Alex and Nisha were at their parents’ place after a long gap of two years since Covid-19 pandemic ripped the world apart. There were many relatives they had to visit and decided to call on one of their uncles. It was a good feeling to catch up after a long time and all of them were quite happy to see each other after what was probably the worst two years in their entire life till date.
Among the conversation, a
topic came up about a friend of Alex who works in Shimla, one of the most
beautiful mountain regions towards North East of India. He had invited Alex many
times to come over to Shimla and appreciate the magnificent mountains. Alex and
Nisha discussed the plans with uncle and aunt to take a flight to Delhi and
later a short flight to Shimla from there. That’s when uncle intervened and
suggested a better option.
Alex’s uncle had done
extensive trips pan India and was quite familiar with the geography across this
gorgeous nation. He suggested taking a train from Delhi to Shimla as there were
more than a hundred tunnels across the picturesque Himalayas. As soon as they
heard this, both Alex and Nisha got quite excited and almost immediately
started picturing the awesome trip through the mountains and valleys on a meter
gauge train.
While Alex, Nisha and their
uncle were soaking themselves in the lovely landscapes in their minds, their
aunt who was listening to all the conversation spoke for the first time. She
said, ‘What is the big deal in going through so many tunnels. It will be all dark
and gloomy’.
The expression on the faces
of other three souls present in the room could only be described with one word,
‘priceless’!
The above story is only a
cross section of what we see in our daily lives. There are numerous such ‘aunts’
among us, be it in our family or among friends. These poor souls can almost
never see the light at the end of the tunnel. Their minds are perennially stuck
in the pitch darkness of the tunnels they cross during their lives.
People like these are always
lost in the gloominess and in fact miss to appreciate the beauty as the train
of life exits the tunnel into the wilderness and the heavenly panorama of lush
green mountains and valleys. Instead they only see the train moving from one
tunnel to the next and around them they will befriend only darkness and despair.
It indeed is a mindset. We may
think that the worst pandemic in the recent history of mankind might have changed
people. Even the most negative of people around us who survived the pandemic
might have developed an appreciation towards life. Then again, experiences like
this promptly corrects us by citing fantastic examples of perpetually negative
human beings. These are personalities who could never think of anything positive
in life.
Rain or shine, these people live
and breathe negative. Imagine you successfully wrap up an extremely strenuous event
for which you prepared relentlessly for a month. Everything went well and while
you are beaming with joy, one of the above kind will come to you and cite the
least of the imperfection and highlight it as the worst thing to have happened
in the whole world. They will religiously fail to appreciate you or your
efforts. This is a mental makeup in its deepest and darkest of shades.
So what do we do about this? Where
possible help these individuals realize that they are treading the valleys of misery
and in fact there is a highland of happiness that awaits them if they are ready
to change a bit. More importantly when it comes to us, we need to be aware of
the fact that human mind could be like a sponge where it could absorb all these
negativity. Do not let it happen. But in the likelihood of that happening,
ensure that you squeeze them out with an overdose of friendly positivity.
