Doing well in any activity, for example a sport, music, dance or painting, riding a motorcycle or a car, involves a great deal of struggle. Most of us are very nervous to begin with until gradually we overcome our fears and perform well.
Write an essay of about five paragraphs recounting such an experience. Try to recollect minute details of what caused the fear, your feelings, the encouragement you got from others or the criticism.

You could begin with the last sentence of the essay you have just read – “At last I felt relased – free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.”

Solution

Doing well–A Great Struggle

At last I felt released, free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear. Now the haunting fear had been shed and I can drive not only the motorcycle but the car also on the crowded roads of Delhi without any trace of fear in me.

Every one indulging in a sport or music or dance or painting or riding a motorcyle or a car, knows it very well that doing well in the activity involves a great deal of struggles. It is true that most of us get very nervous to begin with until bit by bit, we overcome our fears and perform well.

When for the first time I rode a motorcyle I felt very thrilled. Moreover, I drove on an empty road in the rural part after sunset. It was after travelling a distance of four kilometers I drove back. At a sharp curve a passenger bus came from opposite side. To my utter horror, I could notice the fallen-tree on my road-side when I just reached it. I had no choice but to drive down the road. I jumped flat behind, leaving the running motorcycle in the grove of trees. I was badly hurt and found the bike in damaged form standing in the trees. I got terror struck and shook and trembled badly. There was no help.

The driving fear followed me whenever I drove in residential areas as well as on busy roads. I could never think of driving beyond the speed of 40 km.ph. My condition worsened when I was stuck in the traffic jams. Terror used to freeze my hands and legs. They could hardly coordinate.

At last, I engaged an instructor to teach me driving. It was one hour daily for one month I was given a signal to drive independently. I drove on busy roads, crowded roads, jammed roads and finally, on roads with deep curves in the hills. It made me to feel free of the haunting driving fear. The residual fear also was won over a long time. I won it, and felt free to drive.

Some More Questions From Deep Water Chapter

How does Douglas make clear to the reader the sense of panic that gripped him as he almost drowned ? Describe the details that have made the description vivid.

How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood experience of terror and his conquering of it? What larger meaning does he draw from this experience?

“All we have to fear is fear itself.” Have you ever had a fear that you have now overcome? Share your experience with your partner.

Find and narrate other stories about conquest fear and what people have said about courage. For example, you can recall Nelson Mandela’s courage and his struggle for freedom, his perseverance to achieve his mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor as depicted in his autobiography. The story “We’re Not Afraid To Die,” which you have read in class XI, is an apt example of how courage and optimism that helped the family service under the direst stress.

If some one else had narrated Douglas’s experience how would it have differed from this account. Write out a sample paragraph or paragraphs from this text from the point of view of a third person or observer, to find out. Which style of narration would you consider to be more effective? Why?