“kya kar raha hai aaj kal?”—friend

“bas yaar zindagi ki talaash!”—me

“yaar, ek baat bata, tu hamesha yahi kehta hai. aisa kyon?”—friend

“hmm! waise yaar tu sahi keh raha hai, zindagi to mujhe mil chuki hai :)”—me

And yes, I am talking about, none other than my to be better half. Somehow, it seems funny when I address her like this, but for the time being it sounds good…right? 😉

You would find many who would keep running after success all their life, and of course I am talking about all the material possessions which define success in contemporary times.

But credit should go to those who defy the very materialistic logic and decide to lead a not so lavish but fulfilling life with their better halfs.

An extremely inspiring example of the same, I happened to find in Goa, where I had gone a couple of months back for vacation.

There was this middle-aged couple who owned a bakery. They had been living in Goa since 1990. Before that, the man, being a young ambitious person that he was, wanted to make it big.

In this pursuit of his, he decided that he would go to Saudia Arabia and would make a killing. But destiny had other plans in store for him.

On reaching Saudia Arabia, his passport and other travel documents were taken away by his employer citing it as a routine procedure. Days passed by and then months, and there was no sign of his employer leave alone returning his passport, not even mentioning about the same.

On top of that, he was getting negative vibes which he couldn’t ignore even after trying really hard. On one hand, where his career was progressing at a snail’s pace, on the other hand, he felt that he had been badly trapped in a situation, from where he couldn’t see a way out.

One day, he gathered the courage needed to talk to his employer.

“I want to go back to India. I think I am done with here. Can you please return my passport so that I can get a ticket.”—man

“Are you kidding me? You can’t take back your passport like this. You have a 10 years bond with us. And before that you cannot leave. Is it clear?”—employer

“I didn’t sign any bond. This is not right. You can’t do this to me.”—man

“Guards, take him away. Lock him up till he decides to shut down the rebel in him”—employer

And that was it for the day. He was locked up in a 10 by 10 cell, and no food or water was provided to him. At that very moment, he remembered the last words from his father, before he left home: “you are not doing the right thing by going there. There have been so many cases where people have gone missing. Don’t run after money. Don’t go.”

How much he wished then that he had listened to his father. I cannot tell you how he managed to get out from there as that will take me an entire novel to do so, but the fact is that today he is living a very comfortable life with his family in Goa.

He has no regrets whatsoever of not being able to make it big in his life. The only things that are important to him are his wife and his kids.

On the night that I was about to catch my flight back home, he told me: “Son, the only advice that I will like to give you for your life is, never ever run after money, because that’s not what life is. Life is right here with me in the form of my wife and kids and I would never let anything take them away from me.”

While coming back, during the whole journey, his words seemed to echo in my head. I guess the man had found his Zindagi. And today I want to thank the Almighty for having found my Zindagi for me. 🙂

Source for Image:http://khawarbilal.deviantart.com/art/Zindagi-Tea-logo-72166493, http://sft78600.blogspot.in/2011/12/zindagi-shayari.html