Hope and its Two Faces!
It all started in the teens when we started to have a crush and looking at that cute girl.
Our parents used to ask us to concentrate on studies but day dreaming about that girl and how we’ll woo her, was much more fun.
Life was smooth, we were getting smarter and thought the world was stupid.
We were given a cellphone earlier than when our Dads had their first bicycles.
It’s all a bed of roses that we complained about.
Influenced by SRK movies and romantic songs, we sailed our own unfinished boats to hell. Striving to create a pseudo reality, on shaky bedrocks.
With hazy views towards our careers and goals, we danced through the late teens into early twenties; pausing our lives for several temporary people, we idolized as permanent.
We ran behind the glittering lights and fugazi feelings we self-created to chime in, oblivious of the fact that most people around us were doing the same.
Worst of all, was not the daydreaming or meeting the wrong people, but the self assuring illusion that everything will eventually be alright!
Like it happens in a fairy tale, a happy SRK movie, in rosy books or video games, we were ALWAYS assured that whatever the heck it is, how much ever we may fuck up, it’s going to be alright! And it’s going to be alright, by some magic, supported by some qainat or by the grace of God, without us needing to do anything but HOPE.
HOPE, my friend, is a capricious word. People use it both to survive and slowly self destruct!
We all hoped India would win the world cup, Leo will survive in the Titanic and that we will all be millionaires one day, riding in our Lamborghinis, wearing Armani suits that cover our six-pack abs, with arms around our model like lovers!
Well, let me break it to you, unlike the way it was broken to me, HOPE is BULLSHIT! It’s bullshit until YOU do something about what you want to change and WORK HARD until your mind and body can no longer function without a break.
Hope works, when you have given your ALL. Hope works when you are going to cry, regardless of whether you win or loose.
The magic of HOPE is in the last extra bit, AFTER you have given your 100%.
If you have given your 50% and hope to get rewarded, you are not hoping, you are begging for mercy! Know the difference!
But by the habit of expecting everything to be granted as a wish to us and be given EARLIER than we deserved, we failed to learn the crucial lessons that would have prepared us for the shock of reality that we would soon imminently receive in our mid 20's.
The reality that is our bank balances, the reality that is the unpleasant view that we neglect in the mirror, the reality, that we have to work HARD even to survive.
And when you finally realize, and more importantly ACCEPT, is when the true journey begins. The journey to take you back from hell to wherever the hell you want to go.
But don’t be fooled again, it’s not going to be hunky dory just because you have realized it! The journey is going to be tough, nerve racking, terrifying, but oh, so satisfying and humbling!
Also, the ticket ain’t free my friend. You have paid, through credit cards, calendars, discomfort and most importantly by scars, that won’t go off.
The scars that tell the story of your foolishness. The scars that make it painful to love even the right person, take a day off or smile like a foolish child that you once did.
I have known hope in both respects and I am not someone who’ll just kick you out without giving you a gift.
Wear the scars like badges of honor and let them humble you in the times you get over your head when you achieve glory, because if you have realized and accepted your predicament, you won’t go lower. Because if you have decided to take action and embrace the hardships, you shall not fail!
And more importantly, if you have decided to give back, you shall never go empty!
We are all in the same boat, each inches away from the other.
Do not worry, do not hesitate, just yell “I ACCEPT!” and awaken your beast within!
I hand the baton to you.
