The Fire Within

As a child, I was shy and introvert and I dreaded facing the public.

The thought of going over stage gave me jitters.

 

So one day, when I was asked to recite a poem on stage, I knew what it was going to be like.

 

I went on stage and blanked out. I simply couldn’t utter a word. The faces in the audience, the faces I actually knew well, seemed all the very strange to me. They looked at me expectantly but I knew that I couldn’t fulfill their expectations.

 

It was a disaster and I was now afraid. I was afraid of not what my friends would think because they knew about my stage fright. 

Not of my teacher for I was her pet.

I was afraid of facing my parents. Now my parents were just like "parents". They were different.

Have you ever seen an absent-minded professor looking for his glasses while he is actually wearing them?

That's my father.

Have you ever seen a lady "Breaking" an item of gossip to the friend who told it to her originally?

That's my mother.

 

So, you can imagine what I am.

I am the girls who put this wrapper into the mouth and throws this chocolate away

 

Unfortunately or Fortunately, when it came to me, my parents never forgot a thing!

 

The first thing my father asked me as I got back home was: "How did it go?"

 

"It was bad. I am no good."

 

“Oh Don’t you worry. You are destined for greatness. Acknowledge your fire.”

 

Destined for greatness. Fire. These words made no sense to me whatsoever.

 

My father continued "Come here, show me your palm”

 

"Ah. Your lifeline and heart line don’t meet. There's a gap between the two. That happens rarely happens. It means that you are destined for greatness. Acknowledge the fire within you to succeed.”

 

The next time I went on stage, I looked at my palm and told myself that I am destined for greatness.

I smiled at my audience. And they smiled back! That fuelled my recently discovered fire.

 

That day onwards, I took challenges after challenges. The outcome was not always favorable but I gave my best.

 The fire within helped me get into my dream college IIT Roorkee, after a lot of hard work.

 It was sometime during college that at the central library, I came across a book on palmistry and went over out of curiosity.

 

Guess what I found?

 I found that the lines and the gap meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.

 

Do you remember the time when the truth about the tooth fairy, or Santa Claus or red fairy was first made known to you?

 Oh, you don’t remember.

 

Unfortunately, I remember the time when I came to know about my father's ruse.

For I was 19 and studying at an IIT.

 

So, Was it a lie that fuelled my fire.

 

No. It was belief.

 

My father’s belief in me.

 

It is a belief that fuels the fire within.

 

 

Only recently met a friend who so dejected after a professional setback that when I invited her over a cup of coffee at Starbucks she said.

"Why Starbucks? It’s so expensive."

I said cheerfully "It’s not the place which matters, it is the company"

"Yeah. Starbucks is a good company"

 

I shook my friend and said "What happened to you? You were so bright!"

 She replied "You wouldn't understand, you have a great career, you have a supportive family, You win international blogging prizes. You don’t know !”

  

I said “I know for I have lived your journey! But you don’t know, you see a great career but you don’t know that it had been stagnant until that one opportunity came by. You see a supportive family but you don’t know that we struggled to understand each other. You see a blogging prize but you don’t know about the 14 rejection emails I had received. The only difference between you and me is that your fire is on the verge of getting extinguished and mine is still burning. “

Like Jambavant from Ramayana who let Hanuman know of his long-forgotten powers before he could cross the sea, I let my friend know of her powers and told her that she is destined for greatness.

My belief in her lit her fire.