfast when there is a strong wind on your way. You need to stick to your words, your vision, your dream how much ever people scorn at you. Because, one day, that contempt would turn into solid respect.
7. Passion doesn't come on its own: People spend their lives searching for their passion. But, in reality, they don't actually search. They just sit there in their normal vicious lives and keep waiting for their passion to arrive at their doorsteps one fine day. That's not gonna happen, mate! So, its time you pick your lazy ass up and start working. You don' find passion; you develop passion! And, that would happen only if you start something! 
8. If you don't know something, Learn it: This is one of the best advices I have ever got in recent time. In every strata of life, people keep complaining, "I don't know about this. How will I do it?" The answer is simple. Learn it! Yes, there is no other way. If you have no freaking clue about something, you need to learn about it!
9. Invest in people: After a start up takes off, the most important thing is people. Learn a bitter truth. You would never ever get the best people for your company. Because, the best people are already working in bigger companies with fatter salaries. So, you need to take something raw and then make an asset out of it. You need to shower love, affection and trust on these people. Because, then they would remain loyal to you. There would be a few people, who would not change even after 3-4 years. But, there would a few people, who would stay close to you and multiply your turnover multiple times! 
10. Lose the safety net: Mr. Handa's logic was simple. If you feel that your value is worth a lakh per month, then stick to your 'safe' job. But, if you feel that no one can put a price on you, then lose the safety net immediately. Having the IIT / IIM tag does not guarantee safety. People can be sacked anytime. According to Mr. Handa, the safest job is in your own company. 

I know that most of you won't reach till the end of this post. Frankly, even I would not have. I have written this for myself more than anybody else. Sometimes, when I am down, when I feel clean bowled, be it any situation, I would just read this post and know that you need to be a phoenix to rise from the ashes! As of now, I can just hope that my blog has finally risen after such a long hiatus!