Below is an excerpt from a conversation between a stupid young girl, and a wise old guy :
"She : So what would you call a turning point in your life?
He : I have had so many turning points in life. Primarily one, when I was in London in my B school, which I have told you about. But these days I feel like am changing a lot.. I am having lots of turning points... Am not the same person that I was, at the start of this ride... I look back to my self a few days back, a few hours back and even a few minutes back and laugh of how I had been.. I am changing at a higher frequency..
She : Hmmm.. Yeah we all keep changing all the time right? We all have times when we look back and think how weird we had been.."
End of that line of conversation.. She understood his words.. cooked up a smart reply too.. for she was the know-it-all.. But she never realized it.. Funny part was.. She didn't realize that she didn't realize his words!
Fast forward, a few months.. The young girl and the old man have traversed quite far from where they were.. Where they were, they know not.. Where they are going to, they know not.. Still the journey has been going on. And it's not a comfortable journey.. No journey that is worth talking about is easy..specially when it is a learning curve with a tough tutor.. And suddenly it hits that girl! What she had heard.. She didn't react this time.. She responded.. for she saw in a new light.. The same wise old words in a language she hadn't known before..
She looked back into her line of questioning "what do you call a turning point in your life?".. Why did she ask that? Did she think that growing up, everyone has got that one point where there is a twist in the tale? Most of us side with her right? In how many interviews had famous people been asked this very question, worded differently? We all assume that excellence is borne out of that one eureka moment!! Mostly those moments are very difficult situations.. And it would definitely make sense to understand how people respond to such moments, so that we can learn from them right? Most successful people do answer these questions with elan, sharing one of their precious moments with us.. But what only a few people let us know is our lives are not shaped by 'one turning point'. It's a topsy turvy journey where every fork that lead to us this point matters. It matters that she asked that question that day and it matters that she got herself rethinking about the very same question, a few months down the lane.. She realized that while we are looking forward to that interesting twist in the tale , we traverse oblivious to the subtle and significant curves of life.. It hit her! The biggest twist in the tale is that there is no single twist in the tale!!
And with this new twist, she fires her laptop to pen down her newly found 'wisdom'!. The stupid young girl was a fool then.. And she is a fool now.. Then, she was a fool who thought she was wise.. Now, she is a fool who knows she is a fool..! :)
Without any further twists to your minds..
She signs off..
Yours Foolishly,
Maha!
"She : So what would you call a turning point in your life?
He : I have had so many turning points in life. Primarily one, when I was in London in my B school, which I have told you about. But these days I feel like am changing a lot.. I am having lots of turning points... Am not the same person that I was, at the start of this ride... I look back to my self a few days back, a few hours back and even a few minutes back and laugh of how I had been.. I am changing at a higher frequency..
She : Hmmm.. Yeah we all keep changing all the time right? We all have times when we look back and think how weird we had been.."
End of that line of conversation.. She understood his words.. cooked up a smart reply too.. for she was the know-it-all.. But she never realized it.. Funny part was.. She didn't realize that she didn't realize his words!
Fast forward, a few months.. The young girl and the old man have traversed quite far from where they were.. Where they were, they know not.. Where they are going to, they know not.. Still the journey has been going on. And it's not a comfortable journey.. No journey that is worth talking about is easy..specially when it is a learning curve with a tough tutor.. And suddenly it hits that girl! What she had heard.. She didn't react this time.. She responded.. for she saw in a new light.. The same wise old words in a language she hadn't known before..
She looked back into her line of questioning "what do you call a turning point in your life?".. Why did she ask that? Did she think that growing up, everyone has got that one point where there is a twist in the tale? Most of us side with her right? In how many interviews had famous people been asked this very question, worded differently? We all assume that excellence is borne out of that one eureka moment!! Mostly those moments are very difficult situations.. And it would definitely make sense to understand how people respond to such moments, so that we can learn from them right? Most successful people do answer these questions with elan, sharing one of their precious moments with us.. But what only a few people let us know is our lives are not shaped by 'one turning point'. It's a topsy turvy journey where every fork that lead to us this point matters. It matters that she asked that question that day and it matters that she got herself rethinking about the very same question, a few months down the lane.. She realized that while we are looking forward to that interesting twist in the tale , we traverse oblivious to the subtle and significant curves of life.. It hit her! The biggest twist in the tale is that there is no single twist in the tale!!
And with this new twist, she fires her laptop to pen down her newly found 'wisdom'!. The stupid young girl was a fool then.. And she is a fool now.. Then, she was a fool who thought she was wise.. Now, she is a fool who knows she is a fool..! :)
Without any further twists to your minds..
She signs off..
Yours Foolishly,
Maha!
A beautiful tale !
ReplyDeleteIndeed! :)
ReplyDelete