Two Great Failures In One Year.

The year 2008 welcomed me with a blast. A horrible blast guised as a bike accident.

I was heading back home from a New Year party at one of my friend’s house in a reserved forest area. Intoxicated, I wasn’t able to see clearly the jungle along a curve. A sudden brake; that’s what I could and I did it. My bike and I rammed into the bushes and got stuck in terrible silence and ghostly darkness. Only light available to me was from my mobile phone display. I stumbled out of the bushes with a bleeding face and injured elbows and started waving my mobile to the passing vehicles through the road.

Two cars passed by without stopping. Finally, a biker stopped near to me. I showed the mobile display light over my bleeding face to show him that I met with an accident. He also understood that I’m drunk. With the help of the mobile light, both of us took the bike out of the bushes. He also helped me to kick-start it. Thanks to that unknown ‘God-sent’ biker. I returned home with those bloody midnight kisses.

Next day dawned with a great news: I passed the Combined Defence Services Examination (CDSE). I jumped up in joy and informed all of my friends and relatives about my achievement. My physical pain from the previous night’s drunken biking adventure vanished while enjoying the spirit of success.

It may sound ridiculous a person who got graduated in Visual Communication, plans to join the armed forces. But, my desire to join the Army is well thought and meticulously planned one. My love for an adventurous and thrilling life is the catalyst behind this aspiration.

Subsequently, I received call letter for attending the Service Selection Board (SSB) interview. I went to Bangalore for attending it on 08 May 2008. My confidence soared when I screened in. Everyone felt that since I have passed through the first phase, I would easily get through the whole process. Their confidence on me made me ultra confident. I blindly believed that I will definitely pass the interview. But, all the expectations and hope went fruitless on the conference (final) day. I failed.

My dreams got shattered. I saw hopelessness and gloom everywhere. I hope, it happens to everyone who dreams a sensible dream and fails in the course of achieving it. I found no place to escape. Library is where I spent most of my troubled times. Books told me great success stories. All the success stories of great personalities have a thing in common: failures. I got company!

I passed CDSE again in the month of August and I went to attend SSB on 28th November at Allahabad. Although screened in, SSB rejected me.

Final day of the interview, Group Testing Officer (GTO) told all the candidates:”Approximately, 1.7 lakh Indian youth write CDSE. Out of that merely 8000 pass out. Out of that 8000 just less than 50% are screened in for the interview. So, whether you get through or not, be proud in becoming a SSB candidate.” He concluded his motivational speech by saying that “If you can’t make it to army, it doesn’t mean that you are useless or unintelligent; it just means that you are not fit for this particular profession. So, whatever profession you choose, try to excel in it and do your best!” He went back to his car and drove away.

Impact of second failure on me was comparatively smaller than the former one. I’m trying to deal with my failures and learning a lot from them too.