Discover The Real You

It was a beautiful day, painted with the colors of my birthday celebration, and showered with the love of all my dear ones through their wishes, gifts, and surprises since midnight. I didn’t have enough sleep. I didn’t find time to have my breakfast. But it made no difference today. I was happy and I felt energetic with whatever was happening around me since morning.

I was done with my day, an amazing day; which remains in my memories forever. I could feel my steps as I was walking on the road lit with golden rays of sunset, towards my hostel gate. But I was lost somewhere with strange thoughts in my mind for half an hour. I was surrounded by my buddies who made my day so special by celebrating my birthday. But I was unable to feel their presence beside me.

“Is birthday just about wishes, parties, fun time with friends and all? Is this day meant to look beautiful or to spend more money than other days? Is it to have an extra holiday every year? The answer is absolutely NO. Then why? Why am I celebrating my birthday? What’s special in it to celebrate?” I was immersed in an ocean of thoughts.

“Happy birthday, didi!” One of my juniors greeted me with a cup of tea in her hand.

“Where are you? Respond to her.” My friend got me out of that ocean by patting on my shoulder.

I looked up and said, “Thank you, dear!” with an artificial smile on my face.

Again, within no time I got back to my ocean not knowing when and how to get out of it. I just walked towards my room along the corridor from the real world to the virtual world of my own.

“Each and every creature that exists on this earth has been born, I too. What’s special in it to celebrate? If my mom has delivered me a few hours /a few days earlier/later my birthday might be some other day. It’s that simple. Am I celebrating my birthday to make people know that this is my birthday? Even, if I say some other date, they consider it as my birthday, right? This date is of no importance at all.”

I entered my room and sat on the bed. In front of me, I found my reflection on a glass window. I kept staring at it. Meanwhile, there started raining and my reflection was fading away. Immediately I stood up with a jerk.

“What does it mean? Even this body that I carry always is merely my physical representation. Then who am I and why do I exist? I don’t have any answers. Why am I thinking like this?”

“Hey, what are you doing here? You like the view of our hostel garden while raining right! Come let’s go.” My roommate came in and took me out holding my hand. The day on which I joined my college, I admired my hostel than the college because of its nature’s beauty. I simply stood there watching the rain.

“The cool wind flowing with ease is reinventing my mood. Each drop of rain touching the soil fills the air with a perfume that adds freshness to life on earth. Even my heartbeat is syncing with the rhythm of the rain. We do decorate everything with flowers, but the credit for decorating flowers and leaves goes to those little dews that are left after the rain on them. I can hear the streams of tiny canals flowing; which will finally merge into rivers and oceans. From there stealing the sun’s wealth, the same streams turn into steam eventually forming the clouds. This is the cycle of the rain that I am watching.”

I suddenly remembered my grandma’s words, ‘We all are in the cycle of birth and death. Karma is the only thing that frees us from this cycle.’

“Yes, absolutely true. I got answers to all my questions. Birthday may be the most special day in everyone’s life. It is special to our dear ones too. What if our birthday becomes special to thousands of people? I am not talking about all those who were born on the same date. I am speaking about those people who are strangers to us, have not met us even once in their life, but still celebrating our birthday on our name as a special day. Is that possible? Yes, it is possible if we realize that not the days or dates, but deeds do matter. We do celebrate Krishnashtami, Vinayakachavithi and Christmas every year. We are given holidays on Gandhi Jayanti, Ambedkar Jayanthi… Why so? The answer is their selfless deeds.

Occasions are special because of someone’s deeds before. Only deeds can make the days special. The days and dates are just meant to remember those deeds and to learn from them.

It doesn’t mean that we must engage ourselves with public service. No need to make our birthday so special for such a huge count of people. But we must make it special for ourselves by fulfilling our responsibilities towards our family, friends and dear ones during the whole year. This is the day to thank the ones who gave us birth and introduced this world to us.” I thought to myself.

I closed my eyes as I found no limits to my happiness and started moving towards the rain widening my hands.

“Hey, your birthday dress will be spoiled? Stop there.” My roommate shouted. But only I knew that no one could stop me today.

As the drops of the rain started soaking me, I could hear my inner voice saying,

“Let me discover myself. Let me explore myself. What is the reason behind my birth? What is the purpose of my life? Why am I alive? What is my worth? What is my identity, my own identity? Who am I? Let me find out that ‘something special’ hidden within me. The time has come to get back and look at my own journey till now. To know a little about the destination that I am going to reach in this journey of life. To know myself at a deeper level”.

 

Image source: Bepanah & www.google.com