The First Step of Effort.

"The First Step of Effort"

In a quiet village nestled between dusty fields and sunbaked roads, lived a boy named Vivek. His house was a small mud hut with a leaking thatched roof, where the evening wind whistled through the cracks. His father tilled a tiny patch of land from dawn till dusk, and his mother managed the home with whatever little they had. Education, in such a setting, was a luxury — a dream too expensive to chase.

But Vivek was different. Though his clothes were worn and his stomach often half-filled, his eyes carried the gleam of hope — a hope that one day, he could rise above his circumstances. School was never easy. He had to walk several kilometers barefoot, carrying his torn bag and a slate scratched with faded lessons. The teachers often overlooked him, and the brighter children laughed when he failed to answer questions.

Year after year, Vivek struggled with exams. He failed his entrance tests — not once, but multiple times. Each failure was a blow, and each time, whispers grew louder:
"He’s not smart enough… Poor boy should stick to farming like his father."

Even his father, once hopeful, sighed with weary eyes, “Maybe this isn’t meant for us.”

But Vivek wasn’t ready to surrender.
“We may be disappointed if we fail, but we are certain to fail if we don’t try,” he reminded himself each night.

With no electricity at home, he studied under a flickering kerosene lamp. His fingers bore calluses from fieldwork, but they also turned pages of borrowed books. He made notes on the backs of old newspapers, memorized formulas while feeding the cattle, and recited essays to the moon during long walks back from the market.

One winter, the district announced the prestigious GyanSingh Talent Exam, open to all. The village boys chuckled — “Vivek? Competing at the district level?”

Ignoring the ridicule, Vivek enrolled. He prepared with fierce focus, sleeping little and reading everything he could find. The day of the exam arrived. He wore his only clean shirt, carefully stitched by his mother, and traveled alone to the exam center, heart pounding but head held high.

Weeks passed. Then, the results came.

The village gathered around the notice board outside the post office. And there — on the top of the list — was a name no one expected:
Vivek Ramji Patel – Rank 1 – District Topper

There was silence. Then applause. Then disbelief turned into admiration.
People who once mocked him patted his back. Teachers now pointed at him as a role model. His father wept — not out of sadness, but with the pride of a man whose son had proved the world wrong.

When a local newspaper came to interview him, the young reporter asked, “Vivek, after so many failures, how did you find the strength to try again?”

Vivek looked into the camera, a soft smile on his lips, and replied:
“Failure is painful, yes. But not trying at all — that’s true failure. I would rather fall a hundred times than live wondering what could’ve been.”

---

Moral:
Trying is the first and most important step. Every failure is a step forward — but giving up? That’s standing still forever.

--------------------

We may be disappointed if we fail, but we are certain to fail if we don't try.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~