I have been working on an experiment since April 2008. It took me almost 2 complete months to understand how things work ( or rather how am I supposed to make them work!) ..and then 2 other months how to manage and get to the next step, if something goes wrong.
Thanks to the excellent technical department at my workplace- its they who made most of it work- no doubt about it. They were so many stages I had to get through to reach where I stand now.We have had some results later in the year, and some small failures now and then- but I worked day and night to fight the situations.
One of the senior and experienced technical staff commented about the experiment saying that he hasnt seen a tough one like this in years! Now this scared me even more.
The components worked well , but only for a while.I collected enough data to put up an abstract. I woke up on the new year morning with some good news in my inbox- it said that my abstract is accepted.
Now there is a month left for the paper to go out and I havent had enough results to complete the paper.Everyday something or the other goes bad and I think the pressure of a deadline is not good. After almost 10 months almost..I have started to get low on my patience.
Perseverance and success are perpendicular to each other...just like in the picture above- they are sure to meet at some point. But when? is the question. how long do I have to continue like this?
Over the weekend when I was dusting my bookshelf, I came across my 4th grade moral science text book (my favourite one that I saved over all these years!)
Lesson 5: Perseverance!!! hmm.. is this any kind of hint?
I wont bore you too long.. a short story.. but something very relevant at this point..
Two little frogs were hopping in a farm and they came across a big bucket. They were curious and wanted to see what it contained.Both of them took a high leap and fell into the bucket.
It was filled with buttermilk! The walls of the bucket were slippery and sticky and they did not have a hard base or any kind of support to jump out. They started kicking their legs to keep themselves from drowning. But, after sometime, one of the frogs was tired and he stopped kicking. He drowned and died. Looking at this friend's fate,the other frog tried even more harder and continued kicking.
After sometime, he felt something hard under his legs. He was really tired from kicking so long, and he slowly climbed onto it and relaxed for a while. This hard thing was high enough for him to jump out. He finally jumped out of the bucket and went his way.
The frog's kicking action acted like churning and a ball of butter formed and separated out from the buttermilk.The frog's perseverance saved his life. He could successfully meet his goal.
I learnt the little lesson I needed. The moral of the story in bold said -"Dont give up, just remember what made you hold this long?"
I started working back on my experiment this week..only to see some light at the end of this long tunnel.. and a little hope that i will jump out someday.. !!
