'Virus' asked his students during a pre-campus motivational speech:

Do you know the name of second person who walked on moon?

Of course like all the students in the blockbuster '3-Idiots', I and most of the guys reading this piece don’t know because we never cared about as it was never asked in G.K papers or quiz competitions.

 The answer is Buzz Aldrin, about 20 minutes after Neil he stepped on the moon. He was a veteran fighter pilot in Korean War who joined U.S Military academy after turning down a full scholarship from prestigious MIT. To add to your interest he had originally been proposed as the first to step onto the moon's surface, but due to the physical positioning of the astronauts inside the compact lunar landing module, it was easier for the commander, Neil Armstrong, to be the first to exit the spacecraft. There was also a desire on NASA's part for the first person to step onto the moon's surface be a civilian, which Armstrong was. (Sorry Mr. Neil I will post your photographs on some other day).

(Clockwise from top-left :Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon during Apollo 11 ,Aldrin portrait for Appollo11, Buzz Aldrin, February 2009 and Col Aldrin as Commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School)

Although walking on moon is prestigious even today and may require billion of dollars but in terms of  'who was the first?' everybody who went there after Neil Armstrong is a failure. Without going into more loops let me tell you what I am trying to say: 

It’s just the ‘Frame Of Reference’ or ’Angle Of View’ or ‘Dimensions’ which decides that which ‘Stamp’ is appropriate, WINNER or  FAILURE. The ‘Frame Of Reference’ or ’Angle Of View’  may vary according to age, gender, culture, time, degree of need, target & ambition etc. An event branded as failure may be a praiseworthy success from some different perspective.

Maternal grandparents Sikha (C) and Monotosh Bhakraborty hold up portraits of their two grandchildren

The best example is the highly talked ‘Norway Child Custody Row’ in which following the strict Child Welfare Laws of the country children of an Indian couple were taken away from them and handled to foster parents for ‘proper care’. The Norwegian court ruled that the parents ‘Failed’ to take good care of their children although the issues raised by the Norwegian court are trivial from Indian legal & cultural standards. Indian government is helping the parents .The grandparents of the children are still protesting at every possible level and I hope the family will be reunited soon.

Through this post I want you to introspect and reassess your action or events occurring around you. In it I am not telling you that how to learn from failures, die hard bravo…and all that inspirational stuff because those topics come after you conclude that you have failed as per ‘relevant dimensions’. By relevant I mean the dimensions which matter as per your target & ambitions and can really affect your present or future. This multidimensional approach will allow you to evaluate your success or failure in terms of degree and broaden the horizons of your mind where success and failure are defined.

So, next time before you step out without any pants shouting 'Eureka! Eureka!' (I have found it! I have found it!), out of joy due to success or sit down to write a suicide note due to an indigestible failure, just reassess your degree of success/failure as a whole from all possible relevant dimensions.

Refrences(Thank you!): 

1. Wikipedia
2. Asia One News