Imagination is one of the most powerful tools of the human
mind.
There is some scientific evidence saying that the mere act
of imagining an icy splash of water on a sweltering day leads to a miniscule
but significant drop in the temperature of the body. Imaginations are capable
of tweaking some of the most powerful regions of our brain and the story just
becomes more colourful from there.
This science trivia was just to drive home the strength of
imaginations – and the consequent line of thought I have been postponing to jot
down for a long time now.
The first time I imagined this “tunnel” was on my very long
and exhausting plane ride to Vancouver. Extremely uncomfortable, jet lagged,
with nothing but darkness outside my window as my company, my mind
automatically made the cabin, a tunnel from which I wanted escape. It could
have been a correlation with my childhood fears of train tunnels as I
distinctly remember getting agitated when the train used to cross a
specifically long tunnel.
And yet, the memory at the exact opposite end of the pole which
was as distinctive as my fear, was the joy I felt once I could see the light
again at the tunnel’s end.
There are
many such tunnels in our life - the period of anticipation when we await
results to an important exam, the exhausting and laborious wait a mother has to
undergo before hearing her child’s first cry, repeated failure of experiments
just preceding a big discovery or even the cycles of getting hurt innumerable
times before we manage to find our soulmates.
However, the one thing that can be the biggest motivator for
getting us past the seemingly inescapable and arduous tunnel is imagining the
light or happiness that we somehow know will come at its end.
A friend of mine once remarked that, every smile has a price
(or a tunnel) behind it and I set on a quest to counter him. I was still
searching for an example and was having a difficult time finding one. The smile
of a new life comes with the pain of the mother, the happiness after watching
an old favorite movie may come with the price of hours lost to other urgent
pursuits and even if someone were to say love, well, after a lot of thought, unconditional
love is one of the rarest commodities and hence maybe an only exception. But it
is something very elusive to find and so, statistically, does not count! And suddenly
it hit me,
“But if we are genuinely
smiling at the end – who cares about the price?”
Not speaking from a karma-based perspective, and people all
for “smart work over hard work” may disagree – after many rewarding experiences,
I truly believe that as long as we pay the price of perseverance and dedication
in all our pursuits, needless of how long our tunnels might be, we are always
guaranteed the reward of smiles and the joy that comes when we arrive at its
end.
Often people who have such a “can-do” optimistic attitude
are scorned at and touted as weirdos who seem to be “in their own pretty place
far away from the real world”. However, people who only try to see the
harshness in reality, cease to live and only start existing. They see life as a
taskmaster and react by toughing up and encasing their beautiful minds in an
impenetrable mechanical cocoon that is just impervious to joyful creativity.
I read a very beautiful account once which is one of the
best examples of the gift of perceiving the light that will come after the
dark.
A poor rural
boy in an Indian village had a big family living in a small thatched hut with a
gaping hole in the roof. The boy saw his father struggle daily in their tiny
farmland trying to make ends meet. He was his father’s favorite child, always
spreading happiness and trying to help him rather than his other siblings who
always complained about how the other kids in the village were much better off
than them and remained forever dissatisfied.
Even on the
days when they could barely have two square meals a day, the father always saw
a smile on his son’s face. Once taking a break from the field, the father sat
down to eat the dry chapatis and onions his son had got him for tiffin. The son
was happily fanning him with a fan fashioned out of a leaves. Unable to contain
his curiosity any longer, the father finally asked him,
“My dearest one, what makes you so happy all
the time?”
“My life father!”
“How is that possible when we lead such a
difficult life? Don’t you crave the comforts your brothers and sisters desire?”
“Father!
I wake up to the gentle kiss of sunlight
every day. When mother smiles after I help her fetch water and make fire for
the stove, my day lights up. When I observe you work, I try to learn and be as
good as you at farming someday. I have the soft mud to play in, clean water of
our pond to bathe and so many friends in Mother Nature. The starry sky I sleep
beneath lets me know that I will reach the stars one day and make you all
proud.
Who can be happier than me in this world?”
The father
was speechless and hugged his son dearly. For in his little one’s hope, he saw
his own motivation to provide the best in his capability for his family.
It is true that life may not treat us fairly at all times –
for many it may seem to be anything but beautiful. However, if we always strive
to look out for our own starry skies, even the darkest of nights will light up
at once, promising the joys of bright sunshine on the morrow.
