“See how smooth that was,” said Dipti, as she helped her younger brother Atul cycle down the road. Atul had been trying to learn to ride a bicycle the last few days and his older sister had offered to help.
“Hi Dipti,” said uncle Ravi, adding, “Why are you helping him? Let him do it on his own.” Dipti was quick to come to her brother’s defence, “He tried once but fell off the cycle and hurt himself. If I help him, then there is no fear of falling down.”
Dipti was hard-working and good at her studies. She had only one problem. She was afraid of making mistakes and confronting defeat and this discouraged her from taking on something new. Ravi uncle, her father’s cousin, and a Professor of Mathematics was clever. He saw Dipti preparing for her maths exam that evening.
“So, you are ready for the exam?” he said.
“Of course I am, uncle. I have practised all the problems. So there are almost no chances of me making a mistake,” replied a confident Dipti. Ravi uncle noticed that Dipti had confidence but lacked the courage to learn from mistakes. The attitude wasn’t healthy, he realised.
Surprise test
A couple of days later, the results were announced. Dipti was thrilled that she had scored 98 per cent in maths. When she proudly announced the result to her family, Ravi uncle immediately started off with his plan. He had all the children living in the neighbourhood gather around. He announced a surprise test for everyone, including Dipti, who was confident that she would excel in the test.
As soon as the test began, Dipti began solving the problems. Soon, she realised that many of the questions were tricky. She instantly panicked and failed to solve even the easy ones.
When Ravi uncle announced the result, everyone was stunned that Dipti had ended up scoring very low marks. Dipti was embarrassed and left abruptly. Much later, Ravi uncle saw Dipti referring to her older sister’s books for solutions. It was evident that she was not used to taking defeat in her stride.
That moment, Dipti noticed Atul calling out to her for help through her window. He was still learning to ride his cycle but this time, Dipti did not respond. Poor Atul fell once again. Dipti spent the next few days desperately trying to find the answers to the tricky problems, while Atul was learning to ride his cycle on his own. Dipti noticed Atul had almost learnt to ride his cycle. Of course, he had hurt himself more than once in the process.
A couple of days later, uncle Ravi decided to intervene. He walked into the room and confronted Dipti about her anxiety but she was unable to open up to him. Just then they both noticed that Atul was about to fall again. Dipti wanted to go and help but Ravi uncle stopped her. “No dear, let him do it on his own. He is on the verge of becoming good at cycling.” Soon, Dipti was startled to see that Atul balanced himself perfectly and was off cycling.
It suddenly dawned on Dipti that all these days, Ravi uncle had intended to make her realise that making a mistake was an inevitable part of learning. Practice and learning gradually lead to perfection. Ravi uncle said, “Dipti, you practised the problems that were solved in the class. But when you had to try something new, you couldn’t face it because you were afraid of making mistakes,” he said, adding, “Remember, the more mistakes you make, the more you learn.”
