NOT YOU, NOT ME; EVERYBODY.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

---John F. Kennedy

The direction that we take in life has a certain level of significance attached to it. However, the purpose that would help us choose a direction is an enigma of its own; an enigma that dominates the life of not you, not me; but everybody, indeed. As time’s progressing, our thoughts are reaching a level that hasn’t been achieved by generations in the past. Our mind revolves around the prospect of an identity, something that may define us for the rest of the world, and this definition has adopted or disguised itself with a word as vague as ‘achievement’. While we go ahead with time and our lives, we see ourselves in a race that has no end to it. But what is this race for; money, power, academic achievement or simply being superior to people around you? Have amongst all this we discovered ourselves and what we really want? Have we ever realized that in the end, it’s just us? So, does the direction matter? Or is it more important to just keep moving ahead, and discovering what our destiny has in store for us? It is all a labyrinth of thoughts, a myriad of questions that get deeper as you think, however the answer is at different levels for each one of us.

When we look at our reflection everyday to see the appearance we’ve been born with, besides seeing the physical existence of us, have we ever tried to delve into our soul? That is something we weren’t born with, but something that we created for ourselves. Yet we are in a dilemma of decision, where it’s difficult to decide what’s more significant. Creating a vision for your heart is an achievement too, isn’t it? Yet, we fail to comprehend it. Generosity, compassion, sincerity and sensitivity are lingering in this race, yet they endure, because they are a part of each one of us. Have we ever thought that we might be running in the direction we haven’t planned for ourselves, but something that circumstances and the opinion of people around us have created for us? Where does our perspective lie among all of this? What is the vision that our heart desires to appreciate? It is within us; because this race is neither with our friends nor our enemies, but time itself. Soldiers, who fight in wars, are those human beings whose vision is based on the spur of the moment. They may be alive in one while their world or means of existence might come to an end in the very next. The uncertainty that prevails their life may be more evident, however it is a part of all of us; not me, not you, but everybody. This is when we plan for years ahead of us, because that’s how the world has been traditionally and to follow a path because that’s how it has been in the past, we ignore the present and again fail to understand the reason behind our choices.

Looking around us, there’s freedom. We are free to do whatever we want. Yet, we have an invisible cage surrounding our internal realm, which is our own creation and something that acts as a chain to freeing ourselves from that burden, from that inconsistency of exploring the life granted to us. Is life merely a way of respiration and tagging along values that worked in the past? Or is it a word for struggle and creativity, or in other words the struggle to create your own world that is as vast as our thoughts are, that lets us explore the hidden virtues of our living. If one of us has understood life as gain or advantage, the other might have ascertained life in contribution and devotion; both aren’t wrong and that itself is how life unveils itself to us; not me, not you; but everybody. It has multiple facets to it, and numerous answers that each one of us can find if we move beyond the boundary we’ve created, because it is the risk in the pursuit of the answer for ourselves that exhibits the real meaning of life and our direction.  The answer is distinct and that is exactly where our purpose lies; the purpose for everybody.

Furthermore, in this day and age where we are more aware of a social life and connectivity with our friends, we are lonelier than before. And therefore, it enhances the importance of people, those who are a part of our life and those that allow us to be expressive and share the same doubt moving along life. The love, friendship and the bond that we cherish with those close to us, is a part of that direction that we take, for their mere existence may help us realize that whether we do it in the right way or not, their affection would remain the same. In turn, now is the time we may term as a period of self-discovery where each and everything and every human being is significant, as the only things that remain with you till the end are knowledge and memories. Appreciating those memories more and being happy around people who are a part of them could make this journey smooth and the direction less fearful to accept and pursue. Amidst this uncertainty of a long life ahead, it is our loved ones who are our source of reassurance, and to tell us that it’s not you, not me; but everybody in this together.

Thus, life, a term that could or could not be comprehended in an entire lifespan, teaches us one thing for sure: the fun lies in the search and not the answer; it is important not to discover but to live. What’s best is to keep moving ahead, and learn from every little thing, to create yourself rather than following someone else, for their direction might be completely discrete than yours, and yet equally important. To connect and learn; to experience and cherish, that is what we’re meant to do, the rest is what comes to you itself. Enjoy the obstacles as much as you appreciate the delight, for it may have a hidden meaning to it. As Albert Einstein said,

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

Keep forging ahead, keep progressing, because in the end you'll reach where you're meant to be and learn that you realized your purpose in life. It will all come to you. 

ZANA AND NADIA: AN INNOCENT'S CRY

My best friends had been telling me to start writing blogs but I never had been able to find a good reason to. However, after I read the book ‘A promise to Nadia’, I acquired the inspiration for my first one. The story of two sisters, Zana and Nadia, fifteen and fourteen years respectively, were tricked by their father to a holiday to Yemen and sold for marriage. Their life changed, a vast transition from a life in Britain, from modern and independent ideologies to a restricted, primitive and abysmal lifestyle. With countless struggles, Zana managed to escape with the help of her mother and a public outcry, after eight long dismal years and fought with awe-inspiring perseverance for her sister’s release.  Considering the fact that I’ve always been sensitive towards the misery of women and the struggle that they have to go through both at a minute and massive level, this story and this perspective was discrete. It affected me in a way no book or story had done before. It made me think; it made me feel the appalling existence of reality to an extent that cannot possibly be expressed with words. I’m unaware of the condition of the current position of this case, nonetheless, I still keep wondering if they’ll ever achieve justice, if ever amongst this make-believe world of truth and righteousness, two women who’ve experienced losing their liberty, dignity and individuality will ever regain their rights to choose, to live and to be happy.  Zana escaped those bonds, maybe because she got the choice and also because she had the courage and the desire for freedom. After all, a girl whose never experienced freedom, is born and bred in a conventional environment, has learnt the traditional ways and has never experienced what it’s like to live like a free human being might not understand the significance of this situation. Nevertheless, to lose something as precious as independence leaves nothing but a dejected individual trying to leap at every opportunity available to make it to the outside world.  To even imagine to try to place oneself in the position that they encountered is a painful one; to imagine a real father escorting his daughters towards a life that would leave them trapped in a foreign country with a routine that they never sought for themselves; to imagine oneself as a young girl who lost all access to her dreams and ambitions for a life with strangers as nothing but a slave, feels terrible. Furthermore, to see a woman like Zana and her persistence despite constant disappointments makes one realize that life is more than the petty issues that we face, its more than just troubles at school or work, it is more dreadful and atrocious than one could ever imagine. Life sometimes can be very unfair. What was Nadia’s fault? Why does she have to neglect the prospect of a better life? Why does she have to be trapped forever because of her children? Why does she have to suffer physical and mental torment? To seek an answer to all these questions is very difficult because Nadia never accepts the fact that she’s suffering, that she’s in agony. It might be because she’s scared to lose her children, because every time someone tries to raise a voice for her, she is tied to her children and threatened to more distress. Maybe, she’s given up all hope to escape? They’re both different and so is their struggle, yet it inspires me, their pain more than anything else to not just appreciate the normal life that we’ve been blessed with, but try to be one of those voices that empathizes with their grievance and the discrimination that they’ve been through. In my perspective, they’ve won to a large extent, more so because many women endure an affliction, however, very few have the audacity to raise a voice, to fight for their rights, to oppose the wrong; as Elizabeth Blackwell said, "If society will not admit of woman's free development, then society must be remodeled’’ and if they’ve done that, they’ve triumphed.