Live Your Dream Life

In the current lockdown to control the pandemic of coronavirus, most of us are using quarantine time to play childhood indoor games, parents sharing stories and memories of their childhood, Doordarshan telecasting epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat. And suddenly we are reconnecting with our childhood. 

We learn lots of things in our childhood. But do we remember and apply those learnings in rest of our life?

Couple of years back, I decided to quit my 1st job without having any job offer in my hand. I gave a resignation letter and was serving my notice period in the company. In the same duration, I had my preplanned vacation. I took a flight to Singapore. I was happy as it was my first experience flying in an aeroplane and that too abroad. But at the same time, I had fear of becoming jobless post returning. With those mixed feeling, I was carefully listening to instruction of cabin crew as the flight was about to take off.

Seeing me consciousness, co-passenger sitting next to me asked!

Are you flying for the 1st time? I said - Yes!

He smiled and said enjoy the experience. He further asked me, whether I am studying or working? I replied, currently I am working but looking for job change as I am serving notice period in the current company. 

He counter questioned me and asked where?

I was thinking about what to respond.  He added don't say you don't have any job offer in your hand? I replied with a smile - Yes I don't have any job offer with me. Listening to it, he started laughing and didn't stop for a minute and then he apologised for the same. He continued with conversation and asked me few questions, what are the reasons behind leaving the job? What are my plans? And whether I am feeling down since I don't have a job in my hand? I answered all his questions. He replied "Listen don't feel down, you made right decision and you should do what you love to do" and told me his story

He said, In childhood, I was a stubborn kid. Like most of kids, whenever I required any new toys, I used to ask my parents to buy it for me, to which if they denied, I used to persist, start crying and was not ready to leave the shop till I get those toys. I didnt care about other people's presence in the shop. Even after continuous persistence, parents used to deny and take me home without toys. Then I used to go on hungerstrike and request them to buy me a toy. Sometimes they would agree while sometimes I had to agree with them.

But as I grew up, I started understanding parents side and why they used to say no to me. I was no more that stubborn kid. I started telling myself, it might be not always possible to have all those things which I like to have in my life. This seemed to be nice change and every parent would like their kids to become like that. But I would say, it was not a good change. Because I started applying same principle to all aspects of life. Especially towards goals and dreams of my life. I was ok with myself when I failed to achieve goals. I realized that I was losing that small kid inside me. I realized, I was not persisting in my goals. That kid didn't go on hunger strike. People often say, Grow up, you are not kid anymore. But I would say, Don't grow up if it kills that stubborn kid inside you. If that kid is alive then he will continuously persist, will have sleepless nights, not care about other people's opinion and ensure he achieves his goals like he used to persist his parents despite failing 100 times in childhood.

He further said, considering your current situation, you have already made decision of chasing your dreams and in that stormy journey, you would require support of that little stubborn kid so that you don't get settled in between without achieveing your goals. I am saying this, because in my career, on two occassions I was in the same positions as of yours and I made out of it with the support of that little kid.

So tomorrow morning when you wake up from your bed, don't forget to wake up small kid inside you. He might have small shoulder but those are strong enough to handle things pretty well.

I asked gentlemen his name to which he replied, Kanha.

We landed in Singapore and while moving out of the plane, we wished each other luck. 

I certainly realized that one should always stick to his roots and put everything he has and make sure he lives his dream life.