Sunday morning, sipping my breakfast tea, as I scroll through the comments on my previous two articles, it seems they have made me appear as some super hero 🙂. And then I wonder, is it really so????? Are these some heroic achievements of mine !!!!!!
As I look back upon my whole journey, the only thing that has stayed consistent with me forever is my SUPPORT SYSTEM and I cant owe these successes to anything but the undaunted support of my family, my loved ones and my well wishers. Its been a long journey and I wont be lying when I say that I had my share of high and low moments, depressing thoughts, and it wont be an exaggeration to say that some thoughts did revolve around questioning my own existence in this world. But one thing that never let me drown in this negative zone was my very strong support system. I can never thank God enough for blessing me with the most loving family, the most ideal mentors and teachers all the way through. And it is their contribution in my journey that captures my mind as I scribble my today‘s article.
Its often said that loneliness is the biggest disease but there cant be a bigger truth that love and care can cure the most incurable diseases.
As human beings we dont live in isolation. Our actions, our thoughts, our happines, our sorrows, our struggles, our achievement, our failures, are all dependent and at the same time impact people around us.
More often than not, when some hardships stuck, it is not a hardship for one individual alone but for his whole family and many people around him. One doesn’t struggle through the obstacles alone but it is the whole family and the whole eco system of an individual that faces the situation and walks along the path.
Post the unfortunate accident, my family was my biggest pillar of strength. Besides continuously exploring all the medical options available for me, not even a single day, a single member of my family let me feel that I was in any way incapacitated or I was less important to them now. This may sound like a very trivial reference as someone may read it, but for me this was my biggest strength.... We all love our families. However, incidents like these trigger plethora of emotions and a few instant ones include feeling of self unworthiness, burden on family, no right of being loved and so on...... And its not unusual that these emotions would soon take over all mind space and surround a person with deep grief but for the love and support that our family provides. It is the family that first reinforces that life has not ended and one is still equally important, wanted and valued.
Besides one’s family, we cannot undermine the contribution and role of other people around us. Just a little empathy, that one extra effort from people around us, acceptance of an individual with his not so usual appearances can bring a tremendous change in one’s life and self acceptance.
Closed in four walls of my room for two years, continuously waiting for that one magical moment when I would stand up on my legs and go back to my routine normal life, it would be no wonder that those two years could have become twenty years in wait of a fantasy, had my school principal not insisted on me taking my board exams. It was her persistence and faith in me which became my stepping stone. She relentlessly just offered me solution to every problem I tried to use as an escape route and shy away. Offering classes at home to arranging a writer for exams, she didn’t leave any lose end and ensured that I just appear for exams whichever way possible. I just needed that extra push from her to take that first step and then rest everything fell in place by itself. Thereafter my exam results were enough to motivate me further and keep moving forward.
Besides my school principal, when I was struggling to get into a college with a meritorious mark sheet, amidst all the rejection, my college principal expressed pride in offering me admission and reinstilled my falling morale.
I decided to pursue Chartered Accountancy and I was just another student in a class of over thousand students where one of my teachers became my mentor and believed in my potential to be a top achiever in future exams. His faith in my ability was so strong that even before examination, he announced in the whole class that he was looking forward to my name in top ten students in India. He actually made me live his dream all through my preparations and it was his vision which made me strive for that top position. I could never believe myself that I could do it had he not carved that bulls eye for me.
Next, when it came to searching for a job, having declined even an opportunity for an interview from everywhere, my first employer, my professional mentor took that extra step and gave me an opportunity to unleash my capabilities. It was under his guidance and his faith in me that developed my professional skils and pave my future career.
Contribution of all these people at every step shaped the course of my life. But besides all of them, there was one more part of my surroundings (most important and largest part) whose contribution in this journey cant be understated. And that is my fellow students, fellow colleagues at every stage who accepted me with so much love and respect and accommodated for those special needs. My eyes still get moist as I go down the memory lane when we used to have classes in the open sun under the tree as the classroom on the ground floor was not vacant.
Friends, all my above narratives may sound like a dramatic portrayal of some good deeds but the fact is that SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE is a very very important catalyst in self acceptance and creating an inclusive society where every human being is treated with same respect and dignity irrespective of physical appearances.
While I always feel I have been very lucky and blessed always, I do know that not everyone is fortunate to be surrounded by all goodness.
It doesn’t really take any extra money, any extra effort, any extra time to bring that small difference in someone’s life and giving him an opportunity to enjoy this beautiful world, which as much his right as ours. It just needs some kindness, care, empathy, acceptance and respect to bring a smile on someone’s face struggling to accept his own existence.