Luck has taken a very special place in our life. I do not know when this idea started, but definitely it has existed for long enough to be part of regular discussions. In general, people are either hoping to be lucky or they are busy telling people how lucky others are and they themselves are not. I have heard the same in many different situations, “You are so lucky!”. I do not know why people say this to me. They either somehow know how this system of luck works or it is just that one of those social constructs where people are trying to praise others while keeping themselves low. This behaviour has got nothing to do with luck or anything , it is just that special conditioned mindset of people. These people will go to lengths to show how others are better than them. They will not accept even a single compliment about themselves, but they may praise others on even how good they drink water!. May be some other day, I would write separately about my observations on this behaviour. For today, let’s go back to being lucky. Independent of the reasons why somebody will remark on me being lucky, I listen to their statement and simply accept it.
I do not know how overall system is supposed to be evaluated. Is it suppose to work in some absolute terms or is it more a relative attribute. Either way, it raises questions. If it is absolute, then what is the way to measure it, what are the lows and highs of it and so on. If it is relative then I think it is even more complicated. There is probably a high chance of measuring luck in different categories. If we are finding relations then we probably also need to find some weightage for these different categories. But then, is this weightage same for different people or they are different for each individual ? In general as humans we have some kind of abstract understanding of luck. Very similar to goodness, ethics, human rights etc. Today, when I feel using this abstract understanding, I would say that Yes, I am lucky!
I was lucky to be born to my parents. They helped me in their own way to build my own personality, despite the strange discussions and argument they have to go with me. While my mother showed all her love on the younger one, my father gave me freedom to make my own choices without much pressure. I was lucky to have an elder brother, who helped me make my own efforts to learn, to study and to take my own decisions rather than just giving me readymade answers. I am also lucky to be born in the family, where I happened to see a simple life and understand the basic needs. I learned how life can be beautiful with only few things and people in your life. I realized that just a bread mashed with sugar, called “choori” at our place, can fill your stomach to satisfaction. I was definitely lucky to be born in a country and place where I could see the extremes of the life. Seeing the effort of a laborer working in full summer, where temperature sometimes even touches 50c, with hardly a shade or comfort to go back to, made me realize my own comforts. It also helped me to adjust in all kind of situations. The country, the place provided me all kinds of weathers to help me adjust to different conditions. It helped me to enjoy moving paper boats in streets full of rain water. I enjoyed the cold winters snuggled in heavy quilts. I enjoyed the spring and autumn. The hot summer, made it almost impossible to sleep inside the rooms. But it gave me the chance to sleep under the sky, to watch stars while feeling the coolness of breeze when it passed through wet sheets. I got a chance to live near a railway track. Whenever a train passed, our whole house will feel the vibrations. It helped me so that today I can sleep soundly in most of noisy places. I got a chance to play with earth and run around streets to help me build immunity. I got to taste the pure water pulled from the depths of earth. It tasted sweet like no other water found in bottles or even in earth at other places.
I was lucky to study in a school with a simple system, where games were meant to be enjoyed rather than to defeat others. I was lucky to live in a society that lived by social rules that may be considered hard at other place. However, at the same time, this society did not force itself upon me. I was still free to make my own observations of rituals, ceremonies, behaviour and other things and make my own social views. Once I start to feel about it, I even find myself lucky about simple things. I can walk, hike, play, talk. I am lucky to have all my basic senses still working. I realized that I am so lucky to be able to eat a lots of variety of food without complains or reactions. When I see people around me struggling with basic food items like wheat, nuts, milk, mushrooms etc., it just make me realize what a beautiful and easy life I have. I am also lucky not to be born in a war driven country or live in families of slaves or outcasts. I am lucky to meet different people in my life who were kind to share different views, different perspectives and different stories. All those, I might not have been able to know by myself. I am lucky to have friends who are happy to see and talk to me, to share their time with me. I am lucky that mostly I can get in to debates/arguments without getting upset from different views, ways of talking or reacting. I am really lucky that I can travel around places and learn about different cultures and meet different people, learn few words in different languages. I am also lucky to be able to mostly enjoy that variety, while not changing myself to become them and also not expect them to change to my ways. I am lucky to let the change happen when it plans to happen and accept it.
The list may be almost limitless as I keep on thinking and writing. May be it is because of all those people who keep on telling me about my good luck. May be just by their saying it again and again, it happened this way. However, there is one thing I found my self really lucky about. That is the ability to smile and laugh. I am still not able to smile in all situations, but I have definitely found myself to be able to smile and laugh in lots of situations. It is almost epidemic now. I even smile in situations, that sometimes make other people uncomfortable. But as I said before, I do not know how this metric is calculated. For me , I am definitely lucky!! Many thanks to those who made me realize and contributed to it.
Keep smiling.
Love
Arundeep
Mulla Nasrudin and his friend were talking about their wives. “My wife is very touchy,” said the friend. “The least little thing sets her off.” “You are lucky,” said Nasrudin. “MINE IS A SELF-STARTER.”