Patience Is The Key

We reached the place way before time. Almost over an hour before the show actually starts. It was 2 AM. We decided we could go for a long drive before we came back and so we did. Almost 45 minutes later, when we went back, there was a long queue awaiting the arrival of the man of the hour. And then he came wheeling his chariot. Interesting right? He was not on his chariot, but he was wheeling his chariot. And this wasn’t the usual chariot either. His chariot had huge vessels of dosa batter and chutney, and cottage cheese and cheese and some vegetables and maybe oil and a lot of other things.

This was the chariot of the renowned Ram Shinde.  Pushing what people of Hyderabad called ‘Ram Ki Bandi’, he came and the people who stood there waiting for him surrounded him where he stopped. This was no magician. But the way everyone swarmed towards him, took out their phones, clicked pictures, updated statuses. Coming out at 3 AM on a Monday morning for dosas surely was something. 

It was a delight to watch him make the dosas, watching people relishing them. The man had a story like all of us. He had his bunch of struggles and after surviving through each of his struggles, the result was the long queue of people waiting for him in the middle of the night to make his trademark dosas for which they could sacrifice their sleep.

 When I look at a human, a successful human, I want to be that human. It is funny how our brains work.  I have this bad habit of only focussing on a person's success & completely ignoring the fact that behind every success story is a life full of struggle that the person went through.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. So are our lives. In the generation we live in, which I’d like to call the instant generation, we like everything to come by us instantly. Be it food, cabs, jobs, money, success. No, I am not bashing at the millennials. I am one of them and I am guilty of wanting everything instantly. I look at successful bloggers, influencers, colleagues, friends and I think, what was that one thing that I did wrong and I am not where they are? It is difficult for me to answer that question. Why? Because I am affirmative of the fact that I am giving the best I can. I push myself to give more than what I did the previous day. Then why is it that I do not see the same results as the other person. In the meanwhile, do I think of the person’s experience? Do I think of that person’s approach? Do I think of the person’s struggles? Do I think of the person’s efforts?  No. I do not. Am I prejudiced? Yes, I am. And I am guilty.

Sometimes, it does not matter how much you give. Sometimes it does not matter if you sacrificed the previous night’s sleep to finish the work your boss asked you to finish. Sometimes it does not matter how much you are pushing yourself to be the best. Sometimes all that matters is for you to stop thinking about success, to stop thinking about how many efforts you put in. Sometimes, all you are required to do is to love what you do, give the best of your abilities, learn something new every day. It is a difficult task to do because life has been a competition even before we are born.

We humans have the tendency of living in our past through the present and into the future. We never fully live in our present. Ofcourse, the past teaches us to have a better future but what about today?

So every day from today, I will tell myself to take one step at a time. Because at the end of every day, I need to be happy. Because if I am not happy then the entire world’s success and wealth are not going to suffice.

Ram Shinde making his trademark dosas
PC: Priety Baid