*An Encouraging Story*
An Indian professor visited Russia to study its education system.
During his visit, he came across something that left him completely puzzled.
In Russia, the highest score in an exam was 5.
That was understandable.
But what shocked him was this:
Even a completely blank answer sheet received 2 marks.
A blank paper.
Two marks.
The professor could not believe it.
Surely, a student who writes nothing deserves zero?
The question stayed in his mind until he finally asked a senior Russian educator.
"How can you give marks to someone who has written absolutely nothing?"
The educator smiled.
Then he gave an answer the professor never forgot.
"Zero means non-existence. As long as a student is standing in front of me, how can I call him zero?"
The professor was silent.
The educator continued.
"Perhaps that child woke up before sunrise."
"Perhaps he travelled through snow and freezing weather."
"Perhaps he studied but became nervous."
"Perhaps he tried and failed."
"But how can one bad day erase all the effort that brought him here?"
Then he said something even more powerful.
"A teacher's job is not to convince a child that he is nothing. A teacher's job is to help him believe he can stand up and try again."
The professor later admitted that this conversation changed the way he looked at education.
And perhaps it changes the way we should look at people too.
How quickly we give labels.
Failure.
Average.
Not good enough.
Finished.
But a person is never equal to one result.
One exam cannot measure a life.
One mistake cannot define a future.
One bad chapter cannot decide the entire story.
Some of the most successful people in the world have failed interviews, lost businesses, repeated exams, and faced rejection after rejection.
What kept them moving was not talent alone.
It was hope.
And sometimes all a person needs is someone who refuses to give up on them.
The next time you see someone struggling, remember this Russian teacher.
Instead of asking, "Why did you fail?"
Perhaps ask, "How can I help you try again?"
Because people grow best not when they are judged, but when they are encouraged.
👏🏾🌹🙏🏾❣️🌺💐
Author unknown.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Z-eEss77s
Ep. 20 l Is Uttar Pradesh About to Overtake Southern India? ft. Shantanu Gupta 33,502 views Premiered on 24 Jul 2026 Podcasts
For decades, Uttar Pradesh was dismissed as India's "BIMARU" state, lagging behind on almost every development indicator.
But over the past few years, the narrative has begun to change.
From expressways and airports to manufacturing, tourism, investment and governance, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as one of the most closely watched states in India. Is this transformation real? Can it be sustained? And what does it mean for Southern India and the country's future?
In Episode 20 of the Bodh Podcast, Sharan Setty sits down with author and political commentator Shantanu Gupta for a wide-ranging conversation on Uttar Pradesh's transformation, governance, economics, infrastructure, culture, elections and India's changing growth story. Chapters: 00:00 – Pre-Cap
02:55 – Yogi Adityanath's RSS Journey
07:07 – The Gorakhnath Math: Legacy, Service and Leadership
17:54 – Inside Yogi Adityanath's Governance Model
19:12 – How Uttar Pradesh Rebuilt Its Economy
22:48 – Why Uttar Pradesh Fell Behind for Decades
28:15 – Has Uttar Pradesh Changed for Its Minorities?
42:04 – ODOP: Can UP Become a $1 Trillion Economy?
52:19 – The Bulldozer Policy: Deterrence or Controversy?
54:40 – Reforming the Uttar Pradesh Police
57:12 – Leadership Lessons from the Ramayana Transcript : Very sadly in India to gain Muslim vote bank you have to do something anti-Hindu
0:077 seconds[music]
0:1010 secondsif I have to more Hindus to win the faith of Muslim people I'll more Hindus congresses and samajwadi parties of
0:1919 secondsIndia is a huge disservice to Muslim community they did not they did not help to grow
0:2828 secondslike yadav ities used their government to develop to develop their businesses to get into positions. But what Muslims did is to just do their love jihads and land jihads. They did not even develop.
0:3939 secondsThey still be a puncher wallalas and five five children in the family. Out of the Muslim board share 8% to 15% started coming to BJP. Most of the analysts attribute to the Muslim woman.
0:5252 secondsOut of selfrespect, you know, if Rahul Gandhi feels that either UP has betrayed him, he has to shift to why not. people in UP are not smart enough to understand
0:5959 secondsmy kind of politics. He made that statement.
1:061 minute, 6 secondsBulldozer is part of it. Bulldozer is what when if I if I get a criminal's file, Yogi will say also check why he's
1:131 minute, 13 secondsable to run his empire. Bulldozer action technically is nothing but breaking the economic spine of the mafia. It's not a randomly breaking some buildings. Yogi
erving the longest tongue ever in last 70 years. They did not allow any chief minister to serve more than 5 years. And
1:301 minute, 30 secondsthe same population of UP is not allowing up to go even after 10 years.
1:341 minute, 34 secondsAs soon as he came to the chief minister office, he did two amazing things, right? He took the whole cabinet to I am luckno for three full days. Can you
1:411 minute, 41 secondsimagine all the naas sitting in Lacno and there was a class on reading the budget.
1:561 minute, 56 secondsUp is going to elections next year.
