Best lessons are learnt through bitter experiences

"Best Lessons are learnt through bitter experiences." As a young boy, APJ Kalam sold newspaper to support his family's meagre income. This instilled in him lessons of endurance, perseverance & humility. He used those emotions to pursue his goal of education & gave to the world the remarkable "misaal" (मिसाल) of the "Missile Man of India". The essence of the essay can be understood in simple terms of Kalam's emphasis on dreams - Dreams that don't let you sleep. The very foundation of this begins with experience - observed or learnt on that frames your attitude, your intellect and your wisdom.

Emperor Ashoka's dream of a Chakravartin Samrat was built on the foundation of Mauryan empire. He grew around the experience of Bherighosh, only to reached his goal - conquest of Kalinga, only to realise he felt nothing but remorse/guilt. An unsavory realisation changed his view of victory - a moral victory - Dhammaghosh was worth a thousand territorial bloodshed. With a more contemporary approach, lets understand how experiences work at each stage to build & rebuild lessons that one choses to walk with. An Individual (almost all) grow with bitter-sweet experiences. But one who learns more through bitterness of life, often outperforms the one who only chase the sweet savory moments. Such individuals work with optimism & a fearless resilience. They know how to dust themselves up and get back into the battle. For example, Armstrong Pame - shared how as kids they struggled to reach their school as they did not have access to proper roads. Being the optimistic lad he is, he took upon himself to build the People's Road to lighten the bitterness in others' lives. Bitterness should not make an individual vengeful, it should guide you to be a more polite & kind soul. But just as no two grains have similar shape in a rice sack, two individuals do not carry the same moral courage to stand adversity. This is where a family's learnt lesson guides you through fallings. Child is initiated into learning in their family. Their posturing in an individual's life is akin to the mighty Himalayas, which endures the bitterness of Siberian cold waves to allow for the golden rays of the sun to brighten the beautiful garden of India - Kashmir. But at the same end, if the bitterness of family grows into an event of despair, they consciously or unconsciously reflect the sufferings onto a child's delicate age. For example, Sharmila Dhankar - contracted polio when she was 2 yrs old, but her family's economic situation could not provide her the right treatment at the right time. On the contrary when she met the right partner in life who introduced her to para athletics she defied societal stereotypes of age, gender & disability to clench gold at 40 in Commonwealth 2026 Glasgow. This tells us that sometimes, the bitter experience of our lives comes not because of our actions but our situations.

Unbroken spirit needs a nudge that breaks barriers set by society. "Society is our extended mind & body; we do not exist apart from society". Society has always been a Paradox of bittersweet realities. Since its inception, society has built rules & conduct with its hard earned wisdom through experiences - good & bad. With sweetness it built - free will, home beyond home, equality, kindness. But with bitterness, it built - discrimination, artificial divides and an unjust world - only to be broken into shambles. For example, France thrived on an unequal social system - that oppression fueled revolution - giving the lessons for the society to build its foundation on liberty & harmony. For example - having lost the beautiful minds to bitterness of drugs, the women cohort of Assam decided to start surveillance at societal level and offer counselling to the young through love & care. Society is the mirror of a country's values and lessons. A country would be as strong on moral & practical ground as its society. Let's take a broader perspective on how a country's lessons are built. A collection/summation of individuals' rectitude forms a society and a society's attitude forms a nation's conduct. The longstanding history of any nation reveals how the most unsavory incidents, yielded the most impactful heritage. A nation's policy - both internal & external are the projected learnings of the past. For example, India's Non Aligned Movement commitment was a moral reflection of condoning violence and disruptive alliances. For example, Constitutional commitment to values of secularism & universal brotherhood - is an echo of the horrors India witnessed in 1947 partition.

