Acceptance is Bliss!

Watching the sunset at Juhu beach is such a pretty sight. But today was different for him. He was finding difficult to find happiness is anything.

All alone in the crowd, he was wondering how things went wrong. Never in the last 10 years of his life had he finished outside the top 3 in his school. Now he had to see 60% marks, that too due to very bad fever during exam time.

All around him today, he could just see happy faces; faces of all his friends who scored 80’s and 90’s discussing about the best colleges in the city. He could see his friends trying to sympathize with him but they couldn’t avoid the hint of pride they possessed due to scoring more marks than their regular topper.

He had lots of questions. Why did God punish me for no fault of mine? Don’t I deserve to be in a good college after all this effort? If at all I had to fall sick, why the boards, why not some stupid unit test?

There’s one thing about defeat and most of the people in the world. After a failure, firstly people try to find who’s to blame. If no answer, they check whether they themselves are to blamed, if both answers are no, they find defeat very difficult to digest. I feel it that way and dunno how many of you agree about it.

One more thing about defeat, you just need a moment to get over it, a moment of ‘acceptance’. He had found it! He accepted reality and things appeared to be different suddenly.

He now smiled at the 60% marks, they were his own after all. He now knew that he would be happier with securing admission is a low profile college rather than the frustrated students who get their name printed in the newspaper saying 90% and still no admission. He felt that somewhere God must have a faith in him that he’ll be at his best and have a bright future despite going to a mediocre college. He was also thankful to face defeat so early in his life. This will make him a stronger person to cope up with problems that may surface in the future. People so often face defeat at the most important stage of their career that they can’t cope up with it, commit suicide and do other such stupid things. He was happy that he came out of depression so early. Such a powerful thing acceptance of reality is!

He now knows that happiness doesn’t come in a box wrapped with gelatin paper saying congrats! Happiness is much more than that. He knows now, who his true friends are and the other ones who are there for their selfish needs. Victory would have been sweeter, but for a change he was savoring defeat.

He now knows there are times in life when you have to pay a price even if you haven’t done a mistake. Everything isn’t fair always. After the storm, you have to start collecting the shattered pieces and start living. Crying over the lost things is just a waste of time.

Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections!!!!

Title credit goes to Yugandhar, I couldn't find any other well suited.

True Lies

In friendship, sometimes there are times when you are confused whether to speak out the bitter truth or to conceal it. Things are worse when it comes to your best friend. You know he or she is going wrong yet telling the truth might make things worse. Like the times when your friend asks you how’s the dress he’s wearing. The dress combi might be bizarre, but saying that directly might not seem proper. Ok the dress thing is a small issue, but when it comes to important issues, the problem becomes more complicated.

If you do not point out your friend’s mistakes and someday he himself realizes them, he’ll feel really bad about you. Why didn’t you confess the truth earlier? What kinda friend are you? On the other hand, if you are frank enough to tell the mistake, the other person might not take it the right way. People sometimes find it difficult to believe that they are wrong. Being too straightforward might actually come in the way of a beautiful friendship. Also, we have to be very careful in the way we confess out the truth so that it doesn’t appear to be hurting.

You need both types of friends. Some to praise you during your difficult times (You know your life’s a mess, still there’s someone thinking you are better off) and some people to scold you for your smallest mistakes. I’m glad I have both variants of friends. It’s difficult to say which ones are more right.

But there’s one thing. Being frank at truthful at such times requires guts. It requires accepting the risk of being misunderstood. It requires saying the harsh reality knowing that it might jeopardize your friendship. It requires overcoming the temptation of avoiding the topic instead of telling the truth.

I think I’d be glad if my friends be truthful to me, even if the truth is harsh. False praise and admiration will make me happy for the moment, but will do more harm than good in the long run.

Despite this view, sometimes I choose not to spill out the harsh truth. It’s the fear of losing good friends that keeps me holding….