Friday, August 05, 2011

Unforeseen Circumstances - Loose Bloggers Consortium



Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Akanksha, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie11, Maria the Silver Fox, Noor, Padmum , Ramana Sir, Will knot , and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get fourteen different flavours of the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by gaelikaa.

Today's topic is very dear to my heart; not least because over the past 22 years of my existence I've become so accustomed to these buggers we are glorifying as "unforeseen circumstances" today, but also because of their incredible consistency, persistence and determination to keep recurring and eventually making me so fond of them and attached to them in a sense, that I start missing them when they stop occurring with their usual frequency. Also, I can't discount their entertainment value and the opportunities they give me to laugh at myself. Despite all this, I still have no idea what will follow in this post. I have no pre-decided plan or plot. What you shall read is freshly picked, but not necessarily ripened enough to suite everybody's tastes.

I remember an incidence from about 3 years ago. I had a painful molar for a long time before this which I was ignoring. It just so happened that once I was eating a sandwich of whole grain bread when one of the grains managed to dig a hole through the tooth's cap (maybe why they are called w-hole grains!). As a result, in unbelievable agony and excruciating pain, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to find that one kind dentist who wouldn't mind treating a patient on a Sunday afternoon. It doesn't stop there. As a student on a shoestring budget and meagre wage, I only had a third of the money that I would have to pay to get the tooth extracted. It most certainly was the "between devil and the deep sea" situation for me. Credit card saved the day only to be sucking my blood like a parasite to this date. However, it taught me a very important lesson - recognise problems early enough and don't delay in nipping them in the bud before they are big enough to be a problem. I would also go ahead to say that every single such unforeseen circumstance in my life thus far has reinforced this lesson.

Analysing such unforeseen times in my life as well as lives of my close friends and family, I have come to realise that there is a common pattern underlying them. They serve one great purpose, of keeping us alert and on our toes and tend to strike only at times when we relax. I believe and I feel most would agree that our mind is at its sharpest and most focussed in dire situations where an immediate solution is the only way to peace. Connecting all these things together, I feel that such circumstances in fact serve a much greater purpose, keeping our mind alert at all times. This gives it that edge of the sword which is sharp enough to cut through the darkest and thickest layers of ignorance and foolishness. It opens doors to wisdom and gives us a different perspective of reality which is otherwise hidden from us. They give us the ability to think around the corners and agility to be able to manoeuvre around them safely.

I have a strong faith that nothing is useless. Everything happens for a reason and all events in life, no matter how big or how insignificant, have their rightful place of honour in this master play. Everything is interconnected and interdependent. We can't escape fate which is one thing, but even events and incidents in life that we perceive or indeed experience as sad, unwanted, disappointing or similar are all important for our all round organic growth and spiritual development. They all teach us something. It is up to us to appreciate the beauty of these unforeseen circumstances no matter how much havoc they create. A storm may destroy a city, but only to allow creativity to flourish once again and rebuild it just as grand if not grander. At times such circumstances may make us feel like a victim, a prisoner of our fate. However, death makes way for life; indeed life is born in the womb of death. The circle always completes and nobody can trace its beginning or end. I always get a rather obvious and expected reaction whenever I say this to anyone. Most people say it is easier said than done. Most certainly it is. I for one though say this from personal experience. Having had my world literally shaken to the core and having seen all that I hold dear perish in the mighty winds of fate over the last few years changed my life more than ever before. It was in this desolate hour that this sudden realisation brought a smile on my face and it is still there. I simply wish that everyone look at the downs and the sorrows of their life from another perspective. Its dead easy. We simply lack the will due to our conditioning that it is inappropriate to find happiness in sorrow. Life is a paradox after all, not all is what it seems like. Answers are all around, if only we have the courage to ask those difficult questions.

12 comments:

Noor said...

I love your philosophical look on life. Honestly, it's like you offer a very profound insight on things.

LOL at running like a headless chicken. I'm glad you got your tooth fixed in the end. That must have been one experience.

When you talk about how such situations keep us alert and motivate our thinking abilities, that's so true. And very well written too, I mean these situations, though dreaded, usually tell a lot about a person.

I do agree. Things happen for a reason, and I really admire your conviction in that. It's hard to see it that way sometimes though.

