I vividly remember 6th Dec 1992 for multiple reasons. One such reason is, it was on this day that I had done an accurate guess of the 'Labh Laxmi Lottery" result. "Labh Laxmi Lotter" in the '90s was nothing but official 'Matka'. The system was designed such that you are least interested in winning the complete lottery price getting all the numbers correct. People focus only on the last digit of the lottery and buy tickets in bulk. Regular buyers follow this last digit everyday. There is a lot of guesswork, some also call it calculation. The tickets were available till 12 noon and the results were out at 6 pm every day.
In 1992, I was in school and neither had interest nor had the money to buy lotteries. That said, playing with numbers was always fun. I love numbers even today. I did some "calculations" and told so 8-10 people from my neighbourhood that on 6th Dec the Labh Laxmi last digit will be '6'. Most of them took it lightly, some were more confident about their number following and continued following their number. A very few thought of giving it a try. At 6 pm the results were out. The last digit of Labh Laxmi was '6'. My calculation can be best described as 'bullshit'. I took 12, the month number for December. To make it a single digit, I divided it by 2, I got 6, the date that day was 6th and the time the results were to be announced also 6 PM. There it was, 6th Dec 6 pm the result will be '6'. The news in the small town spread like fire. People started visiting my house to ask the last digit. It was a curfew in the city that came to my rescue. The curfew was not because of me, it was for the 1992 riots that followed after 6th Dec.
So, how to win a Lottery?
It is only in the retrospect that you can tell anyone how to win a lottery. Once you have won the ticket, the play-book for "Easy way to win a lottery" gets written.
Easy Way to Win A Lottery: Wake up at 5 am and do 10 Surya Namaskars (a form of Yogasana) facing the east. Drink black coffee. Wear a white dress. Use public transport to reach the Lottery shop. Say "Good Morning" to the lottery seller with a smile. Take the 13th ticket from the bunch which is in the 3rd row 3rd column. Now, why do you think a person will tell this secret. Why will she not get a lottery for herself? The answer is simple because it will not even work for that person anymore.
Do you think Bill Gates if starts from scratch can create another Microsoft? Read what he says...
Do you think Bill Gates if starts from scratch can create another Microsoft? Read what he says, “They could have hired an outside computer expert to do the scheduling system. Teachers could have insisted that they teach classes on computing, simply because they were the teachers and we were the students,” Gates says. “But they didn’t.” As a result, he says, “if there had been no Lakeside [high school], there would have been no Microsoft.” The backstory is, Bill Gates had to code a computer program to manage his high school’s scheduling system. That was an opportunity that prepared Gates for Microsoft.
Right time, right place matters. To add my two cents to it, I would say, Right time, right place, doing right things makes all the difference. Now that said, nobody knows the right time and right place. The only thing in your hand is to keep doing what you think is right to do at any given point in time and at any given place. Then wait and learn to enjoy this wait. Or keep moving, keep doing new things at new places and keep waiting. Again, learn to enjoy this waiting.
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Image Cover for the post: Official Twitter Handle for Bill Gates as on 15th November 2020
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