Competition...

"Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good as someone else". This is how modern day sums up the term "competition" If every one had to be the Numero Uno, then who would stand second to best? One has to realize that, if someone ends up at top, the others have to settle for something less than the best. Yet competition is all about fiercely fighting, giving your best, beating the other, and getting the better out of others. Competition is something that you would associate in every field, be it Asafa Powell trying to outrun Usain Bolt, South Africa pushing Australia to the limits in cricket, Alonso getting into ugly war of words with Schumi and then his, once teammate, Hamilton; Hillary doing evertything not to leave an inch for Obama and many more. Yet the surprising element is, sometimes this competetion may take such modes that you can't help but call your competitors, your foes!!!

Well, the whole idea of competition loses its value when you treat your competitor as your foe, one has to understand that to compete is to ensure one does well to the best of his abilities, to use one's strengths and work on his weakness; but today competition is all about finding others' weakness, taking advantage of them, and doing all that is needed to ensure you are not outdone by others. Gone are the days, when the great archer Arjun respected his arch rival Karna. Now the scenario has changed.

It was yesterday, one of my cousins studying in class 3 turned up, he said with a feeling of pride sparkling in his promising eyes, "Bhai you know I always stand 1st in the class, I don't allow abhisekh to take my position". Well his words said a lot more than what he spoke. Now that speaks of the volume of a child's mentality. Just in class 3 and the words, "take my position", is something that you would associate with the politicians in India, striving for power. Yet you can't blame him, the generation has changed. In my school days, I knew a word or two about competition. I always had one of my best pals, as my competitor. Infact he is my cousin. We used to compete, yet our friendship never got affected. We never had any bad blood between us. The competition was healthy and we used to take everything sportively. Be it the debate competitions or the school exams, both gave our best and each one was always there to appreciate the feat of other. At the end of the day, it is not what you get, but what you have given, the real success is not in the trophy won but the race run. And this is what you call a healthy competition.

While the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department. To survive you have to prove yourself, and if it takes to demean and supress others to prove yourself, today people won't hesitate to do that. Thats how fierce competition can get. Today if you win, that is not the end of race, be ready for the backlash. The real tough time in competition is to face the vengeance for competing, for proving your abilities before others. When you win you are applauded for your feat, but there would be certain cynics who would never fall back from demeaning the success you have achieved. Those who lose, find a reason for other's success rather than resurrecting themselves to do better and rectifying the loopholes. Thats competition for you.

The fact that Dhoni's boys failed to deliver in the T20 WC in 2009 gave the critics a chance to say, that, "Indians know how to bat when the ball does nothing, neither swings nor bounces, not even spins", yet what they forget is it is this team which swung New Zealand to taste defeat in their home, bounced the Australians to almost humiliation at their own backyard. And no one has ever looked like spinning Indians out. But when you perform exceedingly well, a little failure may call for great hazards. One has to learn to go through this.

But Nadal-Federer rivalry is different. They are what you call ideal competitors. Each knows his strength and aware of other's weakness, yet it is their strength that they rely on, rather than other's weakness, to taste sucess. Nadal dethroned Federer against all odds, yet was humble enough to accept that, Federer is the one of the greatest. Federer lost it to Rafa, yet never tried to find an excuse, rather continued to fight till, it paid off. The 15th grandslam by the true champ is a testimony to his dedicated efforts.

Yet the world can do a lot better if one knew that, "give your best, then expect the best", but there is more than just effort that is involved, the luck factor can't be ignored. You may have been undone by ill-luck but don't forget once the same luck was at your side. If you want to compete, compete in true sense, go for unbiased competition, create a healthy competitive environment and above all learn to appreciate and respect your competitor. One should know that he always has a competitor in himself; "I'm in competition with myself. My goal is to beat my last performance" . A competition is always good to have if we knew that the ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have got the most out of what you had to give.