Lessons for life - from a school quiz

So, the other day I landed back from Bangalore, and I was told there is some function I had to attend on Friday at 12.30 at so and so auditorium. I went there not without a squemish resentment as I was still recuperating from the hectic to and from journey and not least knowing what the function would be about.
It turned out to be a inter school quiz. It was the final round in which six schools' teams were participating. The kids were very smart and were quick to answer most of the questions.
And then there was a very tough question. There was a poem and a painting flashed on the screen. The question was to find the correlation. As a hint there was another poem and another painting!!!
I was stumped. I had been able to figure out the other questions that had been asked, but i found this one uncrackable. I thought no kid would be able to answer. And then there was this 7th standard girl from GD Somani School. She pressed the buzzer and the  answer was.....
The poem's each line was the anagram for the name of the painting!!!!
And she didnt know it from some previous study. She figured it out then and there by reading the poem!!!!! Amazing kid. So that told me something about life...
Lessons from a school quiz ...
And it is this ...
That the answers to the questions that seem most difficult are right in front of you. They require no previous preparation. It is just a question of opening your eyes and observing.
It doesn't matter if one is not an expert. In fact, nobody is an expert. Not Newton. Not Darwin. Not the 7th class kid of GD Somani. That is the trick. Not to be an expert. Forever be a student. That shows you ways in which an expert won't be able to see. Being an expert comes with baggage. The trick is to be without baggage. To see with wide open eyes and have that spark of wonder in them. Its time to get rid of the cynical opacity in our eyes and replace them with the twinkling spark of wonder!

This blogpost is available as a podcast here: https://castbox.fm/va/1491686

Comments

Nilesh Sharma said…
Very true, all we need to do is be a student and a keen observer. I resonate with the kid and your post. Thank you for writing and sharing :)