(Ask a guy to choose a blog topic and he will invariably choose something complicated like “Purpose of my life”. Ask a girl to choose a topic and she may choose something uncomplicated like “Top 10 favorite shopping places in the world”. Just kiddingJ. Anyway, the background to this topic is that I and my 3 friends took on the 10 day you challenge and it was fun to complete it together. So we took it a step forward and persuaded 2 more friends to join us. Now the 6 of us will write on a common topic once every month. One of us will choose the blog topic and declare it by the 15th of every month. We have to publish the post on the month end. Go to the end of this post to view the blog URL’s of my friend’s blogs.)
The first topic, chosen by Pradeep of RTOAC is “Purpose of my life”. Pradeep chose this topic as a tribute to legends such as Steve Jobs and Jagjit Singh who passed away last month. I guess they found the purpose of their life and followed their passion.)
I could have said “I don’t know” and gotten away with it. But Pradeep’s choice for the blog topic really made me think hard. There’s a certain restlessness, uncertainty, and anxiety in me because I am still searching for the purpose of my life. Why was I born? Is there any meaning to my life? These questions haunt me over and over again. A few years back, I met a man in Vivekanand Ashram, Kanyakumari. He had done his B.Tech from IIT, but had left his corporate career to travel throughout India teaching young minds. At that time, I had gotten hyper and wondered why he had wasted an engineering seat. However, as I grow older and hopefully more mature, I understand that maybe he did find the purpose of his life and was happy pursuing it. It was what gave him “nirmal anand”.
I won’t say I am 100% sure about the purpose of my life. But I do know what makes me really happy. It’s not the big, fat pay check (LOL) at the end of every month. A few years back, I went through this phase with my kid brother. He was going through that age where he was more close to his friends and engrossed in his own world. We would often go for entire weeks without talking to each other. No matter how many times I tried to talk to him, he found it boring. I was devastated and depressed with his attitude. I kept feeling that I am the only one who loves him and he does not love me back. When I was really down, I told my concerns to my dad. I said “He doesn’t love me back. He doesn’t do special things for me”. That’s when my dad said “Maybe it’s you in this relation who has to do the job of loving him. You are the giver and he’s the receiver”. Something in dad’s words clicked. I understood what he wanted to say. Now, where is all this leading us? And what does it have to do with the purpose of my life?
The purpose of my life as I have understood it or the things that make me happy are: spreading love and happiness, making my friends and loved ones feel special, and educating and inspiring people. If I am able to make even one person feel special, then I have achieved the purpose of my life. If I am able to help even a single person, then I have achieved the purpose of my life. This may sound very cliché, but it truly makes me happy. I do like to help people and also tend to give unsolicited advice at times.
Sometime back, I helped a friend by simply passing on the contact number of a reputed gynecologist. She was having some trouble and was advised to go for surgery. Luckily, with the treatment of that gynecologist she delivered a healthy baby boy. I was amongst the first people to receive a call from the hospital with the good news. I can’t even begin to describe how happy that made me.
I really love the movie “Lakshya” which depicts a great story of a young boy and how he strives to find the purpose of his life and achieves success in the end. I do believe that whatever you do, you should do it with all your heart. I really like this dialogue from this movie “Tum jo bhi karo, accha karo. Agar tum ghaas katnewale ho, to tum acchese ghaas katon”J
Moral of the story: do whatever makes you happy. And then no matter where you are, or what you do, you will always be happy!
My blogging gang includes:- Deepa from Life through the lens of a kaliedoscope
- Sonali from Straight from the heart
- Pradeep from RTOAC
- Bhagyashri from Predictably Random
- Swati from Finding myself (invite only)
2 comments:
I have a feeling we girls are all going to end up saying the same thing. Maybe cliche as you said it, but I dont think so. Its because we all sincerely do feel that way. We're content people - not after money or fame. Simple things. Simply joy and happiness on others' faces makes us happy. Its strange. Who knows, maybe its a woman thing :) Like the feeling of being a mother. After all, it does fit with the whole "nurture" concept doesnt it !
Nice one! And yes, you do make your friends including yours truly feel special..in this instance, by crediting me for the topic, albeit with a little bit of leg pulling :P Thank you! :)
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