Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I The Sunday Guardian I January 26, 2014

16 November 2013 was a special date for the Indian cricket-star Sachin Tendulkar. After 24 years of his career in cricket, he emerged as a superman of India. In a short speech he credited the success to his late father Ramesh Tendulkar. He disclosed that when he was 11-years-old and started playing cricket, his father gave him an advice in these words: "Chase your dreams, but do not take short cuts." Sachin Tendulkar adopted this advice and it successfully worked for him.

What is a short cut? A short cut is trying to find a bypass only to reduce the distance by avoiding the natural procedure, so as to reach the destination in a shorter period of time. This kind of bypass is common in road journey. But when it comes to the purposeful journey of human life, it becomes quite irrelevant.

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For example, if you are a student and try to secure a Master's degree without graduation, or if you are a moneyless person and want to emerge as a billionaire without doing any hard work, or if you start your career in politics and try to attain a high position in the political system without doing the required fieldwork, then these kinds of short cuts will not take you anywhere in real life. Planning on the lines of taking a short cut is ill-planning and is destined to lead nowhere.

No amount of favour can uplift any community. The only way to empower them is to make them able to meet the challenges posed to them. Life is based on competition and challenges. Without facing competition and challenges, no community can prosper. Offering favour only paralyses the ability of a community, however when a community faces a challenge, it proves to be a boosting factor for it.

Short cut is a word that may be found in the dictionary, but not in real life.