The Right answet

 

A Teacher teaching Maths to a seven year-old Rose asked him “If I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple, how many apples will you have?” Within a few seconds Rose replied confidently, “Four!”. 

“Maybe the child did not listen properly”, she thought. She repeated, “Rose, listen carefully. It is very simple. If I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple, how many apples will you have? "

Rose calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. This time hesitatingly he replied: “Four…..”

The teacher remembered Rose loves Strawberries. She thought maybe he doesn’t like apples and that is making him lose focus. 

This time with exaggerated excitement and twinkling eyes she asked, “If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one more strawberry, then how many will Rose have?" 

Young Rose calculated on his fingers again. With a hesitating smile young Rose enquired, “Three"? The teacher now had victorious smile. But one last thing remained. 

Once again she asked him, “Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple, how many will you have?" Promptly Rose answered, “Four!" The teacher was aghast. ”How Rose, How?” she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice. 

In a voice that was law and hesitating young Rose replied, “Because I already have on apple in my bag”...

Moral of the Story: When someone gives us an answer that is different from what we are expecting, not necessarily they are wrong. There may be an angle that we have not understood at all.

THE END

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Dreams comes true

 “I dreamt of becoming a pilot since I was young. My father was in the army - we lived in Pathankot and then shifted to Vijaywada. I was put in schools where we were taught to read and write in English- but where spoken English was rare. In class 9, a teacher asked me to write 10 things I wanted from life and I took that assignment seriously. 

The first thing on my list was to become a pilot and the second was to become a lawyer. Someone told me that I had to get above 90% for that so I worked hard and got a 100 in almost everything… I was that passionate. 

But there was a lot of social and financial pressure on my parents. It was an unconventional field, especially for a girl. It was also expensive–but still, they used their savings, took loans from banks and their friends and overcame the pressure to send me to flight school. That just motivated me to work even harder to make them proud.

Flight school wasn’t easy. People teased me when I spoke in English–they kept making fun of my pronunciations… but instead of cowering away, I learned from them and perfected my speaking skills. I was still so happy to be there. I think that got me where I needed to go–because I didn’t worry about the future.. I just learned along the way and kept going.

Once I graduated, I immediately got a job and my pilot license on the same day! In fact... I got my job before the license which doesn’t usually happen. Before I knew it, I was a 19 year old pilot!

After my training in Spain, I even became a first officer… It wasn’t easy–you’re in a new city with no set schedule, the timings are off and you go back to an empty house. But still - I just kept taking each challenge in my stride–knowing that this was the way of the world. 

This somehow motivated me to even cross out the next thing on my list–becoming a lawyer. 

At 19, I came back to Bombay and started taking courses to do my LLB. Becoming a pilot was my dream but I wanted to learn everything I could–never worried about chasing success. I’d make sure to attend the classes whenever I was in town. Even if my flight landed at 2:00am, I’d be ready to go to class at 6:00am on the same day! I’d study during my breaks on flight -- I couldn’t be stopped!

And now, a decade later after a lot of flights and a lot of fight, I became the youngest female commander to fly a Boeing 777 with the largest twin-jet engine in the world… it was a different ‘high’ all together!

I was able to pay off my loans, contribute to my siblings’ education and travel the world–making my parents travel too! And now with most things crossed off that list, I’m making a new one–because the best is always yet to come!”

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