Mukund is writing 10th class exams. Today is mathematics paper.
Mom: All the best, beta. Rock the exam.
Mukund: okay mom.
He goes to exam hall and on receiving the question paper, he starts writing it and just before 30 minutes of end, bit paper is given. He is going through it.
At one question, before the thinking process could complete, he placed a tick to the wrong answer. With that, he misses two other questions. He finishes the paper and reaches home.
Lion with Cub
Mom: how was the exam??
Mukund(disappointed): yeah, wrote well.
Mom senses the disappointment, sits near him, puts her hand on his head and asks what the matter is.
Mukund: Mom, I made a mistake. I wrote main paper well but in bit paper, at one question, I was thinking and before I tick the right answer, I fumbled and ticked the wrong one and with that, I missed two more bits.
What is more bothering me is not that I missed bits, but the haste that made me do this. I don’t want to repeat this but don’t know what to do?
Mom: regarding the exam, you can’t do anything, but in the case of haste, you can do a lot.
Mukund(with a surprised expression): What??
Mom: Be like a lion. You will never face this problem again.
Mukund: how is it related??
Mom: Did you ever observe how a lion walks in the forest?? It takes some steps, stops and looks in all the directions and continues walking. After some 5 to 6 steps, it repeats the same thing.
You know what it does?? It assesses after every 5 steps that the path it has taken is safe or not and continues the journey.
Mukund: so??
Mom: Before attempting anything, make sure you have checked all the options, then only attempt. Every once in a while, stop… check what you are doing and proceed.
Mukund: Why only lion??
Mom: lion is the only animal which does this and let me tell you this is how a leader is supposed to be. Lion is the natural leader and this process is called “SIMHAVALOKANAM”.
Mukund feels much better after his conversation with mom and watches a walking lion.
He writes second paper of mathematics the next day very well and he reminds himself a picture of lion walking and takes deep breaths and finishes bit paper super cool. He comes home energetic.
Mukund: Mom, I nailed the paper today. He hugs mom and thanks her for conversation the other day.
Mom smiles.
Take Away: While doing anything, Stop… think for a while… Proceed to next step.
