By: Sorokhaibam Pungamba
Yes, you are right. It goes without saying. I bet, you have heard it as many times as you can count at full stretch. Did you value it when somebody said something glaringly obvious ? Something that your ear is proned to hearing. Something that makes your ear suffer as much as the unpredictably vacillating whims and fancies of those politicians do to personels of media
Something that you find it infuriating owing to their uncommin ability of turning the poor and cheap stuffs out of your mind. Let me examine your integumentary system by getting under your skin, “Life is not a bed of roses.” Don’t take this piece of cliché for granted just because your are as much familiar with it as you do with inhuman stories of state atrocities in Manipur.
The instant you become awake to the reason why it is worth nothing to own a humongous library if you leave its contents undisturbed is the instant that you are at the verge of igniting the vast knowledge and ideas into flames of fruithful actions. Ideas and knowledge are worth nothing unless backed by application and practical. A loaded mind is in no way, an asset to be proudly referred to, “A Crowning Glory,” till you choose to keep it unexplored and untouched, far away from implementation. So, here I go again, “Life is not a bed of roses,” It is, just as you are told in a much exaggerated and glorified tone which alarms you instead of instilling it in you the right mindset that you need to deal with them, an assault course adorned with thorns, spikes and quagmires. Miseries and misfortunes lurk in each and every corner. Havoc and catastrophe rigourously patrol every exit. They are, believe it or not, by products of the Creation of Mankind. They thrive amongst us. They were made to become a mandatory companion of mankind. They are an inseparable and an integral part of our survival.
Their existence is a meticulous strategy of the Divine Will that, unfailingly, will help us make the most out of life – inhibiting the germination of banality and yielding an adventurous and breathtaking life. They are the most ideal weapons that should be armed with in our journey of self discovery, in our quest for the life of our most supreme desire and in our mission to bring the best out of us. If it were not for their existence, the much coveted and sought after word composed of seven formidably graceful and elegant letters; the cynosure of all creatures – “SUCCESS,” perhaps would have never been born. I got jabbed by a grave shock of thunderbolt and my body seems to suffer from an abrupt chemical imbalance owing to the sudden disruption in metabolism and flash-like-fast adrenaline rush when I anticipate the fate of a world immuned to success.
Underneath their gruff and vindictive exterior shines a brilliant light, a divinely omnipotent light which was assigned to them to bear custody until the real and rightful owner turns up face-to-face. Trillions of planets in this universe. Billions of species in our planet Earth. And we are fortunate enough to have been bestowed upon the honour of being the said lucky owner.
So, the question became – How long are you going to keep something legitimately belongs to you in the hands of others? Are you going to let your unparallel valour, extremely relentless and exceedingly fiesty promising sides perish in the self imposed barren winters of a life weakly lived.
Let they keep chasing trivial pursuits but not you. Heed not when they say, “ It’s possible but it may be difficult. You say it best when you said, “It may be difficult but it’s possible” Let they bindly follow the sheepwalk that leads to nowhere but not you. Let they limit themselves their creativity, productivity and their sense of unconventionality owing to their sharp compliance with the unfounded beliefs, customs and traditions arbitrarily set up by the society but not you.
I know. I precisely do. It will not be like shooting fish in a barrel trying to retrieve something justly belongs to you from the hands of some possessively insatiable vultures. It will be an ambitious task, a painstaking expedition. Do you think you can climb the ladder of success with your hands in the pocket ? Do You ? In order to acquire this seemingly unattainable light, you, without fail, have to undergo three paramount metamorphosis or transformation.
1. Your jelly-like nerves into nerves of steel.
2. Your scared and pseudo self into your true and confident self.
3. Your already programmed and conditioned “I can’t mind” into “I can mind”.
Regretfully, everytime when they make their presence felt, we, instead of being grateful, abandoned to despair, suppressed the supernova inside of us and wallowed into self-pity. Then, your unrealistic self indulge in a series of boundless glorification – escalating a mole into a mountain, a drop of water into an ocean, a small hut into a diamond castle, a local football match into a FIFA World Cup, the walls of Government Schools of Manipur into the Great Wall of China, the mindset of a contemporary democratic ruler into that of king Ashoka after Kalinga War, the words of a poor Manipuri politician into that of spoken by a man of his word.
“ You are enveloped in unbounded blessings. I’m really envious of your stumbling stone-free life”. “Oh ! Look at you. Your velvety-skin-like ride made me unrealistic and lost in crazy fantasies. “The roller coaster of a life” is undoubtedly not applicable to you. You are always on the zenith, enjoying the warm sunshine on the apex.
“Now, look at me ! A complete antithesis of what I really yearn to be – a world of shambles and bedlam. It’s not that I didn’t apply myself. I did succeed. Yet, I experienced no significant development. I just don’t know why. Seems like my each and every step is strictly monitored and examined by misfortunes. Adversity has seized and assumed control of my every moment. Almighty God never cast a smile upon me. Why this life ? Why ? I can stick it any longer. It sucks.
I understand you. I really do. You have had tasted success some hundred thousand times and you are looking forward to devour more and more all the way through to your deathbed. But you know what ? Perching on it in all its glory “FACILE” left it embarrassingly worthless that it will demolish your expectation. Hardly a soul can tolerate the pain of losing expectation. Barely a mortal could bear it when their expectation went astray. It hurts at an epic scale. Expectation kills.
They are, just for your information, not the success you have been looking for right from the very moment you popped out of your mother’s womb and got entitled to call this planet Earth “ My World”. They don’t carry with them and are devoid of the gem that you think will change your life. They are just one of the many fabricated versions of Chinese products laden with enchanting and superficial embellishments for the sole end of keeping your attention in captivity. I’ll leave the consequences up to you to use your own discretion and conscience. If I were to bless them with a title “HOAXER” is what comes to my mind on its own accord and with the ferocity of a lion.
Being available in every step of your path as abundantly as the wastes accumulated in the vicinity of roads and rivers after a heavy rainfall in Manipur and which prices are as low as the number of employment youths in Manipur, you never let hesitation keep you from buying them and keep on your path stealing the conceited gaith of a brow antlered deer unknown to yourself that you are being piloted to the land of phonies, some hundred thousand million miles far away from the destination you long to reach.
Has it ever crossed your mind that the more precarious and bumpy the path is, the more delicious and nourishing the success it produce will be.
Every failure, every unpleasant circumstance and every painful struggle that you think will leave a nasty taste in the mouth are, in fact, the indispensable magical ingredients. The flavours and the after tastes you are offered will do certain never undreamt of things that will mark the beginning of a breakthrough, a milestone and perhaps an introduction to a history book.
