Summer Holidays

With temperatures hovering in mid-90s, summertime is in full swing. I have been watching the weather channel on the TV. It has been unusually warm all across the U.S. with record temperatures recorded from coast-to-coast. No matter where you live, you are most likely experiencing heat and humidity that is well above normal.

Whatever be the temperatures, summertime means vacation, fun and freedom for the kids. I recall nostalgic memories of the long summer vacations that I had during my school days. In those days, there were special summer discounts for groups of kids to travel by trains. Parents made the best use of the rail concessions and sent the kids to visit grandparents or uncles. Long distance trains were typically hauled by steam locomotives that used coal for fuel. As a child I was extremely fascinated by the majestic steam locos and the sound of shrill whistles they emitted besides lots of black smoke.

My younger brother and I used to travel over 800 miles by train to visit my grandmother and maternal uncle who were living in a real hot city called Pudukottai in South India. Like us, my cousins will travel from different directions to the same destination. There were about a dozen kids in the age group of 8-15 all congregating in the same house around the same time.

In my uncle's home, there was no TV, not even a radio. Nevertheless, we were never short of entertainment. We enjoyed all kinds of 'inexpensive' fun. There was no swimming pool anywhere in the city but then there was a pond nearby that served as a pool to all. We spent hours in that not-so-clean greenish pond. We enacted small plays at home with a sizable audience of neighborhood kids who cheered us and clapped hands for every little act. With so many children around, I must admit that food was somewhat scarce but we never cared much. After all, with so much fun, hunger was not a priority. We ate whatever was available like for instance peanuts, jack fruit,sugar cane and many other forms of uncooked edibles.

I had my thrills with a 'Kodak' box camera that I considered a great treasure. It was gifted to me by my father after my repeated pleas over several years. Thanks to the kind intervention of my dear grand ma, my father ultimately yielded to the pressures and bought the camera. The pictures that I took with that box camera serve today as a mute testimony to my photographic skills and the wonderful summer vacation that I enjoyed with my dear relatives.

Occasionally, my uncle used to take all of us to a local movie theatre that was nothing but a huge warehouse type shed. It had no side walls but only a sloping roof, a screen and a projector room. Movies were shown in late evening only after it became dark. Typically, a movie lasted about 4 hours that included a long interval during which snack/soda hawkers will swarm inside the theatre. The noise levels used to be atrocious and the mosquitos terrible.

Thinking back, I have nothing but great admiration to my old grand mother who successfully managed over a dozen energetic kids at home. She hardly slept and kept a constant watch on us. She held small contests for the children that kept us out of trouble at least for some time. All the children happily ran many errands for her - getting groceries, vegetables, posting letters and drawing water from the deep well. She was a tireless woman who was a great inspiration to me.

Holidays never last too long. Soon, we all returned to our respective homes to join school and restart our studies. My dear cousins (and their families too) have all grown up and live in different parts of the world. Pitifully, some of them are no more.

Those were glorious summer vacations that would never ever return.

The Power of Perseverance

Albert Einstein said, "It's not that I am so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

When I was a school boy, homework in mathematics used to bug me. I used to feel frustrated at not being able to solve some of the problems. If homework was not done fully, some of the teachers awarded severe punishments including caning that led to humiliation in the class. When I moved to college, there were no punishments and the fear was gone. With perseverance, I had learnt how to solve the problems. The result was that my grades improved significantly and I received merit scholarships on three occasions.

The power of perseverance is really great. In life, everyone gets discouraged once in a while. It is perfectly normal.

We all have our setbacks. But, at the very point where we give up trying, there is a fine line between the winners and losers. The losers quit. The winners persevere.

I love to give the example of one great man. His biography reads like this:

Age 22 - Failed in business; Age 23 - Defeated for the legislature; Age 24 - Again failed in business; Age 25 - Elected to the legislature; Age 26 - Sweetheart died; Age 27 - Suffered nervous breakdown; Age 29 - Defeated for Speaker; Age 34 - Defeated for Congress; Age 37 - Elected for Congress; Age 39 - Defeated for Congress; Age 46 - Defeated for Senate; Age 47- Defeated for Vice President; Age 49 Defeated for Senate; Age 51- Elected President of the United States.

Looks like a roller coaster ride of failures and successes? Can you guess whose biography is this? The man's name was Abraham Lincoln.

There are many such stories illustrating the power of perseverance. If you want to witness perseverance, take a look at a baby trying to stand up. Read the biographies of some great people like Thomas Alva Edison, Helen Keller, Mahatma Gandhi, and Vivekananda. All of them faced adversities in life but held on to succeed in what they believed in.

Here are some suggestions to lead you on the path to perseverance.

* Face and accept what happens in your life.
* Learn from your experiences, including the failures.
* Express your feelings to someone you love.
* Write about your feelings, like in a diary.
* Get help if you need it from a mentor.
* Pray to God "Give me courage, give me strength."

You win some; you lose some. Never despair, keep pushing on! You have got to realize there is plenty of power in perseverance and it works.