Days of struggle / गर्दिश के दिन

One of my favourite authors, Harishankar Parsai, spoke about gardish ke din, the days of struggle. That is why I chose the same title.

There are days when you look back at people from your past. You remember their success, their happiness, the things they enjoyed, the lives they built. Then you look at yourself and wonder: What am I doing here? I am still studying. Where am I going?

It happens. And it happens a lot.

You are human, after all.

But these thoughts do not necessarily have any meaning. They are simply weights you have attached to yourself. The comparisons, the memories, the imagined lives of other people, the feeling that you are somehow falling behind. Most of them are nothing more than distractions.

Try to let them go.

Put yourself back into your work.

I know that is easier said than done. The mind does not suddenly become obedient because you told it to focus. But you still have to bring yourself back, again and again, to what you are supposed to be doing.

Right now, you have work to do. You have something you are pursuing, and it carries a hell of a lot of weight for you. So be focused on it. Let other people live whatever lives they choose. Let them succeed, fail, celebrate, travel, enjoy themselves, or do whatever they want.

It is human to feel these things. It is human to compare yourself. But feeling something does not mean you have to obey it.

Work.

And when you cannot work, take a break. Listen to music. Talk to someone. Walk around. Let your mind breathe for a while.

Then restart.

Restart studying somehow.

Because if you want to go higher, you have to drop some weight. And much of this mental baggage is unnecessary. You do not need to carry everyone's life along with your own.

You cannot change what they are doing. You cannot rewrite what has already happened. But you can decide what you do next.

At the end of it all, life is not what you remember.

Life is what you decide to do next.