Reality
The Eternal quest for Hope!
This is directly aimed and dedicated to everyone, and especially one person in particular, who, by a misplaced sense of trust, have lost their will and faith on many of the beautiful things that life throws at us. If you feel a little knot in your heart as you read these lines, you know it’s you 🙂
“Fear can keep you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”
One of the most pristine and beautiful lines to have ever been said from “The Shawshank Redemption”. Cut down to the chase, the story distinctly distinguishes the life of its protagonist ( Tim Robbins ) with the sorrowful prison librarian and what’s the factor that demarcates the lives of these 2 people? Hope. A falsely convicted person doesn’t lose faith in his life and pulls off something incredible to show that a little hope can always work wonders. The librarian, on the other hand has spent nearly his entire life within the four walls of the prison and lacks the courage or faith to actually lead an existential life in the outside world and ultimately decides to end his life. The story doesn’t end there! There’s a second protagonist ( Morgan Freeman ) , who leads a life almost similar to the librarian and having spent almost 36 years in jail, he almost loses faith of any life in the outside world, until his faith in life is restored by sheer hope. His last few lines from the movie..
“I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
Losing hope grows like a weed in our brains and is impossible to get rid of once we start harbouring them. The worst part is, we will be conditioned to live in that mental prison forever if we lack the courage to take a leap of faith and move on with our lives. If something good happens to us, we never question “Why is something good happening to me?” It gives us a morale boost and elevates our faith in life. But somehow, we always live in denial whenever something goes awry in our lives. The first question we ask is “Why me?”. There’s no roadmap defined for life. We learn to take things in our stride and move on with it, be it pleasant or unpleasant. And the only thing that drives our very existence is that sparkling little ray of hope that emanates from your mind’s window, provided you keep your mind open to radiate and bask in its glory!
As the saying goes, “At the end of it all, we never regret the things that we did, We just regret the things that we don’t do”
Stealing one more line from the movie.. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this message finds you, and finds you well – Your best friend, always :-)”
Overrated things in life!
Just a little disclaimer before I rant about this.. This is purely my personal perspective of things that are a bit overrated in life. Neither is it meant to target anyone in particular nor does it intend to hurt anyone’s “feelings” at will.
Three things that have been given way more importance than they deserve..
1) Birthdays – Seriously, What the eff is so special about this day? Is it just a “friendly reminder” that you’ve managed to survive another year on this planet? What the heck are the other 364 days for then? Please don’t tell me it’s a reminder for someone else!! You may argue you do a lot of volunteer work on your birthday, like feeding the poor, donating money/clothes to an orphanage etc.. Again, What the heck do you do on the remaining 364 days? Do you save all your good deeds to be done only on your birthdays? I don’t really see the point in being a philanthropist on birthdays. Either be one or don’t be one!
2) Caste system – I’m quite sure most of you would agree with me on this. What started out during the Vedic period as a grouping based purely on merit turned out to be an epicentre for ethnic calamities. The myriad subdivisions within each caste have just added to the clutter and might as well outnumber the population soon enough! Mathematically this is possible, and also given the exorbitant rate at which the population is increasing(good thing there’s no end for numbers, What a relief!) , I’m sure our people can conceive at least “one caste per day” and I’m exceedingly sure, in all fairness, our government will do a fabulous job in recognizing and reserving equal rights for all of them! It’s fair enough to say that the actual intention behind the caste system is long lost.
3) Religion – I’m positive I’ll draw a lot of ire for this, but nevertheless, Religion according to me is just a state of mind! Nothing more, nothing less. It’s our choice to follow and propagate the religion we adopt to. Each religion inculcates peace and harmony as it’s ultimate motive. Maybe the path each religion takes to arrive at the destination is different, but they’re striving towards a common goal. I’m aware the Gita says “The ends don’t justify the means”, but I’m also quite sure no religion demands you to behead someone on your way to attaining it’s ultimate goal! Yet, ironically, we use religion as a scapegoat for all the communal riots in a supposedly “secular” country. The reason, as I see it, is there are a few brilliant and overly ambitious minds that redefined the path to truce and laced it with a tinge of violence to prove they are superior in comparison to others. We can’t really blame them, as evolution would have it, thought process is something that evolves over generations and going by history, human thought process has evolved radically in the past few centuries. Also, evolution talks about survival of the fittest, so we need to serve our core existential purpose by proving ourselves superior, so that we’re not obliterated from the face of the earth!
Art of Patience!
“Patience is an art well learnt at the mercy of nature”
That was a line from one of the chapters of my high school english literature. For no apparent reason, the quote was imbibed straight onto my permanent memory the moment I read it the first time. As enchanting and mysterious as it sounds, it left me wondering since that day if there was any way I could directly relate myself to it.
It was not until a few months ago that I felt first hand as to how it would feel to be at the mercy of nature. And YES! I was finally able to soak in each and every word of that line.
It all started when a group of 4 colleagues and I started hiking up on the lush and rocky terrain of Mt.Lafayette in Lincoln, New Hampshire. Our strategy was to scale up Mt.Little Haystack first, walk along the ridge en route Mt.Lincoln and all the way to reach Mt.Lafayette finally and retrace the trail back to the base. The total distance of the hike was around 9 miles and it took us about 10 hrs to and fro. It started off on a relatively sour note for me, for I just realized my hiking shoes had gotten a bit tight and I started feeling a mild discomfort on my toes already. But I was hell bent upon scaling this mountain. So, we set off with huge loads of gatorade and water cans stacked up in our backpacks. The ascent up was pretty smooth and I covered roughly 2.5 miles up to reach Little Haystack in 3 hours. The deafening silence amidst the thickets and trees, except for the sound of falling waters all around you is a little eerie, given the fact that we are so much used to the bustling noise of the city.
