Although some achievements like being the state topper in matriculation, or getting into one of the topmost engineering colleges, look significant to people close to me, I differ.
This takes me back to 1999 when the eastern coastal state of Orissa in India was ravaged by a super-cyclone (officially called Cyclone 05B). I volunteered to be with one of the teams doing relief work.
I call this as an achievement because I found myself working with the army, handing over food packets to people who were hungry enough to kill each other for a handful of rice - I found myself collecting floating corpses so that they could be burnt before deteriorating further - drove a jeep in knee-deep mud to rescue kids surrounded by flood waters - and could not forget the face of hunger and calamity plus a determination to survive for the joy of life. Strangely enough, I also witnessed the worst faces of humans when I saw things like robbery, bribery and rapes even in such dire situations - it metamorphosed me emotionally as well as intellectually.
It taught me how to look beyond categories of people, and showed me the core of life's existence. As I sit today in my office in an air-conditioned environment, I feel one with Mahatma Gandhi's description of his experiences in the Red Cross camps of South Africa (1906). I learned to have a vision bigger than individualistic goals and to 'be' the change that I want to see. It taught me real leadership when a single decision can save as well as jeopardize lives. It brought out the real leader in me. Life teaches..Powered by ScribeFire.
