By Pooja Marwah
With the festival of lights just about fading into the shadows, it seems apt to say that ‘fading’ does not imply disappearance. It is merely taking a backseat so that the other festivals can get their due, until it is time for its shimmer and shine to resurface. And in the time that it is away from the limelight, it doesn’t cast a shadow upon the prevailing joy another festivity brings about.
Such is also the truth about relationships. For one to succeed, pulling down another cannot ever be part of the plan for there is ample space for both to co-exist! Lighting up your world by dimming another’s power supply isn’t ever going to get you far, for someday, there will come about another that will light their world by casting a shadow over yours.
We live in a world where knowledge may be easily attainable but maturity is scarce. Like you can’t buy happiness or love, you definitely cannot purchase wisdom and empathy. When everyone around is trying to influence your thoughts, it becomes important to believe in your own instinct. It gets critical to stand out when the rest of the world urges you to stand in. Instead of getting swept away by the wave, what if you learnt to ride it instead? Hold your own ground, perhaps? It wouldn’t entirely be such a bad thing now, would it?
When people around you are clawing their way to get their hands on your power supply, it becomes increasingly vital to stand up and ensure that they don’t get a chance to dim your light. For that light is yours to use, at as high or low a wattage you like it to be. Diwali used to be predominantly a Hindu festival. It came year after year and lit up our skies and our world on the darkest of days. And today, after being declared as a federal holiday in the United States, it stands above all of the rules and regulations of people who tried to dim its sheen. Hundreds of thousands of houses were lit up across North America as people the world over celebrated it. It didn’t see caste or creed, it didn’t see a salary graph. All it focussed on was on its own light.
If there was one takeaway from this article, it would be this – When you become a part of a coterie that focusses on bringing down another, you also open the windows for someone else to repeat the favour! There is enough room for everyone to co-exist in the ways that keep them happy. I mean, you wouldn’t ever understand the value of an angel until you met the devil, would you?
There are no custom made people in this world. But you have to look for the ones that bring out the best in you. The ones who truly have your back, not for climbing up the social ladders but for running up and down them to burn calories!
As our festival of light steps in the shadows for its peers to shine, perhaps it is time we learn that taking a step back helps you accelerate to take a hundred steps forward!
(Pooja Poddar Marwah is an award winning author and Blogger. She writes an contemporary living and offers incisive reflections on the world around us. Her blog, Random Conversations is a go to guide to deal with the myraid stuggles we face each day.)
