Once upon a time, in New Delhi, the capital city of India, lived two best friends, Aakriti and Himanshi. Their friendship almost seemed to be destined by the universe as they shared their birthdates, they lived only a few blocks away and they also happen to study in the same school. Every other thing in their lives was similar. Except for one which eventually turned out to be the game changer in their lives.

Even after everything they had in common, the one thing that Himanshi had but Aakriti lacked was “Luck”. Though it didn’t make much of a difference in their preschool days, as they grew up, Their fate became more and more distinct from each other. Aakriti, who did not have Luck by her side had to work very hard to achieve the bare minimum of what she wanted. On the other hand, Himanshi had by now become aware of the odds which were always in favour of her no matter what. She only used to start studying the night before her exam and still always was amongst the top scorers in the class. Seeing this, Aakriti sometimes felt that her efforts were going in vain. All the teachers and students considered marks to be the deciding criteria for intelligence. Therefore, in any case, whenever it came to choosing between the two of them, Himanshi was prioritized. Despite all the odds that were against her, Aakriti still never gave up her hard work and determination.

One day, both Aakriti and Himanshi were on a school trip to the Himalayas. Both were members of a team which was supposed to track towards the top of a mountain peak. But, unfortunately, just as they were about to reach the top, they got lost in the woods. There, they saw a wild beast and both panicked.  While Himanshi, who relied entirely on luck for everything was clueless in this scenario, Aakriti used the knowledge she had gained over the years with her hard work and told Himanshi to lie down as dead. She knew that the beast did not have a proper vision and that by lying down they would be camouflaged by the surrounding environment. As expected, the beast passed by and they were able to escape. Soon they were found by the search team of their camp. 

This incident proved that “When it comes to life as a whole, the shadow of luck is merely an illusion and the steps of determination and hard work are the ones that really make a difference”.