Be someone’s alphabet sometime
What is a book but a collection of well written chapters, what is a chapter but a collection of paragraphs, a paragraph is put together using sentences, a sentence is a result of carefully placed words, a word is formed weaving letters together. Just an alphabet can’t even form a word, let alone, a chapter or a book , a book though can’t be formed without alphabets either.
Such is life, we are the centre of our story, the protagonist in an epic saga of endless adventures, or maybe the emperor or empress amidst tragedy clawing our way out to success with courage, perseverance, hard work, righteousness and everything else. All this leads us to a belief that, we are the centre of every story there ever will be. Why should we not be?? After everything we have achieved, or are striving to achieve, after every struggle we have been through, every mountain we have conquered. We tend to forget or overlook the fact that, every one is living their movie. Every one is just as much an emperor in their story as you are in yours. You can’t get everyone’s spotlight, in fact, most of the time we are just bystanders, a side character, just an alphabet in a complete book, as insignificant as maybe the next punctuation I will use in this blog post. It is important though, for the distinction of one sentence from the other, for giving the reader a chance to take a pause.
I have come to understand that even if I am not the main attraction of somebody’s movie, I should play whatever role is asked of me with almost sincerity.
The best example of this I found was in the videogames I played over the years. The NPCs (Non playable characters) who can’t be played as in a videogame, sometimes provide you with the most vital piece of information you require to cross a level in the game, you may have never seen them before that or maybe will never see them past acquiring that piece of advice, in the game but that information was vital at that point in time.
It implies to us too, we may be just a NPC in the Videogame of someone else’s life but we should play our part to the best of our abilities. Maybe that one advice you give to a colleague, that one class you give in a seemingly worthless summer camp, a random moment of kindness shown to a stranger, maybe that single moment of your presence was, or will be the pivot that turns their story into the epic saga they’ve always dreamt it to be.
Live your story, but also be a part of somebody’s maybe because that may also be an exciting little quest in your epic adventure, or maybe not, maybe it’s just a moment that passes you by and you don’t even remember, still you can be the most important side character in his or her chapter. It’s not your story but, be someone’s alphabet sometimes.
The second hand experiences
While writing this, many second hand experiences of a tiny deed or an appearance somewhere, something that was not even noteworthy but did impact someone’s story in a big way, crossed my mind. The bit about NPCs I have already mentioned above, the best of it I found was the princess in super mario she was there at the end of the game what was her contribution to the game almost nothing, she was just the end of the game for many, but then she was also the complete game if you look at it in retrospect.
The first hand experiences
Well I remember that day in the year 2009 it was my 14th day as an undergrad student I was pursuing BASLP and someone walked into the class she felt like Sushmita Sen from “Mai hu Na” she taught us for hardly 2-3 months she was one of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher , not because of her mesmerizing beauty, I can never emulate it, not that I want to anyway, I don’t want to be Sushmita Sen from “Mai hu na” or from any other movie for that matter.
She was someone who made a difference in my life and I hope in everyone else’s who she ever called her student. She was just doing her duty, it was not a big deal for her I guess, she taught us for hardly 3 months, but made me choose a career path without doing anything extraordinary, 3 months don’t even matter when you are 30+ years old, I am of that age, she will be what, around 50 now. She might not even remember me, but she changed my life in a meaningful way.
Years later when I was about to quit teaching, the chapter of my life that was inspired by the events described above, because of some personal issues, another such moment occurred, a student called me up and said after our conversation “Sir you are a good teacher, and a better human being.” Although my wife wouldn’t agree with this statement at all especially the good human being part as I annoy the life out of her, that one statement changed my life again as I continued my career as a teacher. He would not even remember what exactly he said, today, or if he even called me, but that 2 minute conversation changed the way I looked at my current situation, his words continued a chapter that was about to end, he gave me alphabets when I was out of words for my story, he made a difference even though it was my story.
Beyond the Limelight
Characters may come and go in your epic adventure making meaningful changes to your life. People have made such an impact on my life and, they don’t even know what they have done they’ve simply continued living the unsung heroes of my life who don’t even know what they contributed to me as that gesture was the least they could do at that point in time.
My Dadi, was fond of telling me mythological stories, “Mythological stories for an Atheist” was the name I chose for this event in my life. One such story is the basis of this post. The story of Urmila the beloved wife of Lakshma.
Meghanath was the all powerful son of Ravan, a son he wanted to be supreme, had everything , Ravan had intelligence, power, knowledge,etc., and something he didn’t, immortality. As Ravan was a great astrologer he knew what alignment of constellations and planets can achieve this feat for Meghanth, so he commanded all the planets to align in that specific way i.e. the 11th house of Meghnath’s horoscope, but Saturn 🪐 moved to the 12th house and that resulted in him not being an immortal. Most of us know this to be the reason why he was killed by Lakshman in battle, but that’s not the true story, some people know that because of just one planet moving one house, Meghanath was born all powerful and knowledgeable killing him was possible but by a man who hasn’t slept in 14 years, most of us know Lakshman didn’t sleep for 14 years and hence fulfilled this criteria, this is also an incomple story, and here is where Urmila stepped in, while the trio of Ram Sita and Lakshman were setting out for exile Urmila wanted to join Lakshman in his journey, but understanding that it will be difficult for Lakshma to take care of her, when he has vowed to take care and protect Ram and Seeta, Urmila asked the godess of nidra to let her sleep for both Lakshman and herself for the entire exile, 14 long years of sleep was the boon she wished for and was granted to her. So that Lakshman could do what he vowed to.
Had she not wished for this, Lakshman would have slept, had he slept Meghanath would have been invincible. Had he been invincible, I don’t really know how the epic Ramayan would have ended, I don’t see the ending we all wanted had Urmila not slept as a proxy for Lakshman for 14 years.
Such an overlooked character, such a small contribution and such a gigantic difference in an epic story. Urmila might have been the “Fullstop” at the end of the war of Ramayan.
Such is life, play your part in others stories, play it with conviction because one regular, not so important gesture from you may make the most important difference in their lives.
It’s not your story but…. be someone’s alphabet.