There is no teacher better than adversity. Nothing will make you claw inside
yourself looking for answers, to questions you had long forgotten. Nothing that
will make you sit back and take notice of the tiniest of blessings in your
life; nothing to make you value the things you have, compared to the things you
don’t. No better teacher than desperation, which will make you consume your
last reserves of will power and energy, to keep you moving. Nothing will make
you more tenacious than facing the worst imaginable fears and then emerging on
the other side.
Adversity offers this lesson to
everyone, whoever wishes to learn. The answer to this strange riddle called
life is nowhere but within ourselves. The power of man is only to try and
understand rather than to try and control the myriad events in our life. We all
love making plans, big plans and small plans, plan A’s and plan B’s, till we
realize that the only plan we have any control over is to make no plan, and the
only thing consistent in life is inconsistency. So what do you do when the
going gets rough and you are once again
with your back against the wall?
Sometimes such amazing things
come by as if by chance, and you have that “aha” moment. Back in 2005, I was in
a certain dilemma and among other things one book came to help me in a way that
nothing else could. The book was, “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand. Like all works of art, I saw in it what I wanted
to see and that book helped me find a piece of puzzle, completing the jigsaw.
Again my dear friend adversity
decided to pay me a visit, this time with a tougher riddle. And I found myself
at loss all over again. All that material and reasoning I had gathered again
proved inadequate leaving me desperately looking for answers and looking for
hope. Surprisingly, again by a strange twist of events the answers found me.
This time in the form of “Sher-e-zaat”, a brilliant drama penned by Umera Ahmed
and directed by Sarmad Sultan Khoosat. It is not the story that is unusual or compelling,
but the philosophy that lies at the heart of the story. Umera’s understanding
of the intricate relation of the spiritual with the realistic is absolutely
gripping.
The philosophy will not impact a
person who does not have Faith, or in other terms “does not believe” in a “Higher
Power”. But for people like me, who derive most of their strength from their
faith, it provided some brilliant concepts to ponder over. It is just strange that I should
have found that book at that precise time or “Sher-e-zaat” now. I either willed
them into my life or it was pre designed in the grand scheme of things; this I
will ponder over another time…
http://www.dramasonline.com/category/hum-tv-dramas/shehr-e-zaat/
