Good Habits To Start

 There was clapping in the meeting hall of Rani Maheshwari Girl's Higher Secondary school, Pavanpur. The hall was packed with students, staff, and special invitees. The school organized a function for the release of a wonderful book with a beautifully designed cover titled, "Great Habits To Start", penned by a fourteen-year-old girl, Amulya, a student of 10th standard. 

Among the students, her classmate  Pranita was the anchor. She started the function by requesting the school headmaster and chief guest to come to the dais followed by lighting up the lamp and the prayer.  "Gajamukhane Ganapathiye Ninage Vandane '' was sung by another student Akshata.  The garlanding of the guests by the students was over. Then the chief guest of the function, a philanthropist Veena Rao released the book. Pranita requested Amulya, the author of the book, to speak.  Amulya prostrated Goddess Saraswati and spoke about her efforts in completing the book. 

The chief guest and president of the function praised Amulya. The function concluded with a vote of thanks. Anita who was present at the function could not control her emotions and embraced Amulya and accepted her defeat.  Amulya was neither a writer nor a brilliant girl. Her dream of writing a book turned into reality only because of the challenge given by her classmate Anita. Otherwise, she would not have written such a book. The hard work gave her the reward of presenting a 100-page book on good habits with brief notes. Some of the good habits in the book were brushing teeth twice a day, bathing daily, meditating daily, eating homely food, hand washing, drinking plenty of water, regular exercise, reading every day, and stopping negative talk.

One year back, Amulya and her classmates were sitting beneath the big tamarind tree behind the school, 

Anita suddenly asked Amulya,

"Do you have the capacity to write a book on any topic in twelve months?" 

Amulya was surprised and could not reply.

Anita continued and said, "I know, you don't have the capacity.  For me writing a book is like a child's play." 

It was a fact that Anita was brilliant and received many awards. She was not supposed to throw a challenge on others. She forgot the famous saying 'vidya Vinay sampaane'. She was under the false impression that nobody beat her. It was nothing but ego. Amulya was in the puzzle, whether to accept her challenge or keep quiet? 

Pranita encouraged Amulya to accept the challenge. Amulya thought she should not miss the opportunity and raised her thumbs up. Anita left the place in a serious mood. 

Amulya started collecting motivational books. She spends most of her time reading books. At night she was reading books with the help of a lantern. Because she belongs to a poor family and there was no power connection in her house. She was able to keep the manuscript ready after six months. Her parents warned her not to neglect her studies. Her devotion to the work was appreciated by all. 

 One day her class  teacher Ramanathan asked,

"How did you gain knowledge?"

She replied,  

"Any work needs commitment. Work can be anything starting from a household to a desk job. As a student, my goal is to achieve a rank in all examinations. In my opinion, sincere and hard work in any type of work is worship."

Ramanathan sir was impressed and agreed to edit the manuscript. To her great surprise, Veena Rao paid the entire money to publish her book. The book was ready before the challenge date.

The moral of the story is that the ego is just a three-letter word, which can destroy a big twelve-letter word Relationship.