Have you ever felt restricted by the place you lived in, or your circumstances? If yes, then this blog post may be of interest to you. What I am about to share are my personal thoughts, beliefs and observations from my journey. It took some courage for me to share this, but here it is.
While growing up in Umred, an idea took hold in my head through impressions from others that somehow you were better or knew more if you lived in a bigger city.
By 13 years of age I was out of the town wanting to play Tennis when everyone else around me was crazy about Cricket, especially the boys. Thankfully, my parents always supported and encouraged us to explore our passions and to create our own paths. Bear with me here please, I will not make it long, promise.
Looking back at it now, I feel Tennis was just an excuse for me to get out of the town and to fulfill this need to know more about the world and to be “better” than who I was. So I started moving from one city to another – bigger and better every time from Nagpur, then Pune and even Delhi. I moved from city to city following the sun everywhere searching for the light which I call knowledge now, passing through days and nights, ups and downs, lows and highs but never quite getting it. My final destination within India was Mumbai, where I found an awesome job and settled for a few years.
My job required me to travel around in many cities in India and paid enough to make regular visits abroad. I decided to kick it up a notch and made my final move to as far away as I could get from my starting point – Umred, almost to the other side of the globe. I remember, it was late in the evening, the sun was just about to set and I was set to switch planes in Frankfurt to get to Calgary. It was the longest evening as I travelled from east to west passing through different time zones, quite literally chasing the sun, searching for the light.
It took me some time and courage to venture out and meet people. I joined an immigrant group and found people were gentle, kind, and courteous. I went for the first interview and was told they wanted to hire me and was even featured in the city’s newspaper. I was soon getting over this feeling of being lesser than anyone else. Life was good for some time and then it all spiraled into something else.
From Canada, I travelled to Norway and lived there for a few months only to come back full circle. My sister suggested opening a school in Umred based on unconventional methods of teaching and philosophies, to which I said – Yes! We introduced interactive boards in the classrooms for students and worked our way through many challenges along the way to make it happen. The timing of my arrival back in Umred was just perfect to help my mother while she battled her illness. And around these trying times, started this blog – Umred.Net to connect back to my roots.
Since I have come back to Canada, I have been trying to make sense of it all. I realized that the answer to my fears was in the word or a greeting that is generally thrown around everywhere where I was born but is rarely ever practiced in its essence. “Namaste” – which in Sanskrit means
I feel there is within each of us this divine presence which makes all of us special and equal in different ways no matter where you are. We are all in this together as equals deserving of respect and love. When you find the truth in that, you will stop competing – with yourself and others and find the light that has been always there within you. You will no longer see yourself as inferior to others or see others as inferior to you. It is easier then to trust that light and break free of the prison of your own limitations to achieve whatever you intend to.
And this is true in my experience, not just because of your location, but for any other self-imposed limitations that we or society have placed upon us – whether your limitations are based on the place you come from, the colour of your skin, how much money you have in the bank, what illnesses you are working with, or anything else. Follow your passion and remember that circumstances don’t matter, only your thoughts and beliefs do.
