Good luck with time
Make your life meaningful in whatever way you can. Even a cobbler, despite his humble status and earnings, plays a key role in others’…
Make your life meaningful in whatever way you can. Even a cobbler, despite his humble status and earnings, plays a key role in others’ footsteps. There is no big or small when it comes to dignity of labour. However, work not because you have to prove something to others but because it’s the only way you know how to breathe. Work hard. Work harder than you dream. Thinking makes all the difference though. Work smart. Work smarter than you did last year. There is no place for complacency and lethargy in today’s corrupted world. Be strong in your sheer convictions. While you are at it, don’t measure everything with time. Time is not the appropriate parameter. Come to think of it, there is no such a thing as “it’s too late to” because what you accomplished at any given period of time and era means the same to you. It may not mean the same to others but it does to you. You forget this crucial part as you get busy comparing yourself with others or worse, impressing others. For instance, if i were to earn my PhD by the age of 35, i’ll be still fine with it because i always wanted to earn that title. For Shashi Tharoor, that’d be like 13 years too late. For Kanhaiya, that would be like “Sahi hai, bhai, main toh politics mein phas gaya!” Time means different things to different people. You are different from other people just like others are different from you. You don’t have to conform to others’ validation on when you should do this or that or whether you should grey like this or that. Nobody else, be it your parents or siblings or relatives, have a say in what you wish to do with your life. Society was formed to protect us, not to enlighten us. It’s you who decides the path for your story. At the end of the day, we are leaving behind tales for people we’ll never meet, for people we’ll never be able to sit down and correct in case they misunderstand. That’s how it is. Our best shot is at leaving behind a story that is going to be a witness to itself. You don’t know what the future is going to be like. You may one day end up becoming the oldest diplomat or an ambassador in Indian history. Just like Jack Ma never imagined he would go on from being a paltry English teacher to delivering a speech three decades to world leaders on how world trade—not world peace — is the way to go. Things change with time. The most important bit is to stay alive and to believe in yourself. You may feel that Lady Bad Luck is hitting on you all the time. Guess what? You are at least around to spin a yarn. Many, a lot many indeed, couldn’t. And they are gone for good without a chance to edit their stories.
Now is when everything changes. Now is also when nothing changes. You get to decide which one is it going to be. Any given moment.
You are the architect of your world.
Organize it.
Destroy it.
Rebuild it.
Nurture it.
But most importantly, own it.
There is no other fucking way left.
(Wrote this letter to my brother who has started doubting himself like we sometimes do out of old habits.)