Why not first?

The world always looks at the person who’s the first. In this rate race, we all want to emerge winners. Nobody ever remembered the person who came second. Does that make the person at the second position inferior? Nope. It takes effort to even come second. One has to aim for the top and not all can be the winners.

I recently went to a parent teacher meeting. The kid who stood first was being praised by all; mothers made a role model almost instantly. The kid who came second stood away from the glory, his mother whispering “U too can be there next session, just work a bit extra hard my dear.” The teacher praised his talent however, gave the same gyan and the poor kid gave a helpless smile. The topper looked at him and gave him a “I am a topper look”. Watching this, from a distance, I was surprised. In a class of 40 bright students, getting the second position was also an achievement. Why not be happy and content with what u achieved today than dismissing it for better prospects in an unknown future? I wondered what we are teaching our generation. On one hand, we say, “there’s too much stress, take it easy”, on other hand, we smartly declare that anything below the top is just not acceptable. 

We all remember the person who climbed Mr Everest first, put the first foot on moon, etc etc. So does that wash it out for the second person?

Then, there are times when getting the second position is purely a work of destiny. A friend, who is a typical Mills & Boons afficionado, was cribbing recently that she is her boyfriend’s second love. She cried and wished she had met him a few years ago so that she would get his first love which would have been ideal, more romantic, blah blah blah! I tried to comfort her by telling her that it’s the present that matters, not the past. As long as their love gives them enough happiness, that’s the best for them. Even gave her some celeb examples. But she went on and on and gave me such arguments about the concept of one’s first love in life that surprised me. Nevertheless, I gave her some gyan about being content with what we have and also gave her a chocolate.

Recently, at a shop, as soon as I picked up a kurta, a lady came and said, “this is so beautiful, I was looking at this, but by the time I came to pick it, u had already picked it up. I won’t even get the same combination now”. There were several other good kurtas in the store, but since I had picked up this good Kurta first, she wasn’t willing to explore the second best alternative. “Wow, so this is like coming first in race”, I thought and smiled.

Me wonderzzz ….

The race has made winning such an important task that every day and everywhere, I see people striving to be the first one -be it in queues, corporate world, or even shops. Have written previously about it here...

Was trying to find some images from Google for this blog and here are some real funny ones I found!