Be Happy, Be You!

On November 24th, 1993, a great leader and a future prime minister was born. The next Indira Gandhi. Wondering who? Yes, me!

No? Don't agree? Okay.

So, on November 24th, 1993, an extremely intelligent girl, a future astronaut was born. The next Kalpana Chawla. Don’t believe me on this either? Well, people underestimate me a lot I tell you.

So, On November 24th, 1993, an ordinary girl with ordinary skills, average looks and an above average intelligence was born. Just being modest.

As she grew up she realised that ordinary is not good. Average is not acceptable. Everyone wants to excel. Everyone wants to be the best. Everyone wants to leave footprints on the sands of time. And she too needs to become one in a million, in order to be happy. In order to make her loved ones happy. Because, you see, mediocrity never makes anyone happy.

So she left no stone unturned. She explored as many options as she could, so that she could find at least one thing to excel at.

Academics was not her cup of tea, so she thought extracurriculars might be. She joined swimming classes and gave her best. She was doing good but couldn't overcome her fear of depth and failed to excel at it. She couldn't clear all the levels. Soon it stopped bothering her because she was enjoying every bit of it. She loved going to the pool and learning new styles. What mattered to her was happiness that swimming brought to her.

Then she thought, why not try dancing. After all she couldn't ignore how her body went in sync to the rhythm of music and how it made her feel. So why not try to master it, she thought. She joined kathak classes and soon appeared for her very first dance test. But she failed in it. The masters declared her not trained enough to clear the exams. It too stopped bothering her after a while. Because how could someone else judge how trained her feet were to dance to the rhythms that made her happy. She was content with her average dancing skills.

She tried a lot of things after that - painting, reading, writing, new languages, karate, cooking, travelling, gardening, teaching. But this time, not to find something to excel at, but just for the thrill of things. She did pretty good at some of them and failed miserably at others. But it didn’t matter anymore. She realised what mattered most to her was exploring things and not really excelling at them. Neither did it matter to her loved ones, as long as she was happy.

But, just like the little girl, isn't it what we want too? What we expect from our kids too? the next Indira Gandhi, the next Sachin Tendulkar, the next Kalpana Chawla, the next R.K. Narayan, the next P T Usha. And for that, we become a part of the rat race too.

Also, because if we don’t, then something's wrong with us, definitely wrong. And we don’t want ourselves to seem not normal in this absolutely abnormal era. Do we?

As she looks around her and sees herself in the little kids struggling hard to fit into this insanely competitive world, people getting depressed because of failure, she wonders, Why? Why can’t we just be okay with being mediocre. Why do we fear mediocrity so much? Why no one ever tells us that it’s ok to not be one in a million. That it’s okay to remain average. It's okay to fail at things. Why are there advertisements of people trying to sell fear of not becoming iconic and not leaving a mark when you die.

May be it's time to stop comparing ourselves with anyone. May be it's time, we start admiring ourselves the way we are.

It's okay if this world doesn't recognise you, it's okay if you're not on that billboard on a highway, the only thing that matters is staying content. Just being what you are, doing what you love and loving what you have.

At the end of the day the only thing that matters most is a good night's sleep.

And, you know, you would still be one in a million for your loved ones. You would still be living an extraordinary life with extraordinary friends having extraordinary fun.

What started as a struggle to be one of the rats, ended in self-discovery for her. She is an explorer, she knows now, not meant to be tamed. And she does not wish to excel at everything she does anymore.