1:581 minute, 58 secondsUttar Pradesh as we know and everybody says it the generic line that goes that says that the road to Delhi is from Lucknau.
2:072 minutes, 7 secondsUP is going to be the central story of India's growth story when India will become Vixit Barat in 2047 hopefully.
2:162 minutes, 16 secondsone man who has been documenting the story of that particular state much before anybody else could who has been
2:242 minutes, 24 secondspositively telling the stories of inspiration whether it's from um uh our tales from Ramayan or the lived
2:332 minutes, 33 secondsexperiences of many political leaders he's been the first one to stick his neck out and become sort of the pro bono
2:402 minutes, 40 secondsbrand ambassador for many of these stories for Uttar Pradesh I'm joined by author a bestselling author Shantanu Gupta Gi Shantanu [clears throat] G
2:492 minutes, 49 secondsthank you so much namaste good to see you after long good to see you so uh it it it u I want to desperately start with the political
Chapter 2: Yogi Adityanath's RSS Journey
2:572 minutes, 57 secondsquestions first like I I will I will come to the I want to ask you like there's so much happening around uh UP right now
3:043 minutes, 4 secondsand uh for the wrong reasons many of it uh how is the power center in UP first of all concentrated because Yogi G is
3:133 minutes, 13 secondsfrom a background where he's not from the RSS technically He's from Yuabahini and right now when there's a correct so who actually runs up.
3:233 minutes, 23 secondsUhhuh.
3:243 minutes, 24 secondsUh so first of all welcome to Uttar Pradesh. I'm so happy you are shooting this podcast in Uttar Pradesh where now we have electricity 24x7.
3:333 minutes, 33 secondsUh pre 2017 the the statewise load of UP was 17,000 megawatt. Today as we sitting here is
3:423 minutes, 42 seconds34,000 megawatt. Right? So you can imagine if you double the electricity what it can do to the growth. Now the question is who's running Uttar Pradesh
3:503 minutes, 50 secondsright? So governance wise uh Yogi Atanat is running Uttar Pradesh and the divine
3:573 minutes, 57 secondska of Shriram Shri Krishna and Shankar G is always there right I always say I come from the Janumi of Shriram I come
from the Janumi of Shri Krishna and from Bhinat Kika. So all of us and 24 cr uh
4:124 minutes, 12 secondsvery very hardworking people of UP are uh running Uttar Pradesh. I think to start with a lot of people say that yoga
4:204 minutes, 20 secondsdoesn't come from a typical RSS background. I think this is 100% wrong.
4:264 minutes, 26 secondsuh in his college he was in koir right he's he's brought up in Uttakhand like that time Uttakhand was part of Uttar Pradesh
4:344 minutes, 34 secondsso that Uttar Pradesh but we used to call that area Uttanchchal like that region right all regions also have names within a state right I'm sure in Karnataka you have
4:424 minutes, 42 secondsPurwanchal yeah like Purwanchal like Pashim right uh so he used to study in a college uh in kudoar kudwar is one of the towns in
4:504 minutes, 50 secondsUttarakhand and he was in Akilwarti purad like very much there. In fact when he met Mahanta
4:584 minutes, 58 secondsvanad his guru uh he was the in the organizing team of from ABVP to organize
5:055 minutes, 5 secondsthat event and that event was on Ram temple Jagran right to to motivate the youth of the country on the reasons of
5:135 minutes, 13 secondsRam temple on the muim of Ram temple right and today the Ram temple is there and Yogan is the chief minister so he was very much part of ABVP
5:215 minutes, 21 secondsthen if If you see all the Ramander committees for Ramander movement, they are never headed by Ashok singing Gi.
5:315 minutes, 31 secondsAsh. Ash. Ash. Ash. Ash. Ash. Ash. Ash.
5:395 minutes, 39 secondsRight. And most of the meetings in the eastern UP of Ramander used to happen in the mud goraknath mut while Yogiat was
5:475 minutes, 47 secondsthe shisha because he became the shisha of Mahavnad or also Mahantele elect like the hair apparent right. in 1994 when he
5:565 minutes, 56 secondswas only 22. He only became the member of parliament 26 but he was the hair apparent in 22.
6:026 minutes, 2 secondsAnd from Sarasang Chalak of RSS to VHP honchos they used to hang around if I can use the word hang around in the Goraknath mud as if their second home.
6:136 minutes, 13 secondsSo the Ramundra movement almost ran from there. Uh so saying that that he's not he doesn't come from the RSS scatter RSS
6:226 minutes, 22 secondsshivers used to happen. It's a de facto center for the RSS shivers and RSS works
as they call it like the training camps uh from from level one and level two. Level three happens only in Nagpur.
6:366 minutes, 36 secondsUh they happens in Gorapur in the Mud itself. All the people live in M. I have pictures of Mo Bhagi before he become the same. I have a picture of mob
6:446 minutes, 44 secondstouching the feet of Yogatnad. Not as a chief minister. He was not chief minister not as a politician as the revert pitadishwar of goraknath mut. So
6:536 minutes, 53 secondsI think he was very much from abbp to very much ingrained the whole mut was ingrained in the raand movement. He was very much part of the sarvir all.
