The Woes Of Being Perfect!

All of us have our own share of worries and set of troubles, which are exclusive. To put it simplistically, the one thing common to all our sorrows is that we find our lives, or some aspect of it, lacking in perfection. But amidst us mere commoners, there exist a rare breed of men, who are so perfect, that we draw inspiration from them, tinted of course with a sense of envy. This story is about one such perfect man, whose only problem was that he was too perfect!

He was a good man. A man who was perceived as someone who can do no wrong. At an era, where people instead of offering an apology, rush to defend themselves with an arrogant 'So what, I'm not Perfect!', this man was a breath of fresh air. Our story starts when normal, flawed people, bursting with jealousy, demanded the secret of perfection from our hero. 

Our perfect man could be described as honest, kind, humble, intelligent, wise, handsome, polite, wealthy, trustworthy, blameless, guiltless, disciplined, courteous, honourable, and any other adjective referring to pure virtue. His competitors struggled to find vices in his character, till they were tired of their fruitless endeavour. His family and friends were proud to be associated with him, and constantly asked for his advice and help, and were never displeased. Stunningly attractive women tried to win his heart, and clever men his friendship. Experts tried to decipher the logic behind his investments hitting gold, while astrologers opined about the alignment of his stars. He was interviewed by the media and was discussed about in high circles. Everybody finally decided that the perfect man must disclose his secret regarding the perfection that comes so naturally to him.

All this while, nobody cared to notice that the energy and vigour with which our hero conducted himself had begun to wane. Nobody noticed the burden of the expectations that he seemed to bear. Nobody noticed the fear of failure slowly being built behind his eyes. Nobody bothered about the fact that his once carefree, melodious, perfect laughter was turning stony and lifeless. And one day, he left. 

The world went crazy. Their foremost worry - the Secret of Perfection had vanished with him!

A few months later, when the Government had claimed and declared the Perfect Man's belongings as public treasures and began auctioning them, his personal diary was discovered. The excitement of people could not be contained. Therefore, the last entry of his diary was unanimously decided to be made public. It read thus,

"All my life I have been called perfect. I have been questioned about my way of living life, my thinking, my inspiration and my uniqueness. But all my life I have only acted as I have seen fit. My actions were mere reflections of my beliefs and my idea of what is right and wrong. Which is exactly the same as everyone else. I have succeeded in every venture, but I failed to answer that one question the whole world expected me to answer. I have failed to discover the secret of something that they call Perfection."

My LSE Experience - A Beauty Of Its Own Kind

(This article was written more than two years ago and had been published in a youth daily, but I felt it should find its place in this blog, as it remains close to my heart.)

It was like a dream come true, when I finally got my acceptance mail from the London School of Economics for my summer school course in Intellectual Property Law and Society. I was thrilled to bits and super-excited that I was going to London, without the comfort and safe circle of parents, to study for a month in one the most prestigious universities in the world! We were two girls, both law students, out to live our life in a few weeks only.

Armed with knowledge rendered to us by experienced elders along with baskets full of wishes from friends and family, we set out on what became the most challenging part of my life till now. We arrived at Heathrow Airport in the evening, with two huge bags that felt like sacks of stone. Had a cousin of mine not been there to receive us and drop us at the hostel, we would have probably ended up in tears. It was a Sunday night, and most of London was closed. Taxis were unnaturally few, restaurants were shut, the tap in the Hostel bathroom had a stamp “Do Not Drink”, and tiny bottles of water were in a vending machine, which only accepted one-pound coins. As ill luck would have it, the minimum denomination we had was twenty pounds notes. Thankfully, a kind stranger lent us two coins so that we could have some water and we could never even return the money back.

We had learnt our first lesson. Never take too many clothes on any journey, howsoever long it might be!  Map out your itinerary carefully, right from the moment you step down at the airport. Keep smaller denominations with you. Pack some food while you travel. And we also learnt that London has nice people. 

The London School of Economics, however was an altogether enthralling experience. There were students from Australia, Russia, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, US, France, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, Bangladesh, Dubai, Pakistan, Nepal, and this is only that I can recall at this point! Our class had about thirty-five students and all of them were very interactive in class. Incidentally, both our professors were from India, and they were the best teachers I had ever come across. Though it makes me sad that such brilliant minds are not being exploited by our own people, I am glad that I had my share of it, however small it might be. We had to submit an essay at mid-term, and give an exam at the end of the course. We had four hours of classes everyday, and we had been provided with a lot of materials to help us in studies.

We learnt another important thing, that however much we may boast of our gadgets, Indians are technologically challenged! In the class-room, while we were busy taking vigorous notes in pen and paper, our classmates were typing swiftly in their MacBooks and iPads. While we are used to shouting at the “Xerox wale bhaiya” to take print-outs and photocopies, it seemed quite a daunting task to recharge our LSE ID card, photocopy materials by operating the machine ourselves, and issuing library books by swiping cards. We met our match when we reached the final stage of stapling our assignment. The stapler was a one-foot long machine that has automatic sensor in it, to staple papers. Like I said, technologically challenged we were!

We had our share of fun when we went sightseeing. The St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Madam Tussaud’s, Big Ben, The Buckingham Palace were as majestic as we had heard. But the part we are most proud about was that the two of us planned out the tours, booked tickets online, mapped out our transportation and route by ourselves! We even managed a three days tour of Scottish Highlands and Edinburgh, weekend tours at Sheffield and Manchester and altogether it was heavenly.

There were a number of times that we got lost, moved about in circles, misread the maps, fell ill, booked wrong dates for our journey, were careless enough to let my friend’s camera get stolen, were clueless about traffic signals and narrowly escaped accidents, slept hungry because we couldn’t eat cold food any more, couldn’t board a taxi even though our feet were aching from walking as we were on a strict budget, but we survived! It is completely different from going vacationing with parents, where somebody else plans everything, worries about our food and comfort. Like my friend said on our way back to India, “I feel a thousand times wiser now!”