These are the best of times and the worst of times.
Best and worst, Hell and Heaven, good and bad - everything is a figment of imagination and a direct outcome of choices we make. Over many mistakes and some good decisions, I have lived a life that urges me to look forward. Perhaps not so much towards the next 10 years but, certainly towards tomorrow.
Each day inspires me to carry on to the next. Each morning when the Sun peeks out from behind the buildings, across the cricket field outside my balcony window, I see a promise being made, a deal struck. It is almost magical in the fact that the same Sun appears everyday from the same corner of the sky without fail and will continue doing so even when I'm long dead and forgotten.
Many years ago when I was still a youngster making the rounds of newspaper offices, looking for a job, my professor had set up a meeting with a friend in one of the leading Delhi papers. He was a sports reporter with the daily and a perfect gentleman who gave me a bit of an advice before sending me to meet the media-favorite editor of the paper. He had said, "Try to be a winner at your work. Do it honestly. Because, when you are dead and gone, no one will remember you because you were good looking or smartly dressed. They'll remember you for the legacy that you have left behind."
Though I did not get the job nor did I ever meet the gentleman again, I still remember what he had told me all those years ago. It was the most sensible bit of advice anyone can give a teenager/barely legal fresher starting out in life.
I repeat it quite often to myself and each time I go back to that day and then, retrace my steps back to the present day, I see a life full of fulfilled and broken promises, losses and victories. Each day I try and remember how many times I had inspired others and how many times I had failed to make a mark.
It is not an easy task to get through life but, it is not very difficult either. One can always sit back and let situations take over or take the difficult way and carve a road out of the maze.
I know that I use a very fragile nail filer to carve my way out because I am afraid of using a machete. I am always worried that I'd hurt someone if I hack my way through. Whether my compassion is a good strategy or a bad one, I don't know but, I renew my pledge each day that I shall not stop making that way. And I struggle over it. Some snigger at my naive attempts and others urge me on. I have now learnt to accept both and continue steadily, with my efforts (however feeble), at making my life 'memorable'.
In life we need to carve our paths on our own. We may be stuck in our Karmic cycle like the Earth, that makes its way though the same elliptical orbit everyday. Its efforts never gets noticed because all we see is the Sun. It rises from the East and sets in the West and starts our day with a promise of a fresh start and ends it with another that says, "I'll be back."
But, a really optimistic person will see that even Karma can be lassoed and harnessed to reap great rewards. For example, Earth is the only planet we know that has life. And it is all because it is in the right place and on the right elliptical path - Karma be damned.
Think about it. Is the Earth more unique or the Sun, that was born only to burn?
Best and worst, Hell and Heaven, good and bad - everything is a figment of imagination and a direct outcome of choices we make. Over many mistakes and some good decisions, I have lived a life that urges me to look forward. Perhaps not so much towards the next 10 years but, certainly towards tomorrow.
Each day inspires me to carry on to the next. Each morning when the Sun peeks out from behind the buildings, across the cricket field outside my balcony window, I see a promise being made, a deal struck. It is almost magical in the fact that the same Sun appears everyday from the same corner of the sky without fail and will continue doing so even when I'm long dead and forgotten.
Many years ago when I was still a youngster making the rounds of newspaper offices, looking for a job, my professor had set up a meeting with a friend in one of the leading Delhi papers. He was a sports reporter with the daily and a perfect gentleman who gave me a bit of an advice before sending me to meet the media-favorite editor of the paper. He had said, "Try to be a winner at your work. Do it honestly. Because, when you are dead and gone, no one will remember you because you were good looking or smartly dressed. They'll remember you for the legacy that you have left behind."
Though I did not get the job nor did I ever meet the gentleman again, I still remember what he had told me all those years ago. It was the most sensible bit of advice anyone can give a teenager/barely legal fresher starting out in life.
I repeat it quite often to myself and each time I go back to that day and then, retrace my steps back to the present day, I see a life full of fulfilled and broken promises, losses and victories. Each day I try and remember how many times I had inspired others and how many times I had failed to make a mark.
It is not an easy task to get through life but, it is not very difficult either. One can always sit back and let situations take over or take the difficult way and carve a road out of the maze.
I know that I use a very fragile nail filer to carve my way out because I am afraid of using a machete. I am always worried that I'd hurt someone if I hack my way through. Whether my compassion is a good strategy or a bad one, I don't know but, I renew my pledge each day that I shall not stop making that way. And I struggle over it. Some snigger at my naive attempts and others urge me on. I have now learnt to accept both and continue steadily, with my efforts (however feeble), at making my life 'memorable'.
In life we need to carve our paths on our own. We may be stuck in our Karmic cycle like the Earth, that makes its way though the same elliptical orbit everyday. Its efforts never gets noticed because all we see is the Sun. It rises from the East and sets in the West and starts our day with a promise of a fresh start and ends it with another that says, "I'll be back."
But, a really optimistic person will see that even Karma can be lassoed and harnessed to reap great rewards. For example, Earth is the only planet we know that has life. And it is all because it is in the right place and on the right elliptical path - Karma be damned.
Think about it. Is the Earth more unique or the Sun, that was born only to burn?
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