A Rollercoaster Ride - Udbodhan Banerjee

"Being the only child of a huge family, had it's own perks. If I had dust on my hands, it would be wiped off for me. If I said elephant, though my Dad wouldn't be able to buy me one, still he would hire someone and an elephant will be outside my house! This the lavish lifestyle which I had at home.

But, in school, I was as quiet as a mouse. Whenever my teacher asked me anything, I used to write it down, giving them the impression that I had speech-disorder. Chaitali Ma'am, one of my teachers, was very intrigued by my behavior and hence, she asked me as to why I don't speak. As usual, I wrote the reason on paper and the reason was I was terribly afraid to do so.

A month later, Ma'am caught hold of me in the corridor and handed over the responsibility to read "Thought Of The Day", in front of 2000 students. A boy who didn't speak to his own classmates was asked to do the same before a huge crowd. Little did I know, that this small effort of Ma'am would change my life forever!

Post that, I spoke like it's my last time. A Class 2 child won 44 debates in a row, defeating his seniors from Class 10. My confidence boosted, but soon after, I met with an accident. A spot of baldness appeared on my head and everyone started teasing me because of it. All my achievements fell short before that one spot!

Then, I changed my school. Things went uphill again. I won debates and quizzes, made friends for life and also became the CR. But again, just when good things happened to me, a downfall followed it. My ex-girlfriend falsely accused me and my CR badge was taken away. What followed it was, failure in competitions. 

But again, I challenged myself, toiled and success came to me. The Principal who had removed my CR badge, installed the headboy batch and life came to a full circle!

Today, I am a businessman and the theory of ups and downs which I learned in my teens is surely helping me. One day, you will be on top of your world and other days, you will feel like, "there's rock bottom, 50 feet of crap and then you". We can't predict these ups and downs, but we can remain open to learn from the downs and celebrate the ups! - Udbodhan Baneerjee.