August 04, 2007

“Oh! Martin you failed to clear the examination!” exclaimed David, poking his nose into Martin’s report book. “Yeah, I… f-failed once again,” Martin stammered and rushed to his home straightaway. Martin was 15 years old and studied in Stratford School in England. He had been dreading this result. This time Martin had not studied the way he usually does and so had to face the consequence!

“Why did this happen? What made me lose? Was I not serious this time? Did I get too much involved with my friends?” He kept on thinking. He jumped up from his bed and stood still gazing out of his bedroom window. He could see a pale moon hanging low over the bare trees. The charcoal-grey sky matched his mood.

Adjusting his eyes to the dull colours of the night, Martin prepared himself for the hard work and difficulties ahead; he had finally realised that he had given priority to his friends instead of his studies. ‘I will do it this time with a strong determination and an excellent management of my priorities!’ Martin could feel his muscles tightening and his heart pumping blood faster to his brain in order to start right from now.

The next day, Martin was more attentive at school and studied hard at home. “No David, I will not be able to reach your place for the mid-night party today! I have got a test tomorrow, sorry!” Martin hung up the phone and hurried to his study room to continue with his studies. This schedule became a daily routine.

As time passed by, Martin started scoring well and had studied properly for his next examination. Now, it was the result day and Martin was pretty nervous…

“Now I should put an end to the suspense and reveal the first position… On first place is…” The teacher paused. Her words followed a dramatic silence. Martin felt a combination of frustration and excitement.

“Martin Granger! Well done boy, I am proud of you!” The teacher exclaimed heartily. Martin could not believe his ears! There was no parallel to his excitement! Martin dragged himself to get his report book and a flush of excitement rushed through his face when his eyes confirmed the first position on his report.

Gradually, pride begin to dominate Martin and his success in examination brought him under the impression that it will always come to him now; he grew over-confident and ruled-out the possibility of failure.

“Do not worry David I will be definitely coming to your place today for the mid-night party!”

“You have a test tomorrow, do you remember?” His mother reminded him.

“I know! You have seen my grades now; I need not be worrying about the test. The teacher is quite impressed.” Martin said. He attended the party and did not prepare for his test. Going to parties and hanging out became Martin’s daily routine and as a result he found no time for his studies!

Consequently, he failed in his test and failures became more frequent in his school life and the result day of his examination came once again.

“Oh! Martin you failed to clear the examination again!” exclaimed David out of sheer frustration, poking his nose into Martin’s report book.

“Yeah, I… f-failed once again,” Martin stammered and rushed to his home straightaway.

This time it did not take long for Martin to realise what had caused this drastic change. Looking at the “Fail” remark on his report book, Martin exclaimed, “Failure is easy to cope with; it is success that is difficult!” i