Have you ever felt perturbed by something as insignificant as a cup of tea that didn’t taste as good as you had thought it would (had to quote chai, my friends understand why!) or a visit to a relative that didn’t turn out to be quite as exciting as you had imagined (forgive me, it actually never does!). Or by something more critical, let’s say missing a bus and as a result arriving late at wherever one is supposed to be. It’s only a rhetorical question which you don’t have to answer. You may proceed…

Let’s take a statistical leap (just to put things in perspective). Seven out of ten times, we have to admit, an unexpected outcome in hindsight proves to be far more appropriate and significant than the one we had hastily foreseen earlier. Even for the remaining three instances it ends up opening a welcome prospect later, the good of which may not become immediately apparent to us. It’s partly human to want instant gratification, agreed. But that doesn’t stop us from exploring the question from an existential plane i.e., why does this have to happen and how’s it important?

A keen insight shows us that ordinary is the unexciting foundation on which the extraordinary is built (literally as well as figuratively). You missed that bus on the street, if not for unknowingly avoiding an imminent mishap, because it was an ordinary trigger unleashing a chain of events that would lead to something extraordinary in store for you. Extrapolate this to the countless little misses you encounter in everyday life and it creates the conditions for a life which is no longer mundane or lacks the necessary complexity. What constitutes a meaningful life; a philosopher may not have a universal answer to this question because meaning itself is as diverse as the very individuals who carry it. But one thing is for sure. Meaning is never constant. It’s fleeting. Sometimes even elusive and vague.

The most successful people around us come face to face with this incapacitating doubt-inducing question of meaning as much as the rest of us. Ambition and worldly accomplishments never serve to fill the ever-present desire for something transcendent. It’s a void that can only be occupied by something above and beyond. But the hard outward necessity of life usually keeps our mind distracted well enough to not let it digress into deeper abstract ideas and we continue to carry on with our routine lives; keeping up appearances, showing up for work, socializing and paying bills for whatever it’s worth. But it’s precisely here where the mystery of life starts to unravel itself. In this process of juggling with the mundane, we suddenly and unexpectedly come across the abstruse– the events that, while momentarily fleeing our cognition, shape our ordinary lives into an extra-ordinary wholeness. It’s here the unseen hand of fate begins to appear as a perfect architect, bringing together elements of our being as if into a perfect harmony while we simultaneously contemplate the superfluity of our preconceived ideals. And most of this happens regardless of our shallowly constructed metrics of social importance. One doesn’t need to be an erudite scholar or a wealthy capitalist to register such an experience but that it happens for anyone and everyone while only the outward forms may vary. This necessarily implies that such experiences are very personal and shared at the same time but don’t have to be of consequence for everyone uniformly.

A crippling setback on an important journey that puts you down on your knees but eventually turns out to be an opportunity for a much needed reorientation. An unexpected loss which, in spite of your mourning, creates room for you to discover your own self or a serendipitous other. Or an inexplicable failure that confounds and costs you much of your hard earned self-worth but ultimately leaves you with an enduring clarity which couldn’t have been achieved otherwise. These and many such commonplace occurrences which act as providentially arranged course corrections alter our lives for good and allow us to view ourselves and our surroundings with a renewed perspective and pragmaticism.

Now that we have discussed the “why” part of the question asked at the beginning the “how” still lingers long. How is it then important? If we have succeeded in doing at least some justice to the subject, you should already be able to foresee the answer.

It’s an empirical fact that hardship and ease have a cyclical relationship with one following the other in an ever-repeating quest. We may as well substitute the ease for the mundane and the hardship for the abstruse (life changing moments are unquestionably hard and ease, to tell the truth, is a bit boring!) and we would see a pattern emerging from the deep. Understanding the underlying pattern of this perpetual cycle positions one to anticipate the forthcoming harm and defend against its avoidable contingencies with greater ease. Additionally, by providing a glimpse at the wheels turning within the fate engine it allows us to shift our focus on the process rather than the outcome fostering a sense of overall well being.

Tawheed Yousuf, Data Scientist at Tata Steel was participant GKSC Bootcamp

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