“Who is your inspiration, child ?” I remember someone asked me this when I was little. “A.P.J. Abdul Kalam” I had replied then, very proudly. Though as far as I know myself, it was not the truth. It was simply an automatic reply that always came on my tongue whenever someone asked me about my inspiration for I had heard everyone else near me saying the same name.
In fact at that age I didn’t even know just what this man had done to be called my inspiration by me. I was just following what everyone did. In the coming years, the question remained the same but my answers changed as quickly as the weather. Whoever was popular became my inspiration.
You may not understand it now but this was simply a child’s yearning to look cool, to stand out from his/her peers, to let them know such a big person is his/her inspiration so he/she must also be a great or at least wise person. Just that desire led me to repeat many names on many occasions.
But now that I think about this question “Who is your inspiration ?” I cannot simply answer those names like I did in my childhood. It is a strange thing knowing what these great people have done for the country, for the world and still not being able to call them my inspiration.
In fact what is inspiration ? Is it the same feeling for every person ? Is it that feeling you get when you are just one step away from your success or that feeling which you get to lift yourself from the gutter to jump on the very first step of the stairs of your success ? Just what is Inspiration ? I am sorry but I don’t have a definite answer except this one line ,”My inspiration keeps me moving forward.” Just this and nothing else.
But as I, in my personal life, am a very confused person in nature. So you may very well laugh but to tell you the truth, I am not even sure of what keeps me moving forward.
Now I am sitting on the terrace of my home, Sun is shining and now any sane person would want a peaceful environment to sit and just rest for a while but here, I can hear so much noise – of vehicles, of vendors, of people’s chattering and I don’t dislike anything of it. You may be wondering why am I telling you all this while the question was that of my inspiration.
Well, I am doing it to let you know that this is my real life, my everyday life and there is no place for any big celebrity here like there is in social media. So if I start thinking about my inspiration or what keeps me moving then it is always something related to my day-to-day life and not to some famous but unconnected person. And like a machine, I also don’t have programs like “just THIS and this ONE person or situation is your motivation and NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS in your life in the future, it will remain the SAME.”
Many have inspired me. In my life, I have seen many things that kept me moving forward, met some people who have inspired me (although many tried to demotivate me too), evoked a sense of life in my dull past and even from the still nature, I have gotten the timely inspiration. So not just one person or thing, I have in fact a list of inspirations. And the very first name on this list is that of my mother.
I know it has also become a typical answer nowadays. To call your mother your inspiration wherever asked about it is too common to be true but what can I do if I am in the same situation too. My mother is my inspiration not just because she lets me study (me being a girl in a traditional area) but because she has fought in her life bravely, fought with my father – an alcoholic man who only knew how to abuse her. She saved us (me and my brother) from hell, worked day and night, scolded us but cared for us. So she has always been the one person that becomes my motivation, my inspiration whenever I am down.
She once told me, “Shanu, study well, become self-reliant so that your life won’t be like mine.” That one sentence has entered my mind, my heart, my soul. Whenever I struggle, I remember why I need to keep going, for a better life, whenever I get distracted or forget my goal, I remember why I need to complete it in the first place, for a better life. And who doesn’t want a better life for himself, who doesn’t ? But I do not want a better life only for myself but also for her. I want to give her a sweet home she had once desired but never got, a peaceful life she had once very much wanted but never got. It is my dream to fulfill her dreams. This desire keeps me moving and because this desire is born due to her, she is my biggest motivation.
But there are times too when I start to think selfishly and want to give up. But God won’t let me because He has sent many people around me to keep me motivated but to catch those hints and get inspired from them is my own work and I do that quite honestly.
First, I see a disabled person everyday, whenever I go for an evening walk, working in some electrician shop. He has lost one leg but he still keeps moving here and there, taking this instrument or another and does so remarkable a job that the shop has become a renowned shop now. It is not that I am prejudiced against disabled people but, still may be due to the environment or due to the education I received, the very first thing that comes in my mind seeing him is why is he still working in such a condition ? Why ? And this ‘why’ hits hard ? Why you may ask too. It is very obvious from his clothes that he is a poor person. Now think, a poor person, who is disabled, is working so what else could be the reason except the need to take care of a family or a child or simply his own strong, very strong desire to live because of the realization of the value of human life. Whatever the reason be, it is much more inspiring to me than those quotes I read on social media which usually have a million likes. Then I get confused.
Why don’t people look in their surroundings and get inspired instead of trying to find inspiration online. To look cool again, maybe…..
But like I said earlier, I get inspiration from my day-to-day life and this one person is not the only person in my life and so not the only inspiration of mine. In my evening walks, I have seen people in slum areas near railway tracks working with candle light and yet children there play so happily, even in those situations. Think about it. Some older children help their parents with work. Their task is always difficult for their age. A child in a rich mansion gets easily depressed over his phone not being an iPhone but these children cannot be like that.
The food they get is not good. The clothes they wear are not good. Simply, their life is not good. Then “Why is everyone doing such hard work, living such worst lives but still living ?” Ask yourself this question and I assure you that the answer will become your lifetime motivation. I asked myself too, I compared my life to theirs and then I took the hint. I thought only if I had money, I would be able to help them, fulfill that child’s wish whom I heard asking for an ice-cream but he couldn’t have it. But money doesn’t grow on trees like I used to believe in childhood but we have to work hard to get it. So whenever I remember those faces, I automatically get up and start doing my task, start doing things that will help me fulfill my dream, fulfill others’ dreams.
This all was big talk till now but there is also a child inside me who gets motivated from very little things that many people may not even notice.
For example – the newspaper boy who comes in early morning everyday to bring newspapers and that too in so much cold weather. (It is quite cold here in the early morning.) He inspires me. cause he is struggling but he is fighting and I will fight too.
The school children who come and go from one coaching to another just to get their desired marks. Those who go to give many examinations in hopes of getting a job, who fail but try again and again for the hope is alive, they are fighting and I will too.
That injured dog who usually stays near my college. He is so thin that his bones are sticking out but I can see him finding food in the dustbin can or here and there. If for nobody else then at least for him, I want to become someone capable, capable enough to bring happiness in my life and into the lives of those I have seen struggling. Just this one wish keeps me moving.
This wish is due to the things I have seen in my life, So if someone asked me now, “Who or what is your biggest motivation, dear ?” I can proudly say, “My own life is my biggest inspiration.”
By: Shivangi
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