VERTICALS OF PROBLEMS…. Living in the MANHATTAN of Glitches.

I visited Manhattan before the World Trade Centre fiasco. My friend took me to the top of this colossal edifice. Looking around and specifically down below, I got dizzy and pukish. The concrete jungle made me wonder, where do I stand in this vast wilderness—millions of people housed in these tall skyscrapers, breathing tinned air and basking in glass filtered sunlight.

My crazy writers’ mind became active and agile. I started relating the plethora of PROBLEMS that we face in our day-to-day lives.

Don’t we envisage VERTICALS of Difficulties and miseries every day? A jungle of so-called problems and disappointments.

We toil to scale one; another one is already taking shape, maybe even taller.

Remember the old Mukesh melody? … “Yeh Na Hota To Koi Doosra Gum Hona Tha….”

This means that Life is full of miseries; coming one after the other; if not this, then some other. Imagine a flat piece of land where Manhattan exists: No buildings, but water and barren land. A life as dull as a road with no bumps.

Do we want this?

I think there are bumps and hurdles that make life exciting and worth living. Who wants a monotonous, mundane life anyway?

A new vertical may suddenly be making us sad and gloomy. But were we happy and merrymaking before this vertical got propped up? – NO, we were not; we were sad and calm as we worked on the previous vertical. The only difference may be that if the previous was two-plus, this might be three-plus. But the emotions and endeavour to tackle them are the same.

‘Life is so ironic. It takes sadness to know what happiness is, noise to appreciate silence and absence to value presence.’

In Life, there are some things we might never really ‘get over. Sometimes the best we can do is just ‘get through ‘.

The best way to get through the troubled waters is to control your own thought processes. The day we decipher the problem’s lacework patterns that shroud our minds, we win the race.

‘If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down’ BUDDHA.

After experiencing the hot winds and freezing gales for sixty-two years, I can say that nothing in this world is more important than your ability to survive and enjoy life. You are the driver of your life’s automobile and the porter to unburden you of misery. Delight and pathos are all yours. People around may just garnish the emotion but can’t add or unburden the load. It is a SOLO fight, for sure.

Love yourself first because that’s who you’ll spend the rest of your life with. The problems melt when you take control of your hands, without depending on anyone else. Dependence nurtures expectations resulting in frustration and sadness.

“Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself … You are the artist of your life, don’t give the paintbrush to anyone … decide your colours and patterns to make the ultimate creation.”

As the seasons’ change, so does every situation. Everything is temporary. So, when life is good, make sure you enjoy it and fully accept it. And when life is not good enough, remember that it will not last forever, and better days are on the way. The tall buildings will crumble, giving space to new ones.

So, rejoice in the destruction of the older lot, but gear up for the brand new ones that will soon come out.

“You have to learn to rise above the storm to find the sunshine (Moments Make Life, Not Milestones”)

Amit was leading a seemingly happy life when he was diagnosed with Cancer of the Pancreas. There was a sudden emotional jolt between him and the dependent family. Amit was the most doomed person in the world.

Then as he pondered and worked on his positivity, he realised that even before the fatal diagnosis, he was not a triumphant man. He was working on a few other verticals that were making him depressed and gloomy. He changed his attitude and accepted the current situation with a positive attitude, yet another vertical to conquer. He came out of the nasty situation happily.

“We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. THE AMOUNT OF WORK IS THE SAME.” CARLOS CASTENADA.

The fact is that sometimes life is HARD, but sometimes we make it harder than it really is. The more we brood, the more we drown in the darkness of loneliness and melancholy. People may peep in the well and may even try to lend their hand to pull you out but remember, their fingers are slippery. It is in your skill and effort to get out unscathed and enjoy yourself.

Make your own decisions. Trust me; it is not hard to make choices when you know what your values are. In no time, Manhattan will continue to grow, and new verticals will emerge from nowhere.

 Love the Life You Live, Live the Life you Love.

“It is only when we are silent to the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us.” K.T JONG

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