As I lay cuddled in my mother’s arms, both my parents smiled in joy as I opened my eyes. Never in their life would they have dreamt of what was to come. I was the third of their four sons who grew with the same love and care of two parents but appeared to be an aberration as I found myself wanting and struggling during my developmental years. I felt disappointed in myself and almost started to believe that nothing I could do right and and was a curse on my family whose three other children became the envy of every parent who knew us as they reaped successes.
My parents never even once made a comparison and as I stumbled and fell many a times, they picked me up and helped me to inch my way forward. There was a time when I was so angry with my mother, after being so riddled with failures in my teenage years, I shouted back at her for trying to push me to do better. I told her that I was not meant to succeed and she should feel satisfied with her three other children who in my eyes were geniuses. She told me then which I remember till date that God has a reason for my birth and I will realize my purpose with her prayers. She said the goodness in me will see me through the difficult times. I didn’t believe her then as there was nothing I had done to feel proud of.
After I graduated from Medical School, I started my own practice even though I felt that my knowledge and skills to treat was on shaky grounds. But I became a success story in a short period of time that confused some of the gold medalists in my class who were struggling to build on their strengths. They came to me and asked me to help them improve and build their practice. For the first time I saw myself as the shining star but I attribute the glow to my parents especially my mother for her strong belief in me and never even once wavering in her thinking of a bright future for me.
I got married to the woman I fell in love with and till date my second older brother believes and has joked many a times that if I did one thing right in my life, it was finding the best person I could have dreamt of and getting married to her. My success in practice did not lead to other successes. There were many failures, many of them my own making which eroded the confidence I developed painstakingly and began to haunt me with memories of my growing years. The failures appeared to make the “self made prophecy” move from my belief to becoming real.
My wife kept faith in me and stood by me even as I put her through the difficult times. She encouraged me, battled with me and loved me but never once gave up on me. She never let me accept failure as a finality even as I experienced them. She kept telling that failure was not an option we could accept and there was only one way forward and that is to succeed. It was no more about me as I had a family and I could not in good faith destroy the hopes and dreams of everyone just because I found it too hard to try. Just like the way my mother said that goodness in me will see me through difficult times, my wife kept telling me that our good deeds will not let us succumb to fate.
Looking back all through my 64 years, the two women in my life taught me to never give up and have secured the faith in me. All through the years my wife and I raised our kids, I kept my faith in them and told them that I believed in them and how proud I was to be their dad. I gave them the hope when they struggled, told them that success is more in their fulfillment of their life purpose and not measured by their achievement alone. Failures are a part of learning curve and to never get bogged down. Rest if you must but never quit is what I want them to believe. I have given them enough of a reason to understand that tough times don’t last but tough people do. It all began with the faith my loved ones had on me. It is my hardened belief that my faith on my children will make them stronger and help them to realize their dream. It is faith that we have that will turn a mulberry leaf into satin. It is faith that I have come to understand better.