Leap Before You Think

JUMPING INTO EXECUTION ALSO RESULTS IN PUSHING THROUGH MENTAL BLOCKS THAT STALL MOMENTUM. SOMETIMES IT’S ALSO ABOUT WORKING WITH LIMITED INFORMATION BUT STILL RUSHING HEADLONG DOWN A MOUNTAIN THE WAY HIRA DID – BECAUSE THE GOAL IS ALL IMPORTANT

- Apurva Purohit

A STORY THAT OF TEN RATTLES about in the recesses of the attic that houses my brain is a tale that I’d read in my childhood. I’d come across it in Amar Chitra Katha, once upon a time a staple reading material for children in every Indian household.

Hira was a milkmaid who lived in the foothills of the Raigad fort during the reign of Chatrapati Shivaji. She would come into the capital city to sell milk during the day and leave in the evening to return home to her ailing and elderly mother-in-law and infant son. Guards were under strict instructions to shut the gates of the impregnable fort at 6 p.m. every evening.

One day Hira was running late and made it to the gate just as it was being pulled shut. She entreated and pleaded, but the guards would not budge. All her cries that her baby would go hungry without her, fell on deaf ears. They told her she had to remain within the city walls that night and could only return home when the gates opened in the morning.

Desperate, Hira began to look around for other ways to get out of the fort. After a lengthy walkabout, she came across an opening in the wall through which she could slip out. In pitch darkness, she exited Raigad. She carefully inched her way down the steep mountainside and made her way safely home.