You end it perfectly!
"Life is a paradox after all, not all is what it seems like. Answers are all around, if only we have the courage to ask those difficult questions."

Delirious said...

Great post! I do believe that many things that happen to us are just automatic results of living in this mortality. Because we are human, we get sick, we have accidents, we die. But there are still other things that happen that seem to be purposefully given us to teach us a lesson. I like your attitude in accepting those things, and looking for what is to be learned!

My word verification is "piticart"....there is an analogy in there somewhere. :)

padmum said...

I am speechless...are you only 22? You must be one of those great realised souls who have to live through some remaining span of life. You carry the thoughts of a great thinker surely from a previous incarnation....amazing. Keep writing. I am learning from you. Read your blog out to my husband. Sukhi bhava!

Rummuser said...

1. You have used a word that is very dear to me and is of great amusement to my British nephews and their mother - Bugger. Congratulations.
2. I endorse Padmum's observation that for a 22 year old, there is a lot of maturity sitting lightly on your shoulders. Take the advise of an old man who had that thrust on him at an even earlier age, learn to lighten up and play too.
3. We never ever talk about the unforeseen good things that happen to us. We are not made that way!

Rohit said...

@Noor: You know I have an obsession with such stuff lol! That sure was one hell of an experience. Again, at the time I cursed left, right and centre as to why me...but in retrospect I can only thank dear god for this as it increased my pain threshold a lot, which in course of time came in handy when I managed to sprain my ankle while trekking in the Himalayas this year...see how everything happens for a reason? If it wasn't for that, there was no way I could have put up with the pain and still trek for a week after that at that altitude. So only gratitude now :)

When you say what this tells about a person, it reminded me of a quote which is something like - if you truly want to know how great someone is, look at the little things in their life and how they react to those; anyone can be strong in great problems, its the smaller pests of issues which expose the true colours

cheerios!

Rohit said...

@Delirious: Absolutely! Perhaps you would call this the divine plan, but anyhow, its all the same really. We are playing out our roles...the only free will we truly have is in making the right choices and deciding which way to go I guess.

Rohit said...

@Padmum: You are only kind! I do like your choice of words, however, I simply "carry" these thoughts. I wouldn't dare say they are mine, am only thankful for the grace of all those who taught me these things in one way or another..

Glad you liked the blog though. And thanks for the blessing, its like a queue jump ticket! :)

Rohit said...

@Sir Ramana:
1. Hahaa I don't usually use this word but somehow it fit here quite well so thought why not.
2. As for your advice, always grateful! You are right about lightening up, and its only on this blog that I download this stuff. In the offline world things are very different :)
3. Exactly! We just assume unforeseen situations to be negative..conditioning at work again I suppose..

padmum said...

I forgot to tell you that like Rajesh khanna in 'Amar Prem' I hate dentists (he said 'tears'). My best friends are dentists but I go screaming, moaning and frothing at the mouth to the dentist. And I keep her busy talking about her problems and Mumbai (that we share)trying to postpone the evil hour when I have to open my mouth but keep mum like Manmohan Singh.

And you trek! Kai karthose nahin, bala!

Grannymar said...

Twenty two years of age and all that weight of knowledge on your shoulders.... What in all the heavens will you be like when you reach my old age of 64? ;) :-)

Years of childhood earache became my threshold marker for all pain that followed over the years. Nothing ever ranked near it, and it was nothing to do with any action of mine.

My recipe for you is borrowed:_

The more you give, the more you get,
The more you laugh, the less you fret,
The more you do unselfishly,
The more you live abundantly. [By. H.S. Rice]

Rohit said...

@Padmum: Hahaa..I completely understand what you say. Strangely though I didn't really mind the dentist. Are you based in Mumbai btw? I have lived there for 15 years..I miss it every living moment that I am away! And yes I do trek, if it were up to me I would do it full time every day of the year. I will be posting on the recent one soon :)

Rohit said...

@Grannymar: Lol I do feel like some wise old man of the mountains now. But I can assure you I am just like most other people my age in the "offline" world...I just have this obsession to know everything, and what you read here is but a side-effect of this at times annoying habit. But well if readers like it, why not!

Beautiful quartet by Rice...thank you for sharing it! I will certainly try to live by it as much as I can :)