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| “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” ― Jim Butcher |
Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
Well, maybe you should.
31st January 2006
It was the day I finally decided to start studying for placements which were due in a month. I was in the 3rd year of Engineering and unlike the others, I hadn’t even started preparing yet. But there was still time. I would just go down to the mess, have dinner and attempt a night out, which in Engineering lingo meant study throughout the night.
Well, little did I know then that a night out I would certainly have but not at all in the way I had imagined.
Present day
Sometimes the best of things can happen to you in the weirdest of ways possible.
Given a choice, which would you pick- Joy or Sadness?
The former, surely? I would too. But don’t you think that at times the sadness which precedes joy makes it even more worthwhile?
Think about it.
That crushing feeling in living away from your family also brings with it the realization that there are people in your life whom you love and who love you back.
Those tears at failing to achieve something is also accompanied by that warm feeling of having a drive in life, something which eggs on you to do better and better always.
That disappointment at losing a game comes with the satisfaction of having tried your best.
That guilt at having done something wrong is followed by the relief at having repented, the realization that it was wrong.
Notice how something bad is always followed by something good.
Yes, that cliched sweet are the uses of adversity philosophy is actually true, something I found out thanks to an accident which happened 10 years back.
It was something which at that point in time I thought was all bad. But now that I look back, I realize how thankful I am for it to have come to pass.
31st January 2006
On my way back to my room after dinner, I stopped at one of my senior’s. It was cold, the coiled room heater was on and I found a seat next to it. There were four of us there that day. Two seniors and my roommate apart from myself. We started talking about companies which were about to visit our campus, how underprepared we were and then about movies we were going to see that weekend. And then suddenly, just like that, in the middle of a conversation, the long skirt I was wearing caught fire.
Everything happened so fast that for a fleeting moment I thought fire would be my undoing. I was going to die. Yes, that thought crossed my mind. I stood up, the fire engulfed my legs and nobody knew what to do. We were all scared, shocked, almost numb.
But almost as a message from God, an idea struck and I started rolling on the floor to put the blaze out. Thankfully, it worked and I lived to tell the tale. How could I die? My life was just about to begin. Yes, my thighs were badly burnt and I suffered for a long time after that day but it was all in preparation for a wonderful beginning in my life.
Present Day
It has been 10 years since that fateful night. The pain, the burns all of those seem hazy and inconsequential in comparison to what I remember about that night.
That night culminated to this life I have today with S. That night is more about the memory of waking up to S near my hospital bed. That night is about the beginning of something that completely changed the course of my life.
Let you in on a secret?
Every guy from my year in college made it a point to visit the hospital while I was there. No, not really to see me. Well, maybe seeing me was part of the bigger plan, the plan to find a girlfriend for themselves, start a new love story because all the girls from the girls’ hostel would definitely be there. No, it wasn’t a bad thing because it was college life after all. But things really didn’t go as planned, sadly for them. What happened, on the contrary, was a love story between the unlikeliest of pairings.
Yes, being burnt wasn’t so bad after all. The scars to this day remind me of how an accident brought S into my life.
Sometimes I think,
If my skirt hadn’t caught fire that night, S and I would probably have never got together.
If I had worn jeans instead of that skirt then the fire fiasco wouldn’t have happened and again I wouldn’t have had this life with S.
A rather twisted way of looking at things, I know. But it’s probably true. In fact, I know it is certainly true.
It is strange how in spite of so much pain and suffering, all I remember about this incident is the start of something wonderful with S. The human mind, and of course the heart, work in mysterious ways. How they remember the good and just push the hurt, pain and struggles into the background. Strange but marvelous, right?
Well, I guess happy anniversary to me!
I leave you today with this quote to reflect upon.
Always in life bad times will lead to great times. - M. Night Shyamalan
