We, the losers of the world

"You are never a loser until you quit trying"

-Mike Ditka

Loss is a funny thing. People celebrate victory, the winners are cheered and parties are thrown. Somehow, all of us forget the losers. The ones who were 'almost' the winners. It isn't as if they didn't work as hard or didn't deserve to win. It's just that on that particular day someone else won.

It is often said a cricket match, for example, has eleven winners and eleven losers. The winners are felicitated while the losers are ignored. However, I believe that each match has twenty two winners. The ones who win as well as the ones who gave their best to it. As long as someone doesn't quit, he hasn't lost. Anyone who falls but retains the courage to stand up and try again, is a winner. I know its hard to get back up. I know it's hard to look your family in the eye. But pain is the best of teachers. Each time you fail, you learn a new skill, gain a new experience.

I speak as the man who lost it all. The man who failed at all conceivable competitions and events. Failed in academics, failed in sports, failed in life. Its tough to live through life with a smile, when each and every moment, you are reminded of the dreams that were left unfulfilled and the only thing you feel is a big hole in your chest.

I came close to quitting once. It was the day I got my tenth board exam results. I had failed. Staring at the report card, all I felt was shock. I could feel my own heartbeat but I couldn't speak. I saw the disappointment in my mother's eyes and ran out of her room. I locked myself in my room and broke down. The tears wouldn't stop. All my thoughts, all my dreams started coming back to me. They seemed to mock me. Every failure and disappointment of my life, came to haunt me."You are a loser", they seemed to say. The moments I had spent in joy and happiness seemed undeserved, wasted. Who was I, a loser, to enjoy life? The man who can't pass his exams doesn't deserve happiness or joy. My entire existence seemed a mockery.

It would have been easy to quit. To admit my failure.To get the gun. But a part of me refused to give in. This was the part which believed in Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi. They were losers too, it said, but they didn't give in, they struggled on and they won. What do I have in common with them, I scoffed. Still, that part refused to quit. I was raged by turmoil.

Half my days was spent in contemplating suicide and the other half, wondering if I could ever recover from this loss. Over a period of several months, I became normal again, or as normal as I could be. The hole was still there, as was the pain. But I managed to make peace with myself. I realized I had nothing to lose. After all, I was at the bottom of the pyramid and so, I decided to try.

I still am at the bottom. But now, my eyes set on the top. I continue to try new things, continue to fail. Each failure brings its share of disappointments but each failure also teaches me, new things. I don't know if I will ever win, if I my dreams will ever come true. But I hope and I work.

Are you like me too? Then come, let's join hands and work together, to change the world. We, the losers of this world.

Have you failed in life too?

What was it that defeated you?

Are you the loser who lost his job?

Or the one who is afraid of the mob?

Come, O loser, take my hand,

Together, we can change this Land.

With our feet in the gutter and our eyes towards the sky,

The world will know us, the day we fly.