Swagat Raj Pandey

They say that life is a harsh teacher and I do not disagree with it. However, life sends teachers to teach you at several phases and that make hell of a difference. I’ve had many experiences and many ups and downs. But I have no qualms accepting things as they are and the way they come to me.

I was earlier a self-obsessed guy. I had my own philosophies and my own interpretations of things. I saw the world only from my lens and from my position. I analysed the happenings from my personal point of view and hardly had time to listen to other opinions.

As every one of us, I too have read, heard, talked and experienced different facets of life in bits and pieces and known many things. But, maybe, I just presume to know so much. Actually now I understand that I have had a very little understanding of all these. There is so much to be learned and become familiar with.

We mostly go through similar happenings. We have relationships, emotions, success, failure, satisfaction, betrayal, mistakes, good deeds, isolation, depression, hate, jealousy, love, familiarity, dejection, frustration and you name it all. Even though we experience similar things, the major difference lies in the way we cope with them. We have our own perceptions and that makes all the difference. Like everyone else I’d heard various things like sacrifice, love, dedication, hardship, jealousy, and the like. Some were textbook definitions while some were things learnt from the society. But it was only after my best teacher came into my life, I understood the meaning of most of all these.

I knew the definition of appreciation, but I actually learnt what it was through the teacher. I knew the word sacrifice, but now I know for sure why it is important. Similarly I now know what is friendship and why the world goes around it.

Now I’ve come to understand the meaning of various things residing there without meaning. Now, I’ve learnt what loneliness is, what trust is, what support is, what fear is, what sorrow is and, yes, what life is.

Thus I learnt in the process the different facets and different virtues of life. The precious lessons, however, would not have come my way without acquaintance of my teacher who happens to be my best friend.