When Adversity Knocks

This is a story explaining how adversity is met differently by different people. Asha’s father placed an egg, a potato, and some tea leaves in three separate vessels with boiling water. He asked Asha to keep an eye on the vessels for ten minutes. Once these ten minutes were over , he asked Asha to peel the potato, peel the egg and strain the tea leaves. Asha was left puzzled.

Her father explained , ‘Each of these items was but in the same circumstance of being in a pot of boiling water. See how they’ve responded differently. The potato is now soft, the egg is now hard, and the tea has changed the water itself. We are all like these items. When adversity calls we respond in exactly the way they have. Now are you a potato, an egg or are you tea leaves?’

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The Golden Touch

This is the story of a very greedy rich man who chanced upon meeting a fairy. The fairy’s hair was caught in a few tree branches. Realising he had an opportunity to make even more money, he asked for a wish in return for helping the fairy. He said, ’All that I touch should turn to gold’, and his wish was granted by the grateful fairy. The greedy man rushed home to tell his wife and daughter about his new boon, all the while touching stones and pebbles and converting them into gold. Once he got home, his daughter rushed to greet him. As soon as he bent down to scoop her up in his arms, she turned into a gold statue. He realized his folly and spent the rest of his days searching for the fairy to take away his wish.

Counting Wisely

Akbar once put a question to his court that left everyone puzzled. As they all tried to figure out the answer, Birbal walked and asked what the matter was. And so they told him the question. ‘How many crows are there in the city?’ Birbal immediately smiled, went up to Akbar and announced that the answer to his questions was twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-three. When asked how he knew the answer, Birbal replied, ‘Ask your men to count the number of crows. If there are more, then the crows’ relatives from outside the city are visiting them. If there are fewer, then the crows are visiting their relatives outside the city.’ Pleased with the answer, Akbar presented Birbal with a ruby and pearl chain.

The OlaCabs Story

The Founders: – Bhavish Aggarwal: Education: B. Tech in Computer Science from IIT, Bombay. Prior work experience: Worked in Microsoft Research, Bangalore for 2 years, right after college. While trying to chase his dream of entrepreneurship, he started an online holiday and tour planning service on the side, before changing that into OlaCabs. – Ankit Bhati Education: Dual Degree(M.Tech+B.Tech) from IIT Bombay. Prior work experience: Worked in a number of start ups including QED42, Makesense and Wilcom, before joining OlaCabs. The OlaCab story: While trying to keep his holiday and tour planning business afloat, Bhavish had to travel from Bangalore to bandipur, for which he rented out a car, which ended in a very bad experience. The driver stopped the car in the middle of the journey and demanded a renegotiation of what Bhavish was paying. After being refused, he proceeded to abandon him enroute his destination. This is when he realized how his plight was probably similar to a lot of ...

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