The Book of Life

pages of wisdom Meaning: let Indira Gandhi become President and make me Prime Minister instead. (The Times of India, July 12, 1987). Events show that Morarji Desai eventually broke away from Congress. To become Prime Minister, he stirred the entire country. After the Janata Party’s victory in the March 1977 elections, he briefly became Prime Minister. But soon after, he faced political decline and never recovered. The real reason for Desai’s failure was that he chased the impossible while ignoring the possible. If he had realized that, under the circumstances, the highest attainable post for him was the presidency—not the prime ministership— he could have avoided disgrace and failure. But by running after the impossible, he lost even the possible. Chasing the impossible deprives a person of what is within reach. On the other hand, one who accepts the possible not only secures it but may, in time, gain the impossible too. OPPORTUNITIES OF EVERY KIND O n the morning of February 26, 1988, all Delhi newspapers carried this headline on their front pages: Successful test of India’s first missile. On February 25, amid applause in Parliament, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi announced that India had developed a surfaceto-surface missile, Prithvi, and successfully tested it. The missile was entirely developed with Indian technology.