The Gift called….LIFE….

“A Prize is something we achieve for our performance towards other’s…

But….A Gift is received for the other’s love towards us..”


A few Gifts I’m blessed with….completely without any performance from my side…

· To be alive and breathing …at this very moment..

· To be born as a human being…and not as a field rat…or a coackroach..

· To be part of the conscious world who thrives to think above his own self…

· To be born a healthy child…without being physically or mentally impaired

· To be born in a home…and not left on the road to survive or die on my own…

· To be blessed with loving parents…grand parents…and so many others who
cared about me then as they care about me now…

· To be born in India.. a country whose priority has always been wisdom over wealth…. has never invaded any other country in her whole history…a country which teaches love and contentment…over selfishness and greed..

· To have the ability to think that the purpose of life goes beyond eating , sleeping and earning money…

· To still have the ability to love…even when we continue to be surrounded by lovelessness all around us...

· The ability to have the courage and hope…to face life….when many decide otherwise…

· The ability to ask the question ‘why’…the basic trait of curiosity which demarcates a man from other animals… a human child is naturally born with such immense curiosity..

· To be ability to appreciate the beauties of nature…the sound of music…the vastness of the universe…

· To be able to laugh…a rare ability bestowed on mankind probably no other animal is gifted with…(a hyenas laughter is just a cry…it has no joy in it..)

· The ability to create…art., music , literature., architecture…or simply a happy surrounding…

· The ability to dream…the most striking ability of mankind…which has taken him sometimes to the moon…sometimes at the summit of Everest…and sometimes to the highest level of consciousness…although Animals too have the ability to love…but no one else is blessed with the ability to dream…

· The ability to cry for others….a rare ability….which points to us the glimpse of the fragment of the immense compassion the nature has bestowed us with

…I guess they are right when they say…

“THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FOR FREE…….”

BUT…..

what are we doing with so many free gifts..!!!!!@#????

Struggle………an effort to shape destiny.

It has often crossed my mind that the word ‘Struggle’ has been somehow associated with a very heavy negative tone …something that works against us…something which might break us down…something we need to be scared of….
…. It has often struck me though that ‘struggle’ is seldom a problem on its own…rather, it is more the effort we exert from our side to face an unforeseen situation…..a strength within which instead of breaking us down….actually saves us from it……

I was, (as all of us are )…exposed to the experience of struggle at a very early stage of my life…

When I see a little baby crying helplessly on the cot…it reminds me of the struggle I had gone through for not being able to express myself when I was a child myself…or for not knowing the language the world around me understood… not being able to make people understand my needs…how helpless I used to feel …when everybody, except me could convey their needs so effortlessly…
I STRUGGLED TO LEARN TO TALK ….
..strangely , today, when I’ve perfectly mastered the art of talking and can express all my needs in the most articulate flash of words….
why do i still find it so difficult to express my dearest thoughts to the ones i love the most in this world..?

It was a shame to take a trip of my own house…sometimes on a cot.. sometimes on somebody’s shoulder…or sometimes just being dragged along the floor.. in an earnest effort to save time….how humiliating it was..!
I could Often sense the hidden smile on other people face…amused by the fact how I could not walk….and they could….
I STRUGGLED… TO LEARN TO WALK on my own……
….today, when I walk all over the earth effortlessly…with almost painstaking poise and dignity…head held high..never have to be bothered again by anybody’s sarcastic smile…
…why do I feel befind the showcased confidence... that I’m still so far away from learning to walk on my own..?

I used to be jealous of the people around me…who knew so much…about so many things..and I did not.
I STRUGGLED TO LEARN TO BE ONE OF THEM….

Fourteen years of my life I had spent ‘struggling’ to gather knowledge
From the most esteemed institution recommended by wise men ….knowledge that told me everything that needed to be known…art, literature, science….
Today when I’ve learnt well all that they had to teach me…

…why do I feel that in spite of knowing everything that I needed to know…I’ve learned nothing about my own self…or of the dear ones who surround me all the time..
...why does a strange feeling persists , that with all the worldly knowledge...I still remain completely oblivious, failing miserably to perceive all the small everyday miracles which go on happenning around and inside me...without ever asking for my appreciation ?


They told me all the time that I needed to be somebody….somebody special….somebody they can be proud of…they showed me people who have reached the heights of life….Doctors. engineers, enterpreauners….
I wanted to be like them…
I STRUGGLED HARD TO BE LIKE THEM….

Today…when I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve…when I can with vehement conviction proudly consider myself as one of ‘them’…

Why do I feel that in spite of all that I’ve achieved…being the ‘somebody’ people so desparately wanted me to be….I’ve completely failed somewhere deep within….

I HAVE FAILED TO BE MYSELF……

Today..The profound wisdom of these two lines reverberates somewhere…may be in some well hidden corner of my heart…
"nothing fails like success…” and….

"the greatest struggle in life is.... to be yourself” .