Sometimes Things Are Not Exactly As You’ve Imagined, But Even Better

Life throws various challenges and hurdles at you to deal with, sometimes you would imagine why this is happening to me? You would face challenges in your personal relationship, headwinds at your work place, unforgiving sudden health issues, financial loss, etc.,

This could play a havoc in your psyche, take you to depression mode and lets you to wander with your imagination on how you could end up getting killed eventually by all that is happening to you RIGHT NOW.

This post is to let you know that, at such a juncture in your life, all you got to do is believe in that one thing – positivity and keep working towards how to come out of the current grief.

Here’s a funny story for you, just to emphasize the importance of carrying on with positive mindset in all of life’s hurdles.

Part I – The Bell Ringer:

Kesavan is a modest middle aged man from a small town, working as a bell ringer in one of the town’s prime temples. He had no education, no family to support, and hence leads a boring life with no sense of purpose. His job constitutes ringing the temple bell at pre-set intervals and sit back with his back rested to the wall waiting for the next bell routine.

One fine day a sudden feeling of emptiness sweeps through him and an urge to find a better job with less-idle-time-between-two-consecutive-bell-chimes and a better salary compared to the petite perks of the temple.

Part II – New Bell:

So he frantically looks up for suitable job vacancies in the classifieds and applies for one of the seemingly better paying jobs in the big city. To his surprise, he gets through the selection process and takes up his life and work in the big city – a bell ringer in a renowned auction house!

All seems to go well for a year, till the auction house brings in a new manager carrying a strict persona about how he manages his employees. Soon after taking over the management, the manager sends out a dictum to all the employees saying he could give those 30 days to prove that they attain a minimum literacy level – able to read and write their names! And this applies to even Kesavan, regardless of being required to simply ring a bell at the closure of every sale!

On the 31^st day, Kesavan sadly walks up to the new Manager and apologizes for his inability to get to the expected literacy level despite trying so hard. The manager instantly sacks Kesavan, not heeding to his repeated pleading, and hands over the final settlement amount that is due.

Part III – Return to Small Town:

Kesavan, being completely dejected for having lost his big-city-well-paying-job, walks his way back to find if any prospect left back in his town – at his erstwhile temple.

After walking for several miles, carrying money in hand, he gets very exhausted and stops at a small town settlement for finding some refreshments. Even though there were several houses & families in the settlement, Kesavan couldn’t find a single Tea shop after 1 hour of searching.

Suddenly an idea flashes in his mind – why not use the money in hand to open a Tea shop in this place! At the blink of an eye, his one shop thrives well to soon multiply itself into many in all the adjoining towns and suddenly Kesavan’s cash pile grows beyond manageable levels.

Based on one of his customer-turned-new-friend’s advice, Kesavan opens an account in a local back to deposit his huge pile of cash.

Soon his business empire amplifies to an unimaginable level and so does Kesavan’s bank balance in the savings account that he opened. This enables the Bank’s manager to visit Kesavan, who now is a Premium customer for the bank. In his visit, the Manager states that since there is huge amount accumulated in the account, why not go for some smart investment options.

To this Kesavan casually replies – “I don’t even know how much money has got accumulated in my account till date”. The manager gets totally taken aback by the reply and asks Kesavan puzzlingly as to whether he checks all the account statements that the bank sends him periodically.

Kesavan makes another casual reply – “I do get your periodic account statements but don’t get to understand them as I am a total Illiterate!”

Shocked by this, the manager asks – “If you could manage to be so successful despite being illiterate, imagine what you could achieve in life if you just spend some time to become basic literacy level?”

To this comes Kesavan’s quick reply – “Probably would still be ringing bells at the Temple or Auction house!”

The moral:

The challenges life throws at us not necessarily mean to go down our negative imagination path, but rather could mean to fetch unimaginable and lot better outcomes eventually in the end.

Stay positive and keep holding on to the faith that eventually “Things are not as you’ve imagined, but even better!”

Cheers.