Inspired by Automobile

Life is never a smooth ride nor should you ever expect it to be that way. We will always meet obstacles, bumps, jars and jerks along the way but we should try to steer through them without a shock. No one has a bumper to bumper protection. Although it may seem that someone is in the driver’s seat, remember someone else is providing the needed traction. We are only passengers, a musafir ( a traveler in Urdu/Hindi).

I think that like me, everyone else has been helped by the rest of us along the way. “I can do it by myself, I have made myself, I did it my way,” are just tooting one’s horn. Many a time we tend to run on fumes along the lonely road of life. That is the signal that our attitude is due for a tune up. We need to make an immediate u-turn and rush to the repair shop.

If we are honest, and humble, we will acknowledge that there have been others in our lives who have helped us keep rolling – be it our parents who maneuvered us out of difficulties despite their own rough patches, be it a friend who gave us a push when we could not get out of the first – there are people who may have courteously yielded so that we could compete in the fast lane. We need to give them thumbs up!

Shifting gears, let’s not forget our mentors; someone who may have advised us to turn up our high beam and, at the same time, pay attention to the interior. Whenever we veered a bit, they advised us to look in our rear-view-mirror so that we could rev up our engine and accelerate.
I don’t know about you, but I have stalled with my obsession about people who envied me whenever I cruised along smoothly on the highway of my career and life in ‘General.’ Their muffled praise, jealous exudes of toxic fumes, subliminal expressions and suddenly changing of the lane made me feel that I was riding on flat tires.

The need for speed is enormous. You have got to stay in the race. The only way to do that is to aim for the pole position ignoring the crashed cars and the ones trying to sputter along on an empty tank. Instead of paying attention to the bystanders who want you to shift in neutral, get inspired by those who always show you the checkered flag, those who want to see you in the winner’s circle, and those who buff your exterior from showing the signs of rust.

Vroom vroom! Chitti chitti bang bang! After burning enough rubber and kicking heaps of tires, you will feel ‘life has been one sweet ride.’ Keep rolling along. You will be an auto-matic hit. Thank everyone who saved you from being a road-kill on the road to success!