Its raining 25.....

Infosys, the Indian IT bellweather is 25 years old, the Personal Computer turns 25 this August, MTV, the pop and youth TV channel turned 25 a short while ago. Yours truly turned 25 in January this year..

A quarter century is a fairly significant age in the lifespan of an individual. If things go as planned and lucks favors a person/institution, then 25 years should be a good enough timeframe to build a solid platform for launching into a different orbit.

Its suprising to note that, the difference between a highly successful individual/institution and an abject failure is not significantly different. Its all in that spark which I call as "the taste of success" which induces a kind of confidence and postive feedback. While people who taste success early on get spurred and enthused to reach higher frontiers, those who face failure time and again, often go in a negative spiral and feel pessimistic, risk-averse and shy to try out newer options.

The analogy that I can draw is that of a fissile dormant nuclear material and that of a nuclear reaction in progress. While its amazing to see the amount of energy being unleashed in the latter, we should not forget that the former is equally as capable and just waiting for the initial spark to trigger off a similar reaction. This trigger is what some people call as " Luck ". Being at the right place at the right time.... While luck is important, people should nevertheless not forget that we should be in a position to capitalise and pounce on the opportunities that are presented to us. We should always be student for life and keep our eyes and ears wide open...

The trigger can also be in the form of a teacher who inspires confidence in his student and shows them the endless possibilities that are awaiting them in this journey of life.