Thursday, June 18, 2009

Visioning Life!

For most of us, what we see is life… but for few others, what they cannot see is life! Strange isn’t it?

It all started with the reading on the recent developments of ‘Point return’ and an argument which i read from one of my friend's blog that read as “How many of us know Rakhi Sawant? and How many of us know Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar?. The duo co-founded The Banyan, a trust that works with homeless and mentally ill women.”

Luckily I knew both of them and their great work for the cause. It is an inspiring story if you want to know about ‘The Banyan’. It all started with the objective of helping one woman because there were no organizations that were ready to help that one woman. These two great hearts did it and they are doing it now in a bigger scale in Chennai. So it was for one life, these two accepted their life as a service for other lives. They chose their lives and it did not come to them?

And since I was the regular follower of the goodnewsindia.com which is managed single handedly by D V Sridharan, I was also following his new initiative of Point Return. The point is to return – is what he is trying to achieve. It is inspiring to read the developments and the challenges that are being faced by him in developing the agricultural land he is working on. And he is working alone. His primary objective is to restore a tiny corner of abandoned India into a sustainable resource for water, energy, food and cash. The first step he is working is on a 15 acre land which is located 100 km from Chennai. Readers of this post may want to visit these two websites for more details and get inspired. So Sridharan could chose his life?

As I was working tight with my busy schedule worrying about a lot of things which I did not wanted to but I was forced to, I got a call from one of my mentor. The whole discussion was good in terms of discussing about what actually is the driving factor for us to do something different. Also he used the term “electrifies” which was appropriate at that moment as we all are tired of routine work and to get the motivation, something should really electrify us. He was enquiring about our great Himalayan trip and we ended up with an objective to dedicate our lives to the Nature. I always get inspired to talk to him because he is the inspiring factor in my life to do something different as he is doing extraordinary things and achieving his goals one by one being physically challenged. I salute his spirits and I am sure he will do whatever he wants to do for the society.

My conversation with my mentor, the latest updates on point return, and the Banyan made me think a lot and gave me enough kick for the whole day. As I was thinking I did even share my thoughts with few of my good friends and I am sure even they would’ve thought about it in the same way. The thought which was lingering in my mind was do we have enough options to chose in life? Or are we taking the life the way it comes to us?

Well… I have the question unanswered yet. While this thought was lingering in my mind, I got to know that one of my good friend’s dad was no more and she was taken aback by the whole process. The one statement which came from her made me think a lot again was, she said “Life is not the same anymore”. So again my question was “Do you have any other choice?”

To add to the same, if that was the case, during our Himalayan trip, because of the Nature’s play, two people lost their lives. Did they have any choice? Having all the other team members with them they could not come out of what they encountered.

So life is to be taken the way it comes? Today morning while I was travelling to my office, one handsome gentleman got in to the bus at the residency road stop. I did not look at him properly as I was interestingly reading my economic times. But after a few seconds I heard a loud noise and as I looked at it, it was the stick of that gentleman. Yes! He was blind and he was struggling to get on to the seat. I was observing him as he got onto the seat and opened his physically challenged bus pass and with the great difficulty he showed that to the bus conductor. After settling down on the seat, he took out his comb and started combing his hair and cleaned his face with his hand key. He was comfortably sitting and listening to the FM in the bus. But I started feeling uncomfortable looking at the way he got ready, combed his hair just to make sure that he looks good to others. He must be around the age of 25-28 and he looked like any other handsome professional. So that is his life. Whether he chose to be that way or he just accepted the way it came to him. But hats-off to him for his brave act of moving around in the city of Bengaluru without any fear and like a normal human being.

That’s when I thought, for us, what we see is life and for him, what he cannot see is life. I realized that he can see what we cannot see and we cannot see what he can see. It is not about just seeing, it is visioning life. Sometimes I get nightmares thinking about my mom and her difficulties. But I have accepted it as she has accepted it the way it came to her. I just wish her to see my face at least once. But I know, she is seeing me every day and she has the vision for me and my life which is more than the sight.

Having accepting the life the way it comes to you, you tend to vision yourself around what you see or what you cannot see. Now to decide whether we are lucky having got to see things or unlucky having got to see things which we did not want to see is again a vision around us. Envisioning the hard facts around us and the plenty of opportunities for us to work and make the society livable is the biggest challenge again. We can say we may not be lucky because we are seeing and encountering such hard facts on a daily basis but we are lucky because some of us have chosen to work with the hard facts which can make a difference.

Now again my question to you is… how do you envision your life? Do you have options to chose? Or take it the way it comes to you? And either ways, what is the difference that you can make?
Srik

10 comments:

Jen said...

excellent post srikanth... very thought-provoking.

Hari said...

Choices in Life...has been revolving around my mind from past two days...its a great coincidence that you posted the topic here...Most of our lives are spent in choosing the options before us its always either this or that ....Is this life? or is there life beyond this? do we always need to be in the "select" mode can we think beyond it.. Can we "create " options?..Well creating options have its own difficulties.The environment and circumstances play a vital role here.But there is one thing which can supress all these and move towards the "Light" its the "Undying Human spirit" ...Isnt it ...Still i can see the choice "satellites "revolving around my mind ....

