MAKING WAY FOR THE 'RIGHT'


“Destiny doesn’t care that we’re wounded.

Destiny sees through scars…

All that Destiny sees is light.”

Mary Calvi

 

“Thank God, I did not get the ‘best Job’; for, I got the ‘right job.”

The ‘best’ is only a perception… an ideal, rather a myth. The ‘right’ is a reality… what you and I really make out of the given situation.

A very senior and respected motivational speaker and trainer tirelessly hammers down in his every session this: “Five decades ago, I came to Bombay to face the interview for a job in one of the best companies… I was rejected. Thank God, I did not get the ‘best’ job; for, I got the ‘right’ job in life.”

To me, this confession seems to be a familiar experience of most of us, who have come ‘here’ seeking our respective ‘best’ things… Yes, the best jobs, the best schools and colleges, the best life-partners, children, relatives, friends, neighbours, everything. Invariably, the quest is for the ‘best. But, then, what we get is only what we deserve… And, that’s, inevitably, the ‘right’ one… Trust me, it is!

Putting it philosophically – call it spiritually – what we get is what is ‘written’, what is as per the divine plan. In my youth, I would not accept this kind of ‘divine-plan theory’ so easily. I was injected with Shelly’s steroid: “Man is the Master of his fate, and Captain of his soul!” It was not easy to let go that control button when you are on such steroid!

But, with living life, comes the wisdom of life… The ‘best’ things, which we all aspired for, simply evaporate into the thin air, and from the same thin air comes the wisdom of the ‘right’ things…

The ‘best’ is rigid; the ‘right’ is ‘fluid’…

The ‘best’ is an ‘illusion’; the ‘right’ is a ‘reality’…

The ‘best’ doesn’t improve or grow; the ‘right’ does…

 


Today, the parent of a young girl was extremely upset about his young daughter not getting a seat in one of the premier business-schools. He sounded even bitter. I calmed him down and wrote:

 “We need to explore our other options. This institution and course are neither the ‘Mount Everest’ nor the ‘end of the world’.  Let’s encourage the young one to explore the unexplored vistas within. Often, there is a divine plan behind all rejections. As Harivansh Rai Bachchan had counselled his illustrious son: ‘Mann ka ho toh achha, na ho toh aur achha’. Love and best wishes.”

Years later, I hope, this young one will be able to look back on this particular ‘rejection’ – losing a seat in the ‘best’ institution for the ‘best’ course - and say: “Thank God, I did not get the ‘best one; for, I got the ‘right’ one!”

But, for that, the young one has to be ready to embrace all the surprises in life, and, yes, yes, to smell the wild flowers along her wayside, too!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: William Topa

Video: Mucahit Aycicek


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