Effects have Effects have Effects....

One of my finance professors taught me a simple fact - effects have effects. What I am doing here is just extending on it, because not only do effects have effects, but the downstream effects of these effects and their effects get magnified to humongous proportions somewhere else or sometime later...

When I think back to how I got to where I am currently, I find it astonishing that where I am today is largely down to a couple of purely chance events over which I had absolutely no control. Put it other way, had some other person had a chess board or some other person not made a fairly elementary mistake, I would not have been anywhere remotely close to where I am currently both professionally as well as academically. Let me explain in some detail...

When I was in school, just like with most other people at that point of time what I wanted to do/would end up doing was a function of how much marks I scored in class X. But in class VIII, one fine day our school decided to enter into an interschool chess tournament (if I remember properly, that was the first time our school was doing so). So to select the team, there was a selection process. The number of people making up the team was 4 and I was placed 5th in the process so ideally I should have been ought of the process. But, I was the one of the people having a chess board, while the 4th placed person did not have one so he opted out voluntarily and I got a look in (Pure chance event no.1).

Now at the actual tournament, in absolute terms I happened to do slightly better than other 3 (not necessarily in relative terms though as I was playing on 4th board - effectively meaning I was playing the weakest member from the other teams). But that meant that I got some appreciation from our sports instructor and other team members. Fair enough...

Then one fine day, we get the news that there is going to be another (school) chess tournament in our city - this time an individual event and not a team event. Having done well, in the earlier tournament and just for the heck of it I participated not really expecting anything. One round happened after another and I kept on winning all the games until I met this chap (who later became and is still a good friend of mine) who had played chess fairly seriously for his age, had taken professional coaching and was the hot favorite (all of which I would learn later on). As the game progressed (I don't have any recollection of what actually happened, but he claims, he blundered his rook - and I think that is probably true - Pure chance event no.2). Well, he promptly lost the game and I had won all 6 games played till that time. The expression on the face of people when I came out of the tournament hall was palpable. To stay that most people who knew him were stunned was an understatement. (Just as an indication of how 'rare' the mistake of that chap was (lets call him X), I must have played against him at least a couple of dozen times afterwards in either tournament level or at practice levels. But I do not recollect a single victory against him after that. I did manage a few draws, but even there, some of them were 'agreed' draws to achieve a greater common good (which is fairly common practice in chess, at least was). He would just out maneuver me from basically any kind of situation in which he would get in. He was simply too good to me.)

It is at that point that I realised that I could win this tournament and I promptly lost the next (and final) game but the way the tie break score is computed meant that I nevertheless won the tournament.

These events in class VIII (more than a dozen years before) kicked off my short 'chess career'. So impressed was I of this, that I took to taking professional coaching and I choose the stream 'commerce' post my class X results purely to pursue my ambitions in chess (and not withstanding some fairly stiff opposition from the family). However, I never really made any headway in that. And finally in class XII, I called it quits and decided to focus on academics - but I found myself in a completely different area of study to where I would have liked to be.

Had the 4th ranked person in our school chess team, had a chess board (and there is nothing so great about owning a chess board), I would't have played the tournament and in all likelihood I may not have played the next individual tournament. Had X not made the very very rare blunder, (in fact even after that most people would have expected to win the game, such was his perceived superiority) I would have simply not taken chess as seriously as I did take. Certainly I would not have taken up 'commerce' stream post class X. Which would have meant that I would have come no where close to where I am today. Far from being someone fascinated/captivated by financial markets, I would have been (in all likelihood) someone fascinated/captivated by stars and the planets and the esoteric subject known as physics.

I never wanted to be in the 'commerce' stream and even today if there is one thing I would want to change about myself is to go back and take a different decision post class X. How I wish at times that my parents were a bit more forceful and actually imposed their decision on me (like most other Indian parents I must hasten to add...) rather than give me the freedom. Alas...
A couple of small inconsequential events in my life more than a dozen years ago when I was not even 15, have had a fundamental defining effect on my life.

The point I am trying to make here is simple, events are completely beyond ourselves and which by themselves on the face of it appear completely irrelevant or inconsequential could actually turn into the defining moments of one's life. My life (till date!) certainly is a case in point.

Beware...

That's it for now....