Nation either learns from the past or continues to glorify the past. A nation stuck in Dormammu's loop is bound to fall under its own skewed expectations. Example - Pakistan's adamancy on past narratives have put the nation in both political & economic turmoil. The stability of nation is governed through its current actions (learnt & build upon from past experiences). This is then mirrored in the organisations that contribute towards the development of a nation. Organizations frame their rules that idealistically is believed to be beneficial to both the employers & the employee. It is an expression of best practices that individuals are expected to follow to reach the set goals & visions. But in a free world, corporates lose out on 'best' & adapt to 'worse' making them an inorganic entity that creates bitterness in society. For example, Meta - despite having faced multiple hearings & having been exposed by ex-employees of its unethical practices continues to live in ignorance. While a healthy well-informed individual have learnt to be wary of social media, there are several impressionable young minds who are being exploited for without their knowledge. A fault is meant to be rectified and not exploited. Meta time and again has failed to learn this lesson despite its bitter experience. An organisation needs to build its reality around the concerns of individuals. These institutions are meant to upgrade the living standards of society as a whole. The very essence of Biblical ethics teaches us that irrespective of what you hold dear, learn to respect the ideas of others. A brilliant reflection of this is Infosys, which for the 5th consecutive year has been given the award for World's most ethical company. The interconnecting of the societies begin with governments, YES, but organisations (private & public both) also have become an unbreaking link. The current world sustains through communication & connections - in a gist - world is now "A global village" - and we should learn to live as global citizens. The very recent interactions the world had with bitterness started with the COVID-19 pandemic. Massive waves of lockdown, uncountable death tolls, mental agony has left a bitter mark on the world's psyche. World learnt its lesson, realised its enemies and friends, tapped into an unexplored potential of technology and started building itself up from the scratch. If during distress we learned the Dalgona coffee's recipe, the world learnt to stand tall in the face of adversity. Collaborative efforts bore results and we soon got a cure -> "Necessity is the mother of invention" But the irony lay in the fact that despite the potential for greatness, experiences do not always translate into best lessons. Let's take a birdview:- For example, post pandemic, the thrust to climate conservation has lost fuel. IPCC states the current trends of emissions are conducive to cross 2°C mark within the next century. For example, offensive defense grew as the policy of nations - Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine have pushed the world into the very quagmire that 1945 deliberations worked to put out. For example, recent paper leak cases & protests in India have shown a deeper crack and an unwillingness to learn from the bitter experiences. The reality is, no element absolutely needs bitter experiences to learn best lessons. TATA group did not have to undergo a turmoil/turbulence to understand the importance of good corporate governance; neither did Kailash Satyarthi had to face exploitation to understand the pain & sufferings of a child. This, however, does not discredit the worthiness of lessons learnt through bitterness. It motivates generations who don't have a privileged backing to understand the real worth. Diamond - which needs immense pressure and temperature to turn a mere block of coal into an invaluable piece of nature. The gist as Khalil Gibran held "The most massive characters are seared with scars."

This is then mirrored in the organisations that contribute towards the development of a nation. Organizations frame their rules that idealistically is believed to be beneficial to both the employers & the employee. It is an expression of best practices that individuals are expected to follow to reach the set goals & visions. But in a free world, corporates lose out on 'best' & adapt to 'worse' making them an inorganic entity that creates bitterness in society. For example, Meta - despite having faced multiple hearings & having been exposed by ex-employees of its unethical practices continues to live in ignorance. While a healthy well-informed individual have learnt to be wary of social media, there are several impressionable young minds who are being exploited for without their knowledge. A fault is meant to be rectified and not exploited. Meta time and again has failed to learn this lesson despite its bitter experience. An organisation needs to build its reality around the concerns of individuals. These institutions are meant to upgrade the living standards of society as a whole. The very essence of Biblical ethics teaches us that irrespective of what you hold dear, learn to respect the ideas of others. A brilliant reflection of this is Infosys, which for the 5th consecutive year has been given the award for World's most ethical company. The interconnecting of the societies begin with governments, YES, but organisations (private & public both) also have become an unbreaking link. The current world sustains through communication & connections - in a gist - world is now "A global village" - and we should learn to live as global citizens. The very recent interactions the world had with bitterness started with the COVID-19 pandemic. Massive waves of lockdown, uncountable death tolls, mental agony has left a bitter mark on the world's psyche. World learnt its lesson, realised its enemies and friends, tapped into an unexplored potential of technology and started building itself up from the scratch. If during distress we learned the Dalgona coffee's recipe, the world learnt to stand tall in the face of adversity. Collaborative efforts bore results and we soon got a cure -> "Necessity is the mother of invention" But the irony lay in the fact that despite the potential for greatness, experiences do not always translate into best lessons. Let's take a birdview:- For example, post pandemic, the thrust to climate conservation has lost fuel. IPCC states the current trends of emissions are conducive to cross 2°C mark within the next century. For example, offensive defense grew as the policy of nations - Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine have pushed the world into the very quagmire that 1945 deliberations worked to put out. For example, recent paper leak cases & protests in India have shown a deeper crack and an unwillingness to learn from the bitter experiences. The reality is, no element absolutely needs bitter experiences to learn best lessons. TATA group did not have to undergo a turmoil/turbulence to understand the importance of good corporate governance; neither did Kailash Satyarthi had to face exploitation to understand the pain & sufferings of a child. This, however, does not discredit the worthiness of lessons learnt through bitterness. It motivates generations who don't have a privileged backing to understand the real worth. Diamond - which needs immense pressure and temperature to turn a mere block of coal into an invaluable piece of nature. The gist as Khalil Gibran held "The most massive characters are seared with scars."