STRUGGLE STORIES AND A BLOCKBUSTER LIFE
“Don’t fill life with
struggles - fill it with joy.
A flower always
struggles to survive;
but, it never forgets
to bloom with joy.”
Debashis Mirdha
One late evening,
while commuting in an autorickshaw, I struck a conversation with the auto-driver…
He looked quite old, but very courteous and enthusiastic. On my prodding, he
started narrating his story: He had come from his village in UP when he was
barely a boy… The odd jobs he had done… How hard it was to find a place to
live… The responsibility to fend people back in his village – his parents, grandparents
and younger siblings… How, eventually, he started running others’ autorickshaws,
till the time he could manage to buy one of his own (through a bank loan) …
How, after his marriage, his wife and two children lived in their village,
while he continued to work here… His son, after completing his graduation, was
working in Noida and daughter was married and settled in a nearby town in UP… Now,
the man owned a small room in one of the slums in Mumbai… But, he seemed
determined to work as long as he could…
It was a fifteen-minute
commute… And, by the time I got off the auto, I was asking myself this:
“Doesn’t every migrant have stories of struggle with him/her? And, why migrants
alone – don’t we all have our own stories of struggles?”
I believe,
carrying these stories in our hearts keeps us grounded. Most of us become
empathetic and helpful human beings because of the presence of these stories in
our hearts. As Debashish Mirdha says, like the flower which always struggles to
survive, but never forgets to bloom with joy – we, too, must… Yes, Life
must be filled with joy, not with our struggles…
My Dad was just
a mechanic, who wasn’t educated. He was afflicted with his massive flaws, like
heavy drinking and smoking. Consequently, he died young. But, what I still
remember about my Dad is this: despite his ‘flawed life’, my Dad had many stories
of struggle to share with us!
And, what about
me? I am a migrant, and I have come this far, not repeating my Dad’s sins. But,
then, like him, I, too, have scores of ‘struggle stories’ to share with my only
son… and thousands of students who have come in my life…
Last
evening, my wife and I watched Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s movie – ‘12th
Fail’. It is beautiful… inspiring! Yes, it’s one of those ‘struggle stories’
that I am talking about in this Post.
Look, you and I don’t
have to be an IPS or an IAS to tuck in our hearts such stories… I am an
ordinary teacher, but a teetotaler; my Dad was a mechanic, who was a chronic alcoholic;
the migrant auto-driver, a stranger… yes, we all have our respective ‘struggle
stories’. These stories are ‘big’ for each one of us… whether we are IPS, IAS,
IRS, IFS or just ‘us’.
And, let me tell
you this: every struggle story in our lives is a potential subject for a
blockbuster movie…an inspiring legacy. That’s why the story of IPS Manoj Sharma
in the movie – ‘12th Fail’ – resonates with each one of us…
Go watch it, and
celebrate your own blockbuster…
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic’s.: 1. movielulzhd.show 2. Pixabay
Video: Zee Studios
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