Errors of the Past are the Wisdom of the Future

Lessons I Learnt in Life

MISTAKES ARE PORTALS OF DISCOVERY

Errors of the Past are the Wisdom of the Future

Musings of a Veteran

By

VIKRAM KARVE

This happened more than 27 years ago – in the early 1990’s – when we lived in the beautiful verdant campus of the erstwhile IAT (now called DIAT Deemed University) in the hills of Girinagar – overlooking the serene cool blue waters of Khadakwasla Lake – near Pune – with the mighty Sinhagad Fort towering above – as a sentinel .

We lived in a typical Military (MES) Accommodation – ground plus one storey with garages in between, four houses in a block.

Each house had a separate overhead water tank on top of the building and separate servant quarters behind the block .

We lived on the ground floor – and our neighbours who lived on the top floor above us were a young couple with a small kid.

Once there was a long weekend – 4 days off – 2 days Diwali holidays – followed by Saturday and Sunday.

Our neighbours – who lived above us – they decided to spend the long weekend in Mumbai with their relatives.

In contrast – a huge number of relatives had decided to visit us at IAT Girinagar – to celebrate Diwali – and spend the weekend in the picturesque surroundings on Girinagar – and do some sightseeing and trekking – climb up the Sinhagad Fort – and picnic at the Panshet and Varasgaon Dams – and stroll on the “beach” on the Khadakwasla lakeside.

The whole gang of relatives arrived early in the morning on the first day of Diwali.

We were enjoying ourselves – the children were bursting crackers outside – and my wife got down to making preparations for a festival feast for all of us – and we were looking forward to a delicious sumptuous lunch.

Suddenly – my wife came out – and she told me that the taps had run dry – and she said that water was not coming anywhere in the house.

This was surprising – since there was an abundance of water in Girinagar – and we had never faced any water problem.

I rang up the “pump house” – who confirmed that they had duly pumped water for 3 hours in the morning as per schedule – and there was no reason for a water shortage. 

The “pump house” supervisor suggested that I have a look at my water tank on the roof – and if there was any plumbing or piping problem – they would send someone to rectify the fault.

I climbed up on the roof – and – I was aghast to see that my water tank was bone dry. 

The lid of the water tank had been taken off – and the walls of the water tank had been freshly painted.

My neighbour’s water tank was full of water.

I came down – and I started enquiring – when my servant told me that she had seen our neighbour’s servant on the roof early in the morning.

I called the neighbour’s servant.

He said that before leaving for Mumbai – my neighbour had given him instructions to shut the inlet valve – drain the water tank – clean it up – dry it – and then apply a coat of paint – let the water tank dry for two days – and then – open the valve – so that the water tank would be full by the time they came back from their holiday.

He was contrite – and – he admitted that – by mistake – he had emptied and painted my water tank – instead of my neighbour’s water tank.

He had mistakenly assumed that my water tank was my neighbour’s water tank. 

That is why he had drained out all the water – closed the inlet valve – dried the water tank – and then cleaned and painted it.

My neighbour’s servant profusely apologised – and he said he was very sorry for the mistake 

But – I was furious – since – because of this man’s stupidity – we were going to have a water problem – and that too – when there were so many guests in the house.

I lost my temper – and – I started shouting angrily at the man.

As I started giving him a severe tongue-lashing – the man shivered in fright.

Suddenly – I noticed the man’s small son watching the proceedings.

The young boy trembled with fear – and – he had an expression of dread written all over his innocent face – as he watched his father being publicly scolded and humiliated.

I could not bear to see this heart-rending expression on the young boy’s face. 

I felt terrible that I had scolded the man in front of his son.

So – I stopped my invective tirade.

I told the man to go away.

Then – I went into my room to cool off. 

That day – I made a decision.

I resolved that I would never admonish anyone in front of their children or family.

Parents are heroes to their children.

So – the worst thing you can do is to humiliate parents in front of their children.

Similarly – it can be very demoralizing for an Officer – a Manager – or for any Employee – to be reprimanded by the Boss – in front of his juniors and subordinates.

I was in a profession where being “goody-goody” and “soft spoken” did not work in all cases.

So – occasionally – you had to shout at people and reprimand them – in order to get the desired results.

But – I ensured that whenever I gave a tongue-lashing to someone – I did so in private – by calling him aside separately to give him a dressing down.

Also – I tried my best to criticize the action and to ensure that I did not insult the person by making derogatory personal remarks about him.

I scrupulously tried my best to follow the dictum: 

Praise in Public – but – Admonish in Private 

I did lose my temper and yell at people in public sometimes – but I immediately made amends by apologising on the spot – or at the earliest opportunity.

We all make mistakes.

But – the trick lies in realizing your mistake when you commit one – learn from your mistake – take corrective action – and make sure you do not repeat the same mistake again.

Experience enables you to recognize a mistake.

As Cicero said: 

Any man can make a mistake – but only a fool will continue in repeating it

Mistakes are your best teachers.

Mistakes are lessons of wisdom.

And – as James Joyce said: 

Mistakes are the Portals of Discovery

I have made a lot of mistakes in my life.

I have tried my best to learn from my mistakes – and – I have endeavoured to ensure that I do not repeat my mistakes.

In some cases I have succeeded – and – in some cases – it is still an ongoing process.

As Tryon Edwards put it: 

“Some of Best Lessons we ever Learn – we Learn from our Mistakes and Failures. 

The Error of the Past is the Wisdom and Success of the Future...”

I will end with a quote by Wang Yang-Ming:

“The sages do not consider that making no mistake is a blessing. 

They believe rather that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and to continually make a new man of himself...”

VIKRAM KARVE

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All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the stories are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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This article is a revised re-post of my article MISTAKES ARE THE PORTALS OF DISCOVERY posted by me online earlier at url: http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2014/10/mistakes-are-portals-of-discovery.html  and  http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2016/08/lessons-i-learnt-in-life-mistakes-are.html  and https://www.quora.com/profile/Vikram-Karve/Writing-by-VIKRAM-KARVE/A-Life-Lesson-I-Learnt-21-years-ago-%E2%80%9CPraise-in-Public-but-Admonish-in-Private%E2%80%9D?share=1&srid=5Hkq and http://karvediat.blogspot.com/2017/10/mistakes-are-portals-of-discovery.html etc