Unknown said...

Good post at right time!!! Its always good idea to take a look at your vision to be on track. Visioning is a function of an intuitive mind, you allow yourself to dissolve into something beyond the conscious mind. But its again the situation which decides the extent of support you get out of this.

Raghu said...

Good post Sri. It makes us think twice about the way we are leading our lives.

Supreeth said...

Supreeth's comment as he was unable to post comments:

Sri,

I rate this blog as one of your best! reading the name of this blog, sends shivers!

Am a perfect example of a character who fits the last question you have put forth, take it the way it comes to you?
So far, i feel have lived my life the way it has come to me. Always with the thought, i want to live it my way!

Do you have options to chose?
Yes, having chosen the path explained above, i certainly feel; life does give you options. By constantly putting incidents\situations wherein you ask your self. whats your purpose of existence? \ Do you want to do the same thing for the rest of your life?

how do you envision your life?
Life is too short, and make each moment cherishable with loved and closed one's. Want to live up to my Entrepreneurial Dream.

what is the difference that you can make?
- Will bring in a change in the way of life, by taking the responsibility from the closed ones.
- Being able to touch the success point, in the dream which is well known to the loved ones.
- Living for the moment, and working towards the dream against waiting for it to happen.

Well written, thought provoking!

Cheers!
Supreeth

Narasim said...

Thank you for a deeply moving essay on the mysteries of life.

To read about the work by Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar is a truly uplifting experience.

The difference between people with sight and those without it, appears to me is the following. People with sight see but do not observe. People without sight observe but do not see. It is not clear who is better off.

The posting by Supreeth is very helpful as a guide.

To take life as it comes is to be stoic. To make the best of what life offers is to be heroic. We all need to choose between fatalism and activism. Luck plays a huge role in our efforts, of course. But to fault bad luck for our own inadequacies and do nothing is defeatism writ large.

Once again, the essay is thoughtful and thought provoking.

Very sincerely yours,

Narasim

Vaishnavi said...

"That’s when I thought, for us, what we see is life and for him, what he cannot see is life. I realized that he can see what we cannot see and we cannot see what he can see." This is so true. It is amazing that a person who is cannot see things physically, is able to let his imagination see for him. We should try it out ourselves, just close your eyes for five minutes and try to walk your way down a street. Use a stick if needed. Our other senses immediately wake up. This is what we need to do, use all our senses all the time.

T S said...

“Mind Disturbing blog... Sri...!”

I am getting confuse now whether I am leading my life by option or as it comes..??

Life is so tricky because it makes us to feel that we are leading life by options but at some point we realize that it is normal and we have opted normal life by option..!!

Why? Hope it is right if I say this... We fear to opt or accept as it comes either way..!?
If we come out from the box of fear then, it’s our choice of anything.

Cheers..!!

T S

Sudhi said...

A different blog!

Sometimes we think we don't have choices in life - is it true or false? answer could be both.
We don't have choices in everything in life but definitely have in few things.

Again few questions will arise here - even if we have options, which one to chose? is it right or wrong? what if it goes wrong? so on and so forth. We don't get a perfect answer for any of these questions but at the same time the answer is not always important. The important thing is to think about options instead of chosing a life the way it comes.

Thanks Sri for posting such a great blog.

Cheers!
Sudhi

Manjunath Byadigere said...

Great post Srikanth.
I agree with most of the people here that this is your best blog, and the good news is that your blogs are improving day by day. So I expect the next blog to be better than this!.

Take a look at these sayings:-
"Life is not just black or white...there is some GREY in between"
"There are three kinds of truth...your truth, my truth and the REAL truth!"
Very similarly, life is not this or that ...its there between 'this' and 'that'(at least some part of it)!

Except for the physical inability of the blind man to see, I 'see' no difference between his and any other sane persons 'vision'.

The sense of vision is an important special sense we have which is very important for anybodys daily living. At the same time the sense of vision(again, the physical part) is over exaggerated(when we compare it to our other senses like Touch, Smell, Hearing and Taste)!!

The physical sense of vision is less important when you compare with the 'vision' any person(blind or otherwise) has got.(Its easy to get confused between the two).
The blind man might have developed some reflexes and improved upon some of his other physical senses to compensate for his physical vision loss, but the 'vision'(to look good to others,to lead an independent life, to gain knowledge, to pursue happiness and challenges,etc..) are the same for every human being.

As Narasim has said...its heroism that everybody should be after.

There are circumstances when we have choices and sometimes when there may not be any. Choose from the choices when there is a choice... and utilize the opportunity to your best when you dont have any, as if that was your choice! What good is a choice if I havent used it to my advantage!(even if its the only choice, its a choice...right!)

It is not the question of choosing only one among the two options...its the question of taking them both into our strides and juggling between the two options that makes life more interesting.Maybe this is what Harish is trying to tell by 'creating options' and 'life beyond this or that'.
Atleast I think thats what it is.

It was a pleasure reading this blog...and yes thought provoking too. Expecting more from your pen soon.

Dr Manjunath B D