7:017 minutes, 1 secondWhat makes the goraknat mud so special for people outside of Uttar Pradesh who may not know it. [clears throat] Uh
Chapter 3: The Gorakhnath Math: Legacy, Service and Leadership
7:087 minutes, 8 secondsso goraknath parumpara is the parumpara which we trace from adhat shiva. The Nat
7:167 minutes, 16 secondsof Adinat Shiva to Nat of Yogiat is in that continuum right and then guru Goraknad guru matsendraat and then two
7:247 minutes, 24 secondsimmediate gurus of yogat mahijuanat and mahanded and till today it's a very esoteric pramra right uh it has it has
7:337 minutes, 33 secondsuh its own set of meditation practices and yogic practices it's kind of yagnas right in fact it runs parallel with
7:407 minutes, 40 secondspatangjali yoga sutras right and lot of lot of uh Indian commentators and western commentators have uh documented the
7:507 minutes, 50 secondshistory of Natant. uh it's so esoteric that if you see yoga closely the the earrings that he sports they're not in
7:587 minutes, 58 secondsthe lower lobe they're in this frontal lobe and it's we have shown in our movie also ajad the untold story of a yogi which is the inspired by yoga's life
8:078 minutes, 7 secondsthat how how like painful is that procedure so much so they call it kata so one other name for natanti sadhus is
8:158 minutes, 15 secondskata sadus because you follow the khan so it's called kata sadhus and they don't use any antiseptic They don't use
8:228 minutes, 22 secondsany medicine only the mustard oil is the only antiseptic they use and for those 3 months uh guru takes care of the disciple. Okay.
8:318 minutes, 31 secondsRight. And while doing this procedure if you like waver too much they say okay you have too much love with your body next like you have to come next time. Uh
8:418 minutes, 41 secondsthat's one element. Second element uh nat panti sadhus are always involved in the social movements and national movements.
8:498 minutes, 49 secondsOkay. So much so that during the our our freedom movement uh Goraknatis were very much part of the freedom movement. Uh so
8:598 minutes, 59 secondsmuch so that they used to they used to lot of Goraknati's disciples used to
9:069 minutes, 6 secondssteal the u what do you say weapons and uh eating materials from which were going for the goroki sena.
9:169 minutes, 16 secondsOkay.
9:179 minutes, 17 secondsRight. and used to give to our sunda sani and the British started calling that term gorak gorak dhanda and that has become a negative term
9:249 minutes, 24 secondstoday which we should not use gorak danda means gorak danda against the British government not gorak dhandha against the people lot of say for any negative thing for fraud scams or gorak
9:329 minutes, 32 secondsdha which was coined by British because goraknatis and gur their discipline used to it was an act of patriotism it was act of patriotism right so they
9:409 minutes, 40 secondswere always part of this and also social movement as you as you must be knowing that first time when the Ram ideals
9:489 minutes, 48 secondsappeared in Ramander. uh it was Mahindwanat who organized a non-stop katawan there and a huge movement
starting as I told you ashok singing gi appointed mahand avaded as uh all the head of all the ramen committees right
10:0410 minutes, 4 secondsand when the temple was made it was under when yogath is the chief minister so they have a almost a 70 or history of
10:1410 minutes, 14 secondspart of the raand movement so that's why nat panti ra mut is very important one very interesting element [snorts]
10:2210 minutes, 22 secondsuh nat panties are the one who who are the in modern times one of the uh
10:2810 minutes, 28 secondsprimary one who who who started a movement against the cast movement against the cast discrimination in fact Mahindraad when yoga took took took took
10:3710 minutes, 37 secondscharge of the mata mahanda become a little freer so he started going to to the whole country when he went to the south he saw massive convergence because
10:4610 minutes, 46 secondsthat kind of massive Christian conversions are not available in uh in north of India right and he got very disheartened and when he inquired people say because we have caused
10:5410 minutes, 54 secondsdiscrimination a lot of people change sides and when he came back he said I will not allow that to happen in at least this part of the country and he
11:0211 minutes, 2 secondsstarted doing lot lot of uh large bohoj large food eating because the first thing you don't make food with the people with other cast right and he
11:1011 minutes, 10 secondsstarted large this this uh we call it langar or we call it panguts right with lot of people with dojati dojat is the
11:1911 minutes, 19 secondsone which does kriyakaram in banaras gart okay and they are considered even more lower in the startup because they are handling the dead bodies right he started that so
11:2811 minutes, 28 secondsmuch so a lot of saints did not agree with him in the first go and he started with that and then he started kichi boge in gorakpur and then yogadat continued
11:3811 minutes, 38 secondsit was so interesting that uh we call it monadi munadi means you drum beat and tell a tell to a village uh that on a
11:4611 minutes, 46 secondsparticular day yoga coming here you prepare food so they will prepare food from whichever cast whichever community
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