Last weekend I was at the Jagjit Singh concert in Bangalore. The indoor stadium was packed. People had driven from all over Bangalore on a Saturday evening (the worst day of the week in terms of traffic) to attend his concert. It took us about an hour in the queue just to enter the stadium. (The smart guys had set up just the one metal detector for thousands of people :-/). After all the confusion and chaos we settled down and the show began. Within a few seconds of hearing his voice the crowd seemed to have forgotten all the hours of frustration and was totally mesmerized by his voice. It was interesting observing people, some of whom really looked intoxicated by his voice. That got me thinking...this man, sitting there on the stage playing a harmonium had engineered a successful life. 'Successful' per the commonly accepted definition of the word. They say, he has had a tough life and really struggled to make his way to the top. His voice might be God gifted, but success wasn't served to him on a platter.
As with many such things, this led me into some introspection. I wondered how I would rate my life when I was a 60 years old. Then again, why should I wait till I am 60 to rate myself? What about my life up until now? Can I rate myself a 'successful'? Shouldn't I be able to extrapolate about the rest of my life on the basis of what I have 'achieved' till now? Am I behind target on my plans towards stamping 'successful' on my life?I realized that my definition of 'successful' for myself has a number of sub-bullets, some of which won't appear in the popularly accepted definition. Infact a lot of my sub-bullets wouldn't even match with those that appear in the lists of people I gel with most in terms of wavelength. I must admit, that there was some discomfort about the possibility of being labelled 'unsuccessful' according to the populary accepted criteria. That was soon replaced by the bigger discomfort of having to change my criteria just for the sake of tallying it with someone elses. After all the thought, I decided to freeze on my very own criteria and chalked out small plans towards achieving my goals, none of which has to do with world hunger or any such thing! (I get goose bumps thinking of me reading this page when am 60! Blogger, please save all this up for me to come back and reminisce!)
To think, Jagjit Singh struggled and worked hard for a life time, got a 100 awards, got himself an entry into wikipedia, came to perform in Bangalore and there I was wondering if he thought of himself as ‘successful’ per his own criteria!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Me again first :-)
success has to be defined in relation to your goals which varies from person to person. So, if you are happy in general, consider yourself successful
and lucky ;-)
Who was behind the successful albeit devious plan that got you the good vantage seats to watch Jagjit Singh and hence do all this heavy pondering, musing, introspection or whatever, huh??? ;-)
Though Jagjit singh, my music idol brought me to your blog.. i was not quite disheartened to find the focal point shift to 'success'
I feel success is as vague as a mirage. One sets a goal beyond her perceivable vision and the toil toll at the end of exercise leaves her with a good feeling of self induced happiness. But who is going to define the goal weight. A thousand people and a 1000 eyes, a 1000 attitude. Had there been an Official Success Book... life would have been worse.. thank heavens some things are better imperfect!
:P
@Amit
I agree with you. But now I am wondering, if someone will get ideas from your comment and go off and create an 'Official Success book' which will eventually become a standard! ;)
Dear Shilpa,
Running behind success we will never get anywhere but end up writing a book on success.
We dont choose or make our life. He has already choosen and made and end our lives. Somewhere in his mechanism of making and destroying we might be given a chance to play the role of someone like Jagjit singh.
Success is something defined by an individual. It resides in your deep dark bottom of your heart. Success is also everywhere. Infact you are success & I am success.
Put on your right glasses and see success right.
Whats the use of driving mad behind success that is very temporary? Soon you might be sitting on a relaxing arm chair covered with shit in your pad because you wont have the strength to lift yourself off that chair due to "oldage".
You are a management expert are you? Want to make easy money is it? To buy that latest camera is it?
Do some community part time services - may be for money or not. Service is important that way you will be Jagjith Sing someday - a Jagjith sing who will conquer the hearts of not only indians but of the world - who cares about others - be a self conquerer.
Relish the joy of sitting stable in your heart & dedicate the fruits of your actions to the holy feet of the lord. Lord ? who is he? is there a maker of the universe? what is the universe? -- ask these questions and get enlightened...
Peace ---
Samarth
Post a Comment