Pride in work...

My Blogging rate has increased exponentially over the past few days...Is it that I don't have anything else to do? Of course not. Somehow, I have fallen under the spell of blogging and the strange mix of openness and privacy that it offers. And then, when it becomes a sort of necessity, I can always find the 10 minutes required somehow :-).
There are many incidents taking place nowadays which teach me the real meaning of some fairly commonplace words. One word which really got meaning for me a few hours back was the word "Pride". By this I mean taking pride in one's work.
My friend was disappointed at a poor performance he put up in one quiz sometime back... I thought, "Hey what's the big deal? Everybody makes mistakes in some quiz or the other..." . But then I realised that it was not the actual grade that he got that mattered so much. What really bothered him was that he had "failed" (in a relative sense of the term :-)) to do well in the subject that he loved most. The pride which he took in his performance was a lesson for me as well.
I realised that we need to take pride in our work for us to really excel in it. A "chalta hai" attitude may still result in our doing good work, but it does not promote excellence. In the world today, where excellence is the name of the game, pride in one's work is an absolute must.
However, this has a caveat attached. Having pride in one's work is all fine. But one should not let it get overboard and feel dejected at having made a mistake. Disappointment is fine only to the extent one can learn from it.
Life will keep teaching me new lessons everyday...the only thing is that I have to be a good student and keep the learning spirit and take each lesson as an invaluable contribution towards the development of my personality

Bloggin' off
Sitan aka Rangarajan