There Can Be Only One No 1, But...

Maria Sharapova

There can be only one No 1. But everyone, well almost everyone, can be No 1 in something or the other.
When we do not realise the spirit of the above statement, frustration can seep in, and most often does. When parents especially cannot and do not accept that we are all born with certain limitations, a child more than another, our children can be put under pressure.

In a class of fifty, or in an exam of a few hundred, or in a selection process involving thousands, there will be only one person who will emerge as the best. But, that does not mean that the other forty-nine other students, or the hundreds who were beaten to second place or worse, or the thousands who were not selected can be written off.
In each of us there is a God-given talent. Honestly! Search in your heart and you will know. While in many the virtuosity begins to show in early life, in some of us the gift remains concealed even up until the middle age due to lack of opportunities. I did not say lethargy out of respect. Again, many among us have been able to cultivate small seeds into some of the most deep-rooted banyan trees. Sadly, in some the genius is lost because of leading a disorderly lifestyle.

If one is good at studies, another is great in kicking a ball. Someone sings Tagore numbers very well and another can recite from Nazrul extempore. Ami bidrohiranoklanto… One amongst us is the undisputed organiser of all our social events. Cholonaghureaashi…Another is just a good friend; okay, a very good friend. Someone can deliver a good speech. Another can stay up all night beside a patient. Someone… you could go on and on. And yes, some of us do have more than one gift, but one gift each of us has for sure.

Shakib Al-Hasan

Have you ever heard Pele singing any Brazilian hit song, or Maradona kicking up something in Cuban, or either of them worrying their head with the mathematics of what percentage of possession each team had? Did Hemanta Mukherjee ever kick a ball or hold a cricket bat? His relationship with soccer perhaps began with him singing for Bangladeshi footballers when they were hosted in Kolkata soon after our War of Liberation, and it ended there.
Picasso was no good in debating, or else he could have perhaps done better with women. The maestro shamefully called all women “goddesses or doormats” and “drove his lovers to despair and even suicide with his cruelty and betrayal”. Maria Sharapova can hold a tennis racquet, but has not heard of SachinTendulkar.
One of the greatest all-rounder cricketers of all times, Shakib Al-Hasan, has to some extent allowed success to get into his head. But, he may not oblige an audience by picking up a number from Artcell. Can you imagine Babita serving a shuttlecock with as much dexterity as she did as an actor in “Golapi Ekhon Train-e”? Usdtad Shahadat Hussain handles a sarod with as much ease as a mother nurses her baby.

The man who drives a bus from Dhaka to Chittagong with responsibility, may not be good at writing a novel. The fishermen who risk their lives in the deep sea may never have sat behind a wheel. The farmer who tills the soil was never seen a sitar.

It is important that we discover our potentialities as early as possible. It is more important that we do not try climbing up the wrong tree. If I am not good at acting, I should give it up. If I cannot sing, let me not use other means to land half-an-hour on television. If I cannot excel at school, let me not brood that I am useless. I am not. None of us are. We all have different abilities; in some it is only more hidden than in others. But, then who said that diamonds grew on trees?

Discovering the faculties of children is often the task of the parent, the teacher and the elders.  It will then be the concern of the adult to guide the child along his gifted strengths, and by no means push the child in to dark rooms with the hope that the light will light up eventually.

Some of us understand our limitations in our mid-teens. The teenager left alone to hone his or her aptitude is the most fortunate, and potentially the most likely to succeed.

If we can accept, for example, that world cup footballers and cricketers, thanks to television, are a different breed, and be content with enjoying their prowess over snacks and drinks, why is it so difficult for us to understand that not all of us can be No 1? Otherwise the unique number loses its meaning.

Our individual task is to ascertain in what field or areas we are each better than those whom we know and think are better than us. The night sky will not look bleak any more, for each of us shall be twinkling along with the stars that we come to admire. You never know, they could become your fan too.