Nobody is Indispensable

Even the most modest of persons must have felt sometimes that he/she is the best in a particular area and could not be replaced. But, believe me you may be Amitabh Bachchan or a Sachin Tendulkar in your field, you are not indispensable. Off course Amitabh and Sachin do not have matched replacements, but there will be times when they are no longer doing what they are doing best now, and people who believe today that these personalities are indispensable will get adjusted to the fact that life goes on without them also. A very bitter truth to digest, but still, its a fact of life.

God has its own way to teach us lessons. I remember one such incident of my childhood. We all friends had joined a summer cricket camp for which we had to get up at 6 in the morning and be at the ground. The coach used to make us do rigorous exercises and fielding practises, a bit too long for our patience. The real thing i.e. the batting practise started only after the rigorous training. I used to be the only wicket keeper in the whole camp and I used to get really tired as I was involved in all the fielding sessions. Getting a batting session, the thing which was of real interest, always tested my patience. One fine day I got a bit agitated and asked the coach that whether we will at get a chance to play a match. He responded, that as a player you need to enjoy practise as much as you like to play a real match and he said that he will select the team for a match only based on our performance during practise. I was always sure that my place in the team is fixed as there is no other wicket keeper. Team selection never worried me. But, these practise sessions took a toll on me. One fine Saturday, I decided that I will skip the Sunday practise session. I was completely sure that in case there is match the coach will definitely send someone to call me at my home as they would need a wicket keeper for the match anyways. So, I skipped the session and got up late on Sunday morning. Since I missed the practise session I went late to the ground to check whether I can get a chance to play a Sunday cricket match.

I went to the ground and saw a match going on. I was surprised to see that it was a match of our own camp team. I was shocked to see someone else keeping the wickets. People among the spectators threw questions at me as to why I am not playing the match. I had no answer. It was so painful to see my team playing the match and I was not there. I was not even informed about the match. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind that I had been overconfident of the fact that I was indispensable. I realized that God has its own way of teaching lessons to us. God chose cricket to teach me this lesson. All my pains vanished and I had a smile on my face. I had learnt an important lesson of my life that day. Nobody is indispensable. The sooner you realize this fact the better it is. I was fortunate enough to learn this at a very tender age.

Since then I have always tried to grab an opportunity with both hands. Because, that day I realized that if you are ignoring an opportunity, it becomes someone else's opportunity. You might be the best in business, but you are not indispensable. Cricket has been a great teacher for me in this life.