The other day my roommate and I were cooking together. Somehow the talk drifted towards life and its ups and downs. I, as usual, started cribbing about how it had been for the past couple of years - uncertainties, broken promises, shaken foundations, blah, blah blah. It was at this junction that she shared a pearl of wisdom that I will take to my deathbed. Following is what she spoke:
Have you ever seen a river? Let us take a small part of it. It starts as a small sliver of water somewhere up in the mountains. From the beginning it has to fight for its existence every single instant. Slowly, yet steadily, it moves ahead. In the beginning, even the smallest of pebbles pose a threat to it. It defeats them and moves ahead. Next it has to stave off the challenge of the big rocks that come in the way. It overcomes that too, little knowing that soon it is going to fall and fall heavily. Lesser is its knowledge that the higher it has started, the mightier its fall is going to be. Blissful and unaware, it gurgles on. It is not that it is not affected by the pebbles and stones it had to face. After each one of them, it took effort on its part to re-achieve normalcy. Even after being defeated by it, they continue to create ripples and whirlpools in its path. But nothing succeeds in stopping it from becoming a gargantuan entity. Then comes its mighty fall. Nobody can even imagine that it is a million drops falling together. It looks so great and majestic and a wonderful sight to behold. The entire world stands to witness it and rejoices in the sight. Nobody even asks it how the river felt. Maybe its roar is a cry for a savior but others are too busy clapping. No one comes to its rescue. It gathers itself up and continues on her journey. The one fall was no guarantee that another one like that will not come again. It might have to cry even harder again but once more, louder will be the claps and more will be the rejoicing. Battered, bruised and lonely, it finally comes to the plains - all tired and drowsy. In the end, it loses its identity in the sea or sand. All the pains and nothing to show for it in the end. Maybe all its efforts seemed like they were for nothing. A once mighty creature brought to nothingness - no proof that it once existed, all onlookers busy admiring another of its kind.
With these, she stopped. There was nothing I could reply.
With these, she stopped. There was nothing I could reply.
Every now and then in life, when we are going through the toughest of times, we try to find solace in some form of explanation to what is really happening. Believe me when I say this, all of that is just relative to what you are going through at that time. Life sometimes feels stagnant and motionless like a big rock, its chiseled by emotions and hardships and yet goes unnoticed like it has no purpose in life. Some day it will be sculpted into a beautiful statue which might be admired or even worshiped. Everything at the end, has a purpose, may it be the sculpting of the stone into a statue or the river meeting the sea and someday it will all end, just like its meant to be.
ReplyDeleteTrue Akshay... Very well said...
DeleteBut yes, it kind of feels odd that no matter how much you achieve and after going through what not, one day you will be forgotten, a part of the bigger picture where the individual pieces might lose their essence. There will be days and streets named after you but there will already be a new star rising and being worshipped.
But that is the way of life. Be true to your beliefs and follow your heart. If you are good, try to be the best at what you do and if you are the best, accept the possibility that someone new might come and better your doings. One day you too will end, you might be forgotten someday too, replaced by someone newer and better, but the truth is after you are over, who cares ? You wont :-)
Delete:) who is Freddie Mercury?
DeleteHow would someone like to be remembered after his/her death? In the words of arguably the greatest front-man in rock history, " When I am dead, who cares? I dont " :-)
DeleteI think it should be 'unarguably'... what say?
Delete:-) Arguably for the masses, unarguably the best for me.
DeleteIf possible, you would have married him by now...
Delete