Rekindling Hope: The Road to Rejuvenation
About Us | Contact Us | E-Paper
Title :    Text :    Source : 

Rekindling Hope: The Road to Rejuvenation

The term hope is not just a mere thought process which keeps oneself engaged in daydreaming. Nor is it an idle man’s tactics to keep himself aloof from the hard realities of life

Post by on Sunday, January 23, 2022

First slide

More often than not the term hope is understood to be an illusion which an unsuccessful person coins for vouchsafing his re-acceptability in the society which he is a part of. It is believed that a person having lost multiple opportunities takes recourse to mere verbal wrangling to maintain his social standing. However, such a person, after being dashed to the depths of disappointment, actually remains in a continuous process of giving a meaning to his existence. If at this opportune juncture, such a person has an access to a guide who would drive him out of this darkness and rekindle the light of hope inside him, he would indeed re-emerge and re-start his march on the road of success and the consequent recognition from different quarters of the society.

 

As such, the term hope is not just a mere thought process which keeps oneself engaged in daydreaming. Nor is it an idle man’s tactics to keep himself aloof from the hard realities of life. Indeed if hope is shorn of positive will power, then it is just verbal outburst of a frustrated person and nothing else. Here it is pertinent to note that the thought of hope never takes the concrete form if it is not coupled by a positive resolve for change in one’s attitude followed by necessary action, for it is one’s attitude vis-a-vis the hard realities of life which determines one’s altitude.

 

Therefore, hope is to want something to happen or to be true, and usually having a good reason to think that it might. It is also to have a sound reason to think positive. Moreover, hope is to believe in one’s ability. Further, it is to make a resolve to bring about a positive change to reach a goal. Hope also stands for broadening one’s vision but, at the same time not losing sight of the moral aspects of one’s personality. No doubt, moral perspective may differ from society to society and from culture to culture, but it is a fact that no human society can be value-free and absolutely value neutral. Here one is reminded of one of the famous quotes of Azim Hashim, also called Premji, one of India’s most famous entrepreneurs and philanthropists, who once said: “Vision is like a lighthouse which shows the way; if vision gives direction, values set boundaries!”  

         

Now, a perusal of the lives of most successful people makes it abundantly clear that great men, nay, great women also, have continuously renewed their hopes to continue their march on the path of success. Let’s think for a while, how the mother of Edison renewed and rekindled the hope of her son when he was not taken seriously by his teacher! Let’s ponder over the daily hope-renewal of APJ Abdul Kalam who took pre-dawn tuitions in mathematics in the far-flung southern coastal region of India to become the “Missile Man of India!” To this also belongs, besides numerous others, the “Birdman of India!” Having become a pleasure-shooter after being orphaned at the tender age of 3 years, Salim Ali had become a pleasure-shooter. Salim Ali was taken aback by seeing the unusually coloured sparrow which he had shot for sport, being treated by some Amirudddin in the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) Sanctuary. Salim Ali at once became a wanderer after birds, collecting, identifying, analysing and researching thousands and thousands of them. W. S. Millard, the Secretary of the Society introduces Salim Ali to the serious study of birds to become the foremost ornithologist of India. He wrote the 10-volume ‘Handbook of Birds of India and Pakistan’ to receive the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, the third and second highest civilian awards of India.

 

Hope renewal has to be a routine process for carrying out the day to day human activities in a smooth manner. Would a mother let her baby suck her milk if she were bereft of the hope the results of which are to be felt decades later? Would a gardener prune his plants in autumn without the hope that the garden would bloom in next spring? Would a cultivator sow the seeds amid the blazing sun sans the hope that these would sprout by the expected rain shower?

 

To sum up, life itself is the name of hope! To do something unique in life is life! To perform in life is life! To face the challenge in life is life! And, if there is no hope there is no life! 

 

 

(Author is Assistant Professor Islamic Studies at GDC Kokernag. Email: alhusain5161@gmail.com)