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!