Redefining Success

It’s long since I have posted a blog on this page, almost a year. So it needs much endeavor to post a new one. This one is about “SUCCESS”. After watching the movie 3 idiots, which has become the telltale of the country……No, I am not going about to talk about the debate between Chetan Bhagat and the 3 idiots team to which my personal view is that Bhagat has been unfairly treated. What I want to lay emphasis is on the message that the film wants to give. Yes, I know you would be saying “I did get the film. The message was regarding the education system and that it should be excellence oriented not success oriented.”
But just give a thought on the very first scene in movie, in which our “Silencer” shows the picture of his house, his Lamborghini and says that he has succeeded and therefore won the challenge. But how do you say that a person is a successful one?? Is it by the brands of clothes he wears, his bank balance, his salary, the car he owns or by the size of his bungalow. Don’t you think that these things are superficial and are just there to show off? Because nobody is going to see what you are wearing, a Gucci or an Armani, and if situation compels you, you would have to sit beside a person wearing ragged dress (Like many of the handsomely rich business men who board the local trains in Mumbai), and who the hell would be able to see your overprotected bank balance? I know you would say ‘LUXURY, CLASS’ but these are all media created hype just to sell their products. A 1800sqft flat is more than sufficient for two people to live, when millions are spending their night on the pavement without even a blanket. But who the hell cares. We as a human being always try to quantize things and try to generate discrete level-the superclass, the upperclass, middleclass …blah blah blah. To my amazement, there are various index even to measure happiness, and then there are these questions “how much do you love me?” But how on earth can you measure happiness, sorrow, love, hatred? Some things are there which can’t be measured……..and there are places where Darwin fails. So it is not always about the survival of the fittest. In our quest to survive we are forgetting that we are human first.
I remember a story which all of us have read in Gulmohar English book( I forgot the class though….. )
“there was a king who has lost his kingdom in a war and was spending his days in a cave on the outskirts of the town. One night as he was about to sleep, he heard passerby. He woke up to see that there were three women. He bowed down to them and asked their name. The first one said “I am goddess of wisdom” .The second one said “I am goddess of Power” The third one said “I am goddess of wealth.” The king pleaded “O!! Goddesses where are you all going please stay in my kingdom. else I would be ruined.”The Goddesses pitied him and said that only one of them can stay, to which the king replied “If that is the case then I want Goddess of wisdom to stay in my kingdom.” The Goddess of wisdom agreed to stay and she went inside the cave. The other two also followed her. The king was amazed and asked “ but you told me that only one of you can stay” to which the Goddess of power replied “ Where there is wisdom there is power.” Goddess of wealth said “ and where there is wisdom and power there is wealth, so we all are staying here in your kingdom.” So what matter is wisdom not power, not wealth as these things would follow.
Now I am answering my own question “How do you say that a person is successful one?”
When you become the centre of your own sphere and everything starts circling about you then you say that I am successful. And when you are happy doing what you do the best and your efforts start to pay dividend then you are successful. A mother breastfeeding a child and taking good care of family is as successful as a man running a huge industry. He might be richer, but he may not be successful…..

PS: Do say about what you think, your comments are more than welcome.