The Table of Nineteen

I recently had the opportunity of volunteering as a teacher for a charitable school.
I spent my first Saturday with class IV. I started out with a casual conversation in my attempt to know the students better. Within minutes i knew that the kid in the first row was different.
I could see a twinkle in the small eyes that showed the desire to become someone when he grew up. He wants to be an engineer one day.

I told him that he must excel in maths for that. He told me how he knew tables of all numbers till 20 in English and Telugu. I couldn't resist asking him to recite the table of 19. I had no way of checking if he made any mistakes. ( I do not know the table of 19) but he sounded correct.

I wonder why life makes some of us work harder than the others.
Like they say - a chunk of coal must go through enormous pressure before it becomes a diamond.
I hope this one diamond shines on....