developing positive attitude

1. In December 2015, Chennai faced the worst floods that the state has seen in a hundred
years. As I happen to be there during that period, I learnt a lot from people around how
they help each other in times of crisis. There are many heartwarming acts of humanity
that the city witnessed. As people were left stranded without food, water and electricity,
with no means to contact their loved ones, many volunteers stepped in and managed to
save hundreds of lives if not thousands.
I was staying with my aunt at that time. We were in the first floor. Water slowly started
raising and water reached hip level in the ground. At that time my aunt noticed the state
of the neighbour’s house, which is in the ground floor. They had small children. Myself
and my aunt managed to carry the children to our house. Till that time I have never
experienced anything like this. Once I brought them home, I was worried. I have never
handled any children so far. They were so afraid, but somehow I managed to engage
them to overcome their fear.
This incident gave me a positive attitude to help our other neighbours. There was no
electricity and very limited water in the tank. We could not contact any other people. My
aunt prepared chappatis & aalu curry and I helped her to distribute to others. This
brought all of us together and we felt we all belong to one community. This
strengthened our relationship.
I even heard that many fishermen sailed their boats with the police to the flooded areas
to help rescue operations.
More than 250 people were killed and thousands displaced as much of Chennai and
other parts of Tamil Nadu were submerged in flood waters after the highest rainfall in
nearly a hundred years lashed the state over the past month. Hearing and experiencing
the seamless help from the community, it has given me a positive attitude of helping
needy to my best.

2. Each one of us has some or the other qualities in ourselves which differentiate us from
other people. The vital need is to search it out and when we have sought it, excelled in it.
The need of the hour then is to be humble and not be over-confident. When we excel in a
particular field, all have high expectations from us to perform well. There the humbleness
and sincerity of our mind comes into play.
I too possess a talent and this is how I became aware of it. One day, when I was only
6 years old I played chess with one elder girl and I was astonished to find that the I could
play fairly well and could beat her easily. The game of chess came naturally to me. I
thought that this was an extraordinary trait gifted to me. I started to pursue my career as a
chess player. I worked hard for two years until I could get FIDE rating. I had participated in
many FIDE tournaments. Once I went to Chennai to play the under open FIDE
tournament. My first opponent was 1450 rated player, though I was nervous I played
excellently well and could beat him in a long three hours game. After this match, my next
player happen to be rated player, whom I could beat within 30 minutes. I thought that I was
in my best and my mind was on the seventh heaven. I stopped paying attention to senior
players or the coach's advice. I was full of over-confidence. To my utter surprise, I was
knocked out in the third match by an unrated player whom I had defeated easily in earlier
tournaments. It was an extremely shocking and traumatic moment for me.
I had let down my parents and my coach and I felt ashamed to show my face to them. My
coach came searching for me and I feared that he would lash out at me for losing such an
important match, but rather he was calm and affectionate. In a matter of five minutes, he
taught me the greatest lesson of my life- hard work and humbleness.
He explained he had been noticing my change of attitude which was the cause of my
downfall. He also pointed to my over-confident behaviour and advised that one should
always be rooted to the earth, no matter whatever height of success one reaches.
Moreover one should always be humble and respectful at all times even to our opponents.
From then on, I vowed to follow my guide's advice all my life.
My coach wanted to teach this lesson in a practical way, therefore didn't point my
shortcomings earlier. Though I suffered a big defeat, but it is never too late to pick up the
shreds and weave a bed of roses for yourself.