Why A R Rehman didn’t really win OSCAR for Slumdog Millionaire!

How many times in life have we been disappointed, hurt, frustrated cause what we worked so hard for didn’t really give us the desired results. I remember various instances… during school and college days where the subjects which I studied really hard for, didn’t really commensurate with the marks I got in exams. And I ended up feeling “Why did I not get good marks when I studied so hard”.

During my corporate career there so many of these projects which were handed over to me on Fridays afternoon to be submitted on Monday, as if this project was the game changer for the company? Having worked day and night on weekends and getting the presentation ready I only ended up realizing one did not even see the report for the whole of Monday! And suddenly the project becomes unimportant and all efforts seem like a waste.

Even in relationships many times we feel that we have done a lot but we have not got anything back in return. Recently during my entrepreneurial journey, after pursuing clients for so long, and feeling that we have come so close to bagging that order but somehow it just didn’t materialize. And it results in nothing but frustration

All these instances, we just can’t help but feel that the efforts we put in were a complete waste!

But then few weeks, months or even years down the line I realized that it was not really waste after all. Cause the thoroughness of the subject which was possible cause of the efforts I put in, helped me few years later prepare my neighborhood friend for his exams for which he could not thank me enough.

Cause the project I had worked so hard on and the data I had collected in the process came in so handy for some other project few months later which helped me do a quick turnaround which was very much appreciated my management. Had I not worked on that earlier project, completing this one was impossible.

7 months in my entrepreneurial journey when I look back I realized that all work I had done to pursue a particular client and get business helped me create content which helped me bag orders from at least 4 clients later on even though I still continue to pursue the original one!

It’s then I realized the magic that results are never linear. As I recalled more and more instances where I felt my efforts were wasted, the more and more I could see how those efforts actually helped me gain something much more later in life. Sometimes a few day later, sometime years later. But results did come. The form in which they appear may be misleading to us.

Hardwork definitely gives results. But When? That’s not in your hands

And with that realization, today I focus on just putting right amount of efforts, be it in relationships, or workplace with no expectation of immediate returns. Yes I am not a saint and saying don’t’ expect returns! But I don’t expect immediate returns. ‘Immediate Returns’ being the operative word

Cause the returns will come for sure but it may be in a form where we may find its connection to efforts little difficult to trace if we don’t delve slightly deep. Haven’t we felt sometime that this came easy! Now you can trace back the real efforts which led to this seemingly easy results And you realize that this may just have been possible because of some real efforts done in the past whose time had come to be rewarded

We may have to spend a little time to trace the genesis of the efforts. Then we can appreciate life more beautifully and continue to put our best efforts in whatever we do

So when A R Rehman won the Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire., many wondered that although his music for the movie was good but definitely not his best piece of work as he had done much better work before, I realized that probably in God’s game plan the Oscars which Mr. Rehman received might really be the result for the great work he has done in the past. It could just possibly have been the Oscar for his music for Roja or Taal! Wot Say?

Perspectives...