“रहिमन देखि बड़ेन को, लघु न दीजिए डारि. जहां काम आवे सुई, कहा करे तरवारि.”
Remember the good old days of bedtime stories told by our grandmothers? Some are the tales which every child has heard. ‘The man and the fish’ is one of them. With every wave crashing, many fishes are washed on the shore, few are capable of swimming their way back in the sea, but some unfortunate are stranded on the beach. Lucky are those who make it alive till the next wave. All the rest get buried under the sand, if not eaten up by animals or humans.
A man observed this scene for days; he saw fishes struggling for life at the shore. One day, he started to throw the fishes one by one back into the sea. Another man asked what difference you can you make by throwing fishes back into the sea? They are too many! Will you be able to throw all of them back? The man replied, “I might not be able to make a big difference to the sea, but I’ll change the life of one of fishes I throw back.” An insignificant act for the sea, but a significant change for the fish.
This story sets an example of how an insignificant act can be significant to someone. But we tend to forget these messages from all these stories as we grow up. We doubt our existence; we question ourselves, our significance.
Bees are too small as compared to the world we live in, and our earth is too insignificant to stars present out there. But so far, it is the only planet to sustain life forms, and without bees, the entire ecology would collapse. Similarly, no job is too small, we can’t proceed our day without tea or coffee, and it’s possible because someone decided to deliver those beans or leaves to the shops and retail chains. We walk on clean roads because someone cleaned them. The night guard sacrifices his sleep so that we can sleep in peace. Every individual holds the capability to change their course of life—insignificant to the course of the universe, but significant enough for them.
There are phases, when we are not happy and feel confused, directionless and agitated. But we should not make these phases a part of our lifestyle. Instead, we should make this as an opportunity to bounce back, taking small steps to make a significant change. We just have to keep going and drive up with the fuel to reach at the highest peak of our level. Sometimes small insignificant steps work where significant changes don’t.
Every individual matter.