The Power Of Positivity

Life is really like a Pandora’s Box, it throws out all kinds of things at you when you least expect it. I mean, it can take you to great heights at moments and bring you down to the lowest of the low depths in the next moment. Just like the Greek Mythological tale of Pandora’s box which when opened brought out all kinds of negative energies like sadness, misery, woe, anger, jealousy, rage, etc. which has plagued mankind ever since. In the end, it brought out something on which the very foundation of human life, civilization and progress has based itself and that is Hope! Hope is the only thing that has been the perpetual fuel that has kept on pushing mankind to never give up on anything; however hard or difficult the path may be.

This is what I learned a few months ago from a chance encounter I had with a man who has taught me the true meaning of the word ‘PAIN’, which is ‘Positive Attitude In Negativity’. Every day whenever I used to go out on my work, I used to meet this guy who I call Ghanshu(nickname for Ghanshyam) with his four-wheeled handheld food cart on the sidewalk just a few meters away from my house. It was his usual routine daily to set up his cart on the side walk, clean the adjacent area, bringing the equipment and materials for his business and start preparing for the day. All this he did by himself as there was no helper to assist him. Anyways, one particular day I was really feeling very low and was also hungry when I passed his snack joint when he suddenly called me and said: “ Sir, I see you almost every day going somewhere in high spirits and coming back in a dejected mood, what is the matter?”. I looked at him and glared back at him and turned my back. After a few minutes, he again called me and said that why am I in a sullen mood; he even offered me something to eat and asked me to share my emotions with him. I again looked at him incredulously at his tenacity but chose to go and interact with him and have a plate of aloo-chat (Indian Snack). When I opened up to him and told him about my predicament, he just listened to me very patiently as there were very few customers at that point in time. After listening to me he said that ‘Sahaab, I may be a poor, illiterate man but I know this much that we as humans have been endowed with the unique quality of endurance and it is through this power we can and have been overcoming obstacles in life.’ I rolled my eyes up and thought that now this snack joint guy is also trying to sermonize me. I even said that ‘it is easier said than done; as when you keep on facing dejections, it becomes difficult to keep up with the facade.

He turned his back towards me for a moment as there were a couple of customers and once he had done catering to their needs, he turned back towards me and said that he was not trying to sermonize me but rather pointing out a simple but hard fact of life to me. He said that “you have always seen me coming out in the morning and do different things to start my joint every morning” when I said yes, he further said that ‘you have just seen a minuscule part of it’. Looking at my expression he just gave a smile and said that “I had to literally beg for this small place on this side of the sidewalk for my snack joint in front of other shop owners sharing the sidewalk. I also have to be on the vigil for the local authorities who might swoop down any day in a surprise raid and close my shop.” He also said that he has to keep on satisfying the beat police constables who constantly harass him by asking for bribes; and if he refuses, they threaten to close his shop.

I just kept on looking at him and was surprised at his story when he laughed and said that “ this is not all, at first when he started he had to endure the constant demands of the customers to keep the area clean, to serve clean hygienic food and not to charge too much, which he said he never did”. By this time I was completely hooked to his story was eager to learn more from him and asked him that how did he manage all this? He said that despite all these difficulties, he never lost his cool and kept on enduring the tantrums of the customers, that arrogance of the local authorities, and the bloated egotistical policemen all with a smile on his face because he knew one day everything will change and he will get the just results of his perseverance and hard work. So I again asked that “did you get the results?, and he said with a big wide smile on his face that yes now I have another snack joint in another part of town that my son manages and planning to open up another one very soon”. I was stunned by his reply and said: “that I really appreciate your helping me understand this fact of life by you telling me your experience”. He said, “Saahib, I have always believed that if I can be of help to someone by sharing his grief and rejuvenating him, then my life is complete”. I was too overwhelmed by his response and hugged him and we became friends from that day.

I also learned while walking away from his joint that it is very easy to give up and feel depressed but true grit is to endure and never give up on hope. A few days later, the ongoing obstacle to objective also was smoothened over and I now am very happy doing what I wanted to do.

So I thought of sharing my experience and also saying that we can never afford to give up on life as life is something which is unique and who knows we will get another chance or not. So make the best of it and Never Lose Hope.