Your day in the sun is around the corner

Hi I am Vinoj Kumar, Editor of The Weekend Leader. Welcome to my new podcast ‘On Fire’ with Vinoj'  – a series that will look at the upside of life, and transform us into individuals with a positive mindset.

A recent event reinforced some of my favourite principles in life and I can’t wait to share it with you. I am super excited to talk about the scintillating performance of Rahul Tewatia, the Rajasthan Royals player who smashed five consecutive sixes off West Indies fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell and played a key role in chasing the mammoth Kings XI total of 224.

With that knock Rahul became an overnight star and his Instagram account that had just 22,000 followers soon shot up to 80,000.

The 27-year-old Rahul had to wait a long time for his day in the sun, when the millions watching IPL would finally take notice of this young man, who actually hails from a village in Haryana near Delhi.

How many of you know that Rahul has been playing in the IPL since 2014? He was first picked by Rajasthan Royals at Rs 10 lakh that year. Later he played for Kings XI and then Delhi, before returning to Royals this year.

When you are not a star player, you hardly get the recognition you deserve. There is a video that has now gone viral which shows Delhi Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting talking with the players after a match during last year’s IPL. He is seen praising the players who performed well in the match.

At the end of his talk, as Ponting is walking away, Tewatia approaches him and reminds him about the four catches he had taken during the match. If I were in Ponting’s position I would have apologised to Tewatia for missing out his name and said a few nice things about him.

But Ponting’s response was kind of acerbic as he said, “Boys, Tewatia took four catches and wants a pat on the back.’ And the whole dressing room burst out in laughter. Imagine how Tewatia would have felt. You just need to put yourself in Tewatia’s shoes and you can feel his pain.

Many times our contributions might go unrecognized – it might be an oversight or a deliberate act by the persons concerned, but don’t worry. Such things happen in every industry.

But if you brush aside the disappointments and keep working on your skills and try to get better every day, a time will come when the whole world will celebrate your success.

And you wouldn’t need a pat on the back from someone in the dressing room when the whole world is celebrating you. Join me in another edition of On Fire with Vinoj. Until then, stay safe, stay happy!