COVID-19

‘Fir Muskurayega India’ - India will Smile Again

Life can be brutal at times and get you down but you can’t be on a life journey without getting through some tough times.

ByFr Hans Igness

Updated 23 May 2020, 2:04 pm

Representational image (PHOTO: Pixabay)
Representational image (PHOTO: Pixabay)

We all watch the news and see the dark side of COVID-19, which includes devastating numbers of positive cases and deaths, financial struggles, disturbing scenes of migrants and more. This is a strange and even scary time that we are living with. Let’s face it. Life can be brutal at times and get you down but you can’t be on a life journey without getting through some tough times. In the year 2019, Assam suffered a major flood situation, wherein, around 80 people lost their lives, and more than 5 lakh people were affected during the flood. It was in the month of August, Halicharan Narzarythe 25-year old Assam lad, one of the most prolific midfielders (Football)of the present day, said during an interview,“I want to make Assam smile again. Assam has suffered a lot from the recent floods. But it’s time to make it (Assam) smile again.” Bollywood’s hope anthem ‘Muskurayega India’,aims to send out the message that the country will smile again if the country supports each other in the current crisis situation. Dear friends, in this article, I will give you an idea about you how to rediscover your smile, put things into correct perspective, regroup and turn your tears into smiles again.

Rediscover your smile

There is a saying, ‘If life gives you 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile’. It’s important to find reasons to smile and laugh during dark times. Keep your morale up, and the morale of your family, colleagues and employees. When you open your eyes and ears to see and hear good, you’ll start to notice even the smallest random acts of kindness happening around you. That alone is a good reason to smile. Many people, in general, are finding ways to give backjoy and kindness, often at their own personal sacrifice. So, there is surely quite a bit of “good” happening around us. It’s hard to rediscover your smile when you are hurt inside. But we need to move on and learn to forgive. Stop fretting, let go, and move on.  You can’t change the past, but you most assuredly can change your future. Cheer up! Believe in yourself and never ever give up from continuing to be the best you can be! Recently, Indian skipper ViratKohli while spending quality time withhis actress wife Anushka said in a message (social media account), that their smiles might be fake at times of distress, but they are not. Yes, it’s simply not worth being sad! A smile is very cheap, beautiful and contagious and spreads joy and happiness. And when you give a smile away, you get one back in return from all those you come across. Hence smile is a beautiful gift, best medicine and a sharp tool of changing and healing the world.

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Put things into correct perspective

We often hear a common remedyfor alleviating our anxiety and pain that is putting things into right perspective. We can think of events that happened yesterday, a week ago, a decade ago, and so on. Likewise, we can imagine a future of tomorrow, next month, or twenty years from now. Imagine yourself and your life a year from now. You might not know exactly what this will look like, but do your best to envision what you might be doing, how you’ll be behaving, who you’ll be interacting with, etc. The key to shifting your perspective is to remember what you’re aiming for. For example: A job where you perform habitual tasks is going to continue being ordinary, if you see it as “just a job.” But a job where you perform routine tasks that could be seen as a way to learn skills, is no longer “just a job.” It’s an opportunity to learn.So in the above paragraph, nothing physically changed. You didn’t move offices. You didn’t get a raise. You didn’t work with people that are “more fun.” The only thing that changed was your perspective/attitude. And that makes all the difference.I do not know when life will, if ever, become normal again. Presently, it’s about the lockdown, but such and maybe even more devastating catastrophes can take place often or more frequently. So, we must draw a line somewhere to be balanced and to put correct perspectives in the order of daily importance.

Regroup and turn your tears into smiles again

Problems and challenges are part and parcel of our life. It is a known truth of life. But, that does not mean that we should completely focus on the problems and forget to smile. In other words, if we remain sad or grumpy due to the problems, we are letting the problems to control how we feel. Based on my experience I can tell you that if you adapt this attitude you will be able to deal with your problems objectively and effectively, and able to solve most of them. In fact, I owe this valuable learning of life from one of my colleague, Sweta who passed away in 2013 due to cancer. She was diagnosed having cancer in 2002. Initially she was devastated but overa period of timeshe came to terms with this reality. She remained cheerful most of the time till she lived. When asked, how she managed to remain happy despite having such life threatening health problem, she used to respond that she doesn’t wish to live her remaining life in gloom and sadness as it is not going to help her in any way, but being cheerful despite the serious health problem will give her strength to live her life. Because of this spirit, she survived for 11 years.

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Thus, I learnt from Sweta that we can defeat problems rather than letting the problems to overpower us. This learning has helped me to deal with problems in life objectively. And, I am sure you too will adapt this attitude successfully and live a blissful life.

Conclusion 

As India and the world, fights this virus I want to encourage the readers and citizens to use this time to enjoy the little joys, things, good deeds, relationships, smiles, positive attitudes and so on and never take them for granted again. Let us turn our tears into smiles;uphold and help each other to renew and relive the forgotten moral values, and discover joy amidst sadness as rightful citizens with responsibility and duties. Then only we can say ‘Fir Muskurayega India’ - India will Smile Again.

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Fr Hans Igness

Fr Hans Igness

The writer is a Catholic Priest belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco and currently is the Principal of Don Bosco Hr. Sec. School, Chingmeirong – Imphal, Manipur.

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