The Talking Clock

This battle, if someone pronounces it as such, started almost 2 years ago when Anil's daughter insisted that he should buy a talking clock for her. So as a good father, with the intent of teaching her time, he went to the shop and as instructed by his daughter, picked up this talking digital clock.

By default, the temperature was shown in degrees Fahrenheit. He tried out all permutations and combinations by fiddling with all the buttons on the clock. No matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to change it to degrees Celsius. He had a couple of other digital clocks in which there was a separate button for displaying temperature changes. This was critically missing here. He went to the extent of literally opening a few screws but alas, to no avail.

The thing with the digital clock is that when you put the battery in it, it displays all the fields...and yes indeed it had the now all-important degrees Celsius sign on it as well. Time moved on. Every day he used to see the clock and think what would be the way to convert the display of the temperature?

Fast forward to 9.30 am this morning. He just picked up the clock again...his mind told him that every time he pressed the 'mode' button, there was a corresponding action and so this time he went very slowly... one by one... and Bingo!!! There it was... the battle had been won. It now proudly displays the temperature in degrees Celsius. He was so excited that he even took a picture.

What this small incident taught him was that he knew what he wanted was always right in front of him and all it required was the right frame of mind to solve it.

That's what life has in store for all of us. If you know it is achievable and it is a matter of the right attitude, victory is just a matter of time.

Moral of the story: Even if you fail in your attempts, don't fail to attempt again.