How does it happen that you remember someone out of nowhere and they spring up in your life all of a sudden? Of late, this has been true with me at least. The other day while looking at some of my school certificates I happened to remember the person associated with the organization of a particular competition. And then in less than a week’s time I bounced upon that person, though in the virtual world, but with no effort of mine. Just a few days back I had a chance memory of a friend whom I choose not to remember very fondly…hehee…but that apart, I happened to get the possibility of reconnecting, not to mention, with no effort from my side, yet again. And this is not just with people, even food! I remember having wanting to eat kheer when at my Granny’s place and had not told her so as to cause any unnecessary burden, and the next day, there it had been – a bowl full of yummy kheer adorning my dinner plate.
What is this all about? Is this like you want lemons and life gives them to you in some or the other form, and with lemons I associate nothing that leaves a bitter aftertaste, you could replace mangoes if that suits you. Also, I must mention here, that I do not have that black spot on my tongue, to assure those superstitious fellows who would have the urge to relate it with some supernatural powers, which unfortunately I do not possess. Coming back on the point, what is this all about? These chance encounters and re-encounters. Do they point towards something? Something that I may have not bothered to understand, at times a result of intentional omission, may be.
Honestly speaking, with mental faculties such as those I possess, I am not in a position to prattle on such high skill-spirit-stumbles! In that case, may I, with your permission, go on with my jibber-jabber and try coming to a conclusion if at all I can?
Well, let me try deciphering these events one at a time.
The certificates I was going through when I was reminded of this person in particular were a reminder that achievements, however big or small they may be, have the capacity to make you feel happy even after a decade! Even within contemptuous surroundings they have the power to please. Small tokens of joy ought to be preserved because they have the power to row a stumbling boat on rough waters. Treasure your good times. And good people, no matter how insignificant they may become with passing years, they don’t last forever. Wasn’t that the idea when pictures were clicked before the advent of digicams in the market pursuant to which they are clicked at all times of the day [we may forget to breathe but not to click]. Treasure. Cherish. But don’t let that affect your growth, impact your way ahead. Times don’t last, good or bad. And here comes the power to ‘Move On’ – the most essential of all traits for the overall development of us mere mortals. As for good people, they won’t always be nice to you or agree to your deliberations, affable or serious – they appear in all forms at all times. Trust your hunches. If you go wrong, no problem, you aren’t always supposed to be right, isn’t it? Welcome people in your life – for that is the only way, to know the good from the bad.
This other person who I didn’t get back in touch with wasn’t someone I abhorred or wished ill for but because some people are more trouble than taste. Wide open arms can take within them many, but not all are for keep. You have to let some of them slip away. People who cause constant trouble for some or the other reason bring in irritable dimensions that stick to your personality like parasites which at times rises to the magnitude of Ebola viruses, killing you – from within and without. Learn to get away if you must. You don’t owe anyone more than you do yourself. Take care of yourself first. The world will take care of itself. I have an agony aunt kind of a personality, people come to me to share problems they could not dare speak out to others lest the personal got public but no one, I stress, no one has all the solutions. So hug those who need it but don’t stand beside forever or else they would forget to walk. After a certain point of time walk away and watch from a distance if you have to. Let them not clip their wings. And the same applies to you. Nothing is forever or indispensable. Learn to walk with your own strength. It will be this strength that will help you in the dark hours when cries become whispers; when your voice gets drowned in the hustle bustle of your surroundings; when you are lost in the maddening crowd. This apart, may be it would have been better had I stuck on then, continued to lend a shoulder so that this friend learnt to walk sooner or later, may be I got tired too soon, may be may be not.
Some things are irresistible, like kheer! We would want them at all times and at all places. But we know it is not humanly possible to have it all our way everytime everywhere. And that is when we need to learn to celebrate differences – in what was and what is to be. Discover the magic of different tastes, different lives, different perspectives – Variety. Ah! Didn’t someone say, “Variety is the spice of life”. Imagine, how would it be to live in a world where everything was one and the same. Feed your curiosity, there ought to be no locks put upon the imagination, or else how would we have colours to dazzle or books swooning us from one world to the other. It is obvious to dislike the different but what is the beauty in the obvious. Isn’t it the unobvious, the uncertain that can differentiate one day from the next, one from the other? Break the barriers and segregate yourself from the cavalcades, slip away from the moorings of the regular. Open your soul and absorb it all. There is a lot to learn and unlearn.
Take some time out, away from the screen you’re staring.
Buddha said, “The trouble is, you think you have time.”
Steve Jobs reiterated it when he said, “Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
I choose not to question either of them.
Get out now if you can.
The world out there is beautiful!