No Limits to what a human being can achieve

We, finally, do have a comment on the statement that I had mentioned on my first post. Good to read it. Another gentleman, whom I met in the morning today, says he will be posting a comment soon. Lets just wait for some more time before I put my own thoughts about the statement here.

Some of my friends, who have read my posts, told me that they like my blog and are looking forward to more posts from me. I request all these friends of mine to go ahead and post their comments about my posts in this blog itself, rather than telling me about them via some other means (like email or social networking sites).

Before I proceed any further, I would like to tell you all that whatever I say in this blog will be based on what I have read, seen, heard and observed during my short existence on our planet in my current form,i.e, the form the readers of this blog know as Niko (a rather heavy statement,aye?!!). I do NOT claim to be any kind of guru (or a spiritual leader) who goes about spreading 'gyaan' (or knowledge).I am here to improve on my own knowledge of things and widen my horizon with the help of all the active participants of this blog.

Moving ahead, there is something that I want to talk about today. A few days ago, I was talking to a relative of mine. We talked about a few different things before we started talking about his son. He told me that his son, who will be finishing school this year, was planning to go abroad for further studies. I asked him the reason for that and he gave me various different reasons as to why his son should go abroad and attend college there. Since I was not convinced about these reasons, I asked him whether his son was going to try for admissions in the IITs ( The IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) are considered to be the best institutes in India for engineering studies and mean the same to Indians as MIT to Americans, Bauman to the Russians, etc.). On hearing my question, my relative replied that his son was not even thinking of getting into the IITs, that he understood exactly where he stands and that he knew that he will never be able to get into any one of them. I was completely taken aback by this answer, or rather I was shocked,in fact, appalled to hear such an answer. The entrance exam to the IITs for this year has not been conducted yet, my relative's son has never appeared for them (yet) and here we had already assumed that he will fail the test. I have always believed that there is no limit to what a man can achieve.I believe that the human mind is capable of infinite things and that there is nothing that a man cannot achieve, provided he is willing to apply himself to achieving that goal (didn't someone once say that the word impossible did not exist in his dictionary?). Coming back to my relative and his son, this boy, who is around 17-18 yrs of age, has already been taught to stay as they say 'within his limits'. I am getting a feeling that this boy, as things stand today, probably will never push his mind and body to the limits, that he will never attempt things which seem difficult and he will probably run away from every difficult situation that he encounters in life, thinking that he will not be able to overcome them, just as he has already given up on the idea of studying in one of the best institutes in the country (and also amongst the best in the world). He, probably, will not be able to make any significant contribution to the people around him and the society at large unless his thinking and attitude change. Someone once said that every battle is won before it is fought (as I understand it, it is won in the mind before it is actually fought - in short you have to have the winning attitude). I think the parents of this boy need to do some serious thinking (I think the school to which this boy goes to is also to blame for putting such negative ideas in his mind) and find out ways of changing this mindset. Lets just hope that somebody from this boy's family reads what I have said here and maybe we can still set things right.

That's all for now, will talk to you all again tomorrow.

Till then, bye and god bless.

Here is something worth reading (please note that the poem below is not written by me but I have been reading it, off and on, for a very long time now):

If you think...

If you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you don't.

If you like to win but think you can't

It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost.

For out of the world we find

Success begins with a fellows' will.

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.

You've got to think high to rise;

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man;

But sooner or later the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can.