Does anyone know (without looking up the info on Google or wikipedia or in some biographical sketches ex-post) where: Nelson Mandela Bill Gates Bill Clinton Economist and Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh Historian Babu Ram Acharya Football player Z. Zidane economist Amartya Sen World Bank president Paul W. Mathematician John Nash (thhe one with "a beautiful mind") Tom Hanks Amitabh Bacchan Warren Buffet Journalist and writer Narayan Wagle and so on and on -- people who are known for their work -- Does anyone know where these and other famous people: 1) went to high school, and 2) how well they did in high school? My guess is that: most people don't know and don't care at all. What matters is those people's MOST RECENT achievements only. The fact that some people here are publicly talking about their high-school ko SLC Board success of BS 2039 (from 20+ years ago) makes one think that perhaps they haven't done anything unique or remarkable or interesting (other than studying some more and getting a job . . . like everyone else) in all those intervening years. My limited observation: In America, people talk about their most recent accomplishments, and those are the only things that really count -- in academia, research, private sector and so on. You can't go through life in the US, by saying that you went to Yale or MIT and graduated with highest honors: you have to constantly prove yourself. But in Nepal, most people seem unable let go of that some obscure national award they won when they were 18 or about the fact they they got into certain college/university when they were 18 or 27 (even when they are now 45 years old) . . . as though -- in these fast-changing world -- ancient accomplishments or where they went to and what they did in high school still confers any value today (except, perhaps in some cases, make one's parents boast about the children's achievements to the point of being utter social bores.) Great if people had great PAST accomplishments! But regardless of past accomplishments, let's spend additional energy to focus on most recent accomplishments instead of forever turning our ongoing lives into a museum of past accomplishments. Mero dui paisa, hai! oohi ashu