Friday, August 8, 2008

Our life and our attitude

I was forwarded this article by a friend and I was speechless by the time I had moved on to the 4th paragraph of the article. I was in total awe of this young lad, Naga Naresh Karuturi, and so overwhelmed reading what he had gone through. And I felt so petty about myself thinking how much complaining I do for little little things. And here was this 21 year old who is so happy, so content and so thankful to God for planning out everything for him.

I'm sure 99% of us would have been complaining and cribbing and cursing God if any of us would have gone through what this guy did.

What to do you feel when you see this pic?

I stared at it for god knows how long. And my emotions changed from being shocked to being sympathetic to total admiration for this young chap.

Can you see that smile on his face? Can you see that confidence in himself? Can you feel the contentment? For a moment I had felt sympathetic towards Naresh but within moments I realized that I would be demeaning him and his attitude if I sympathize with him. When he never sympathized with himself how can I?

Once you have read the article and seen all the pictures you will also probably feel what I felt at the end of it.

Its all in the attitude! In the outlook you decide to take for anything in life. Someone would have taken such an accident as a curse and done nothing and be living on peoples pity and sympathy. So it depends totally on us how we want to be and how we want others to feel about us. I know it requires lot of will and I'm not sure if I would have had it if I had myself been in his shoes.

And he is not the only one who has risen above such circumstances and created a place for himself in this world. And every time I read about such people I wonder about us lucky people. Yeah. I think we are just plain lucky. But its people like Naresh who actually build their life from scratch. And then I wonder what have I actually done to deserve such a good life that I've? And do we ever feel thankful to God about it? Or do we take it for granted?

My answer definitely would be a yes for the second question. Yes I've never treasured what I've or been thankful for it. Yes I've taken almost everything for granted. And I need to change my attitude towards life. For sure.

6 comments:

  1. Well, I m glad you wrote about it. I got it as a forwarded email too. By the time I reached the end of this mail and by the time I had finished looking at all his pictures, I was counting my blessings too. God bless this child!I was simply awed by his smile, such a genuine smile, such a thankful smile - for that Almighty who gave him such a great courage and positive thinking.

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  2. :) good reading about him.

    i often wonder if emotional/mental setbacks are equally spirit-breaking as a physical setback?

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  3. Such a positive mind! And although he makes all sound so easy, but it surely was a piece of hard work, mentally and physically for him. As a parent myself, I realise that it must have been so tough on the parents too. They must have needed the same strength and positive attitude in life too.

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  4. Cribbing only makes the situation worse.

    He sets a good example :)

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  5. brilliantly put!!.... and what changed my attitude to life and disability was when i witnessed an event from the Special Olympics a few years ago. it was an absolutely chilling true lesson in compassion and humanity.

    i seriously think that we can turn these terrorists around if we make them sit through the entire screening of the special olympics... i am sure these terrorists will subconsciously relate to the disable participants who are trying and breaking out of the physical barriers their lives are chained in.... and i am seriously not kidding!

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  6. nice introspection dude :-)
    good to see that we share names

    -anirudh

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