After a little respite for lunch, we continued our way along the ridge to Mt.Lincoln with a breathtaking and gorgeous view on either side of us. Now this is another 2.7 mile trek from Little Haystack to Lafayette along the ridge filled with razor sharp rocks piercing their way into your foot at every single chance. I was walking through the crests and troughs of the ridge when the accumulated discomfort turned into a pain and started radiating out of my toes due to the constant pressure against the vamp of my shoe. Within the next one mile the pain was searing through my toes so much that I had to take my shoes off and walk barefoot for the next 200-300 mts. Now, given the stinging rocks strewn all over the ridge, it was becoming next to impossible to walk barefoot either. A perfect impasse. Thankfully one of my colleagues who was an expert hiker wound the laces of my shoe so taut so as to give my toes some room. This worked for a while, but the damage had already been done. The pain persisted, but I managed it all the way to Lafayette. The first thing I did once I reached the summit was to take my shoes off and by god did it feel good!! I was literally able to hear my toes screaming in pain. With that blissful feeling engulfing me, we started taking some snaps in the exquisitely picturesque summit.
It was time to make the descent now, which means I had to put my shoes on again and walk for another 4.5 miles! The hike back to the base was quite interesting. Half way along the ridge, it started raining. The elegance of looking at rain pour down from 5260 ft above ground is something indescribable, a visceral feeling, albeit you observe it. It looks like vertical stripes of white ribbons spiralling down towards the earth only to be blown apart by the wind. It was a like a mini tornado in the sky and by far one of the most alluring things I’ve ever seen in my life. But I was told by the expert hiker in our group that it’s a bit dangerous to be out on the top, especially when it rains, since lightnings have a proclivity to hit the highest points above the ground first. Beauty always comes with a price! So, not only do I have to walk, but I have to walk FASTER now since we had a lot of ground to cover(approx 1 mile) along the ridge before we actually start our descent down the forest(another 2.5 miles). THAT MOMENT, right there, was when I realized I was at the mercy of nature and I have no other option but to remain patient and just continue walking! Consider the circumstances : A sore foot, toes crying out for help, walking speed compromised due to the pain, the downpour, lightning threat. Given all this, I had to walk faster, and giving up was not an option! I was reminded of the Joker’s paradoxical question “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?”. Well, in this case the object(me) was “rendered” immovable and eventually would be fried by the unstoppable force.
So, we strapped our wind cheaters on and continued walking against the gushing winds from almost all directions. I’ve always heard people say, going up is the toughest part in anything, but to plunge down is easy. I respectfully disagree! According to me at least, hiking up a hill has always been easier compared to hiking down. Agreed, hiking up is much laborious and painstaking, but we need to exercise extra caution while climbing down a hill inside a forest, given all the slimy rubble we have to walk on and let’s face it.. gravity is always looking forward to drag you down even at the slightest chance.
I walked(read crawled) for the next couple of hours and abruptly there was a glimmer of hope! I was able to hear the sound of cars whizzing past in the highway outside! Finally, a sign of civilization! It restores your lost faith that every trail ends with the same place where you started from. But the problem here is you continue to hear the blaring sound of the highway and yet never really come in contact with it for what seems to be an eternity. The restored faith suddenly goes for a toss. But you have no other option but to keep walking! You lose track of time and all the highway noises just seem like a cruel prank, when out of the blue you’re abruptly back to the civilization where you belong! You see light!
I’ve been on a few hikes before, but this one stands out because it connected me with something profound and taught me what being patient is all about. I guess I remembered that line for a reason after all!
When the beginning and the end are seemingly distant, yet close.
“Do not fear impermanence. As soon as life enters the womb, death starts stalking us. Night and day follow each other. Here, death follows life. “Death is an event whose proximity is unlimited and distance very limited,” my Master would say. Death has no great respect for excellent health et al. One can die in the pink of health. When it chooses to knock us down, nothing can save us, no deals can be struck and no bargains made. Thus, our life, whether we are just born or a century-old, is nothing more than a drop of dew, tantalisingly poised at the edge of a blade of grass
Our illustrious ancestors point to that very same tiny droplet to illustrate a great point. Granted, this drop of dew would disappear immediately after dawn but, not before swallowing the magnificent Sun and reflecting it gloriously. So, while life is nothing but proximity to death, living lies in putting it in its place and expressing the glory of creation. Therefore, whatever the span that destiny chooses to offer us, let us lead a lively existence. Understand the impermanence of everything, radiate inner cheer and keep walking.”
That was an article that I came across a few years back in one of the local dailies, with a really interesting take on life.. The analogy used to interpret life is just simple, elegant and impeccable. Although the quote about death received quite a bit of negative feedback when the article was initially published, from people who look at life in an optimistic and “gung ho” way, let’s face it.. we have always been in denial when it comes to sensitive subjects. A classic example of our breed living in denial..
“Help control global warming, prevent the polar ice caps from melting.. save the planet from extinction” – A common tagline we often see advocating the importance of saving the planet.
Really? Do we actually think we are trying to save the planet? The earth has seen the dinosaurs from the paleozoic period and whatever existed before that till the evolution of modern human race. What’s actually a cry for saving the planet is a veiled attempt at preserving our own race from extinction. Sure enough our environmentalists can prolong the life of the human race on earth by a few more centuries, but the mere fact that we try to put an expiry date on the earth is just typical of us living in denial. And what do we do when we are confronted with denial? Nothing! We just push it out of our mind and shift our focus to trivial issues of our daily life, like being on time for work, missing the bus etc.. True story! Think about it the next time you come face to face with denial.
Coming back to the article, those are some of the best ever lines to have characterised life and the impermanence factor(change) that shrouds it. After all, change is the only constant! Peace!
Topical Storm.. 