The Predicament called LIFE- by Kamna Kaushal- Guest post
In the face of
adversity, do we continue living or give it up? Hang on- Can we really give up
‘living’?
Is living and
withstanding the grim and crushing times, the real testament to our existence
as human beings? Does it determine if we are survivors? Let’s try and figure it
out- I had set up a goal for myself, I tried hard, real hard to achieve it, but
guess what- I couldn’t accomplish it. What does that make me? A loser who
fought and yet failed at it or a survivor who fought, tried hard, displayed
immense patience and perseverance, and still failed at it.
Come to think of it,
while we are grappling and enduring the trying times, don’t we succumb to our
infirmities and the miseries and fail countless times? Despite all of that-
What keeps us going? Hope? Nah- that sounds too blasé. Well! The question still
remains a question. Your life in the context of the world seems like a
dullsville!
The unflinching mortal
spirit acts like a gravity- and the ‘l’ in us gets pulled towards it. That’s on
certain days. And then there are days when the ‘I’ in us feels like a putrid
meat rotting in the slaughterhouse called life and all that the ‘I’ could do is
just hang in there (quite literally) and decompose- the decomposition that
takes place, in this case, is of the spirit & the soul. The body and
the functional, restless mind, however, gets no respite. Thoughts stream
through and our antsy brain never ceases to think about what’s the next thing
that’s lined up, fragments of memories, images of people, snatches of
conversations that you’ve had. It, almost immediately bounces back, to brave
yet another adversity. Because guess what? We’re trained, in a way, to receive
happiness and all things happy but what we’re not trained for is, how to deal
with the dolor. We’re aware of it at all times, the brain knows the inevitable
but we don’t want to come face to face with it.
Our constant quest
leads us in a direction where we’re all looking for that elixir- the elixir of
life, which might fix all our woes or at least give us some cues with the
promise that it’s all going to be okay! The enduring spirit in us falls down,
stands up and fights back at the savage situations in life. Yet, our spirit
remains relentless, and the unremitting force in us is somehow ready again
(after all that it goes through and has gone through) and is all the more
charged up than before, to deal with yet another encounter with life.
The ways we deal with
the adversity and the affliction is different for all of us. What works for me
might not work for someone else, our situations could be different, the kind of
people WE ARE and WE DEAL WITH in our lives, could be worlds apart, and if that
was not enough, our attitude towards almost everything in our lives too, is
essentially disparate from one another. But the one underlying thread that runs
through all of us and the human nature as a whole is, our intrinsic nature and
our ability to cling on to the marvel that we call - life-
or the “inescapable life.”
Is there a formula to
face the adversities and kick it out of our lives forever? Well! I’m not sure
about it but can we try devising one? We can definitely TRY!
For starters, how
about;
—> accepting the
inevitability of adversity
—> believing in
yourself
—> restructure
your mistakes, and your misunderstandings as learning opportunities
—> focus on the
positive and
—> look towards
the future with the strongest of belief and that unbaiting smile
As they say, “your
story isn’t over because there was a bad chapter, keep reading”
Kamna Kaushal is an
M.Phil in English Literature from University of Pune but soon traversed and had
a career in the corporate where she worked with a Project Management Company
designing their online help, developing software manuals and making training videos,
(did a stint in doing the voice over too for all those training videos) on the
weekdays and then along side having a formidable vocation in the form of
teaching at the International Center in the University of Pune as her weekend
job. She’s interacted and taught students from Greece, Morocco, Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan to name a few who were themselves pursuing their doctoral degrees
in various disciplines.
She’s also planning to publish her first fiction novel- which promises to be a
coffee table light read and a take on love marriages. She also plans to publish
a children’s story book which would be laced with some poetry for kids and is
borderline didactic.
With a penchant for writing poetry too, she loves bringing her everyday
experiences into rhythmic thoughts. Loves to travel and is an experimental
cook. In her own words, she’s somewhere still champing at the bit and in a
state of abeyance. Go Figure!
Wow! I have always loved reading you, Kamna, and this was no surprise!! You had to be the BEST!!! Continue writing and express the best you can...make people marvel at your inborn talents always..
ReplyDeleteVery well penned down. Simple and straightforward the thought put across demands pondering, something as you very aptly mentioned Kamna we avoid doing so often.
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