FOLLOW THE MAP…THAT LEADS TO YOU!

Welcome to the Second Edition of Pause to Ponder with Promita.

In today’s ‘Slice of Life’, I would like to share some random thoughts and erratic emotions that I ran into recently. I’m sure that all of us encounter or experience them but most of us fail to reflect on them, let alone realise them.

With magnificent celebrations overwhelming our modest circadian rhythms, routine and relevance seem to have gone astray. And for someone like me, festive breaks unfailingly include catching up on reading and movies as well. So, last weekend, it was well past midnight that some irrational whim propelled me to watch something instead of sleeping.

The first movie that Prime Video came up with was ‘The Map that Leads to You’ and before I knew it, I was lost in it.

Reel To Real…

I couldn’t have asked for a better beginning than books, bubbles and bright skies. But before you scoff at my puerile preferences, remember that 40s is the new and novel 20s! Having said that, the story is about a go-with-the-flow guy and I-must-know-what’s-next girl and their journey of sorts. Adventure, adrenaline, road trip and tender romance keep the pace going but what made me pause were probes that were worth pondering on.

“In the darkness, I was struggling the hardest

I’ve been going, Going on my own …

Oh! I’ve been searching for a feeling…

I will find You, You know I’ll find you…”

With those nuanced lyrics wafting melodiously through my ears, I was ready with Heather, the female protagonist, to board a train and to get interrupted by a stranger only to know that both of us were reading Ernest Hemmingway. Heather, by the way, is on a vacation with her friends, exploring places and making memories before she starts her banking job in New York.

The interesting bit is when she gets to know the stranger in an outside-of-the-club conversation. Jack, who has been doing odd jobs, loves travelling and finds “comfort in chaos”, is actually trying to go to every place that his great-grandfather wrote about in his journal. Post the conversation, the two have a “fun night” after sneaking into a cable car, something which was not on Heather’s bingo card! The sight that awaits them the next morning along with threatening security officers, is breathtaking, and the lesson for Heather, a bold one. Improvise!

Perhaps the most memorable experiences in our lives are those that are arbitrary and need us to act upon. And to make the most of those experiences, we must go extempore in the unscripted and unrehearsed version of life!

The Journey: A Metaphor for Life…

The road trip that follows soon after, is a metaphor for life. We are all on our own odysseys but as Jack rightly reminds us: “Does anyone ever really know where they’re going?”  And here I’m reminded of certain lines from the poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back” where the poet is talking of the path of life in which one turn leads to another and one can never go back to the point where he began.

A choice once taken means the loss of another and we can never unchoose it. We ordinary individuals can only leverage the travel and savour the sensations till it lasts.

Lessons On the Go…

As Heather, Jack and their friends drive a convertible through cerulean, celadon, russet and jade landscapes, they make a heartening comment. “You made the worst possible day turn into the best day” and we all know how true the observation is. Our actions have the metamorphic quality of changing even our deplorable decisions into agreeable ones.

Just an assertion like Jack’s, when he says, “Life’s good…I wouldn’t change anything” is so empowering. The shift in mindset from being controlled by circumstances to being in charge of your own is worth pursuing. Perhaps to do that you first need to detox from your previous patterns and reconnect with your inner self. But the start is always to appreciate where you are at the moment and the possibilities that it can open up for the future.

To embrace art and nature in the journey of life is a conscious commitment. So, before Heather boards her train, Jack suggests that they go on an adventure. As the couple walks through the works of Antoni Gaudi, the famous exponent of Catalan Modernisme, they realise how diverse their perspectives are. While the experience is deeply spiritual for Jack, Heather thinks it’s perfectly fine to click pictures with the masterpieces. Indeed, one considering the other’s viewpoint as vain or vapid is purely preposterous but do we personally propagate such broadmindedness? And remember, whenever there’s a conflict, it’s not good to leave things on bad terms.

As their journey continues, Jack tells Heather that it took him a “health scare” to give up on everything that felt like “deathbed baggage”. He knew he had to change and ‘living in the moment’ was not a fad but a prerequisite to go forward. Tell me, like Jack, are we waiting for some shock to shake us out of our stubborn stupor? But unlike him, we may not have the chance to recalibrate our lives then.

The time is NOW! Live the way you want to, do the thing you desire, even if that means taking an off-the-beaten-track. Your life is yours alone. Don’t stand on the shore and wonder ‘what could have been’ but believe that your thoughts can create your tomorrow.

At this juncture, let me ask you the question that Jack asks Heather, “If you could ask God or the Universe or the powers, one question, and you get a direct answer, what would it be?”

“What’s My Purpose?”

That was Heather’s answer and, strangely, this ask has been in my mind for a while. We are wandering in our own little orbits, mostly inadvertently (though we are too smug to admit it), while we are oblivious of the design that keeps deluding us. Perhaps, like the people of Santa Pau in the Pyrenees, about whom Jack’s great-grandfather mentioned in his letters, we need to keep the faith that life will go on and keep dancing in the face of death. To do that, we must let go of our masks and face our unfettered versions with the awareness that we get to decide who we are becoming every moment. We also ought to acknowledge that some of the deepest occurrences can emerge from the most devastating losses.

Whether you credit past lives or coincidences, your life, otherwise an accumulation of moments, can become magnificent, the instant you start living intentionally.

Free to Be…

Of course, there are phases when your plans will elude you and you will feel perplexed by your purpose. Just then, pause to fathom what it is you would like or love to do. The thing that makes you feel free and sprouts within you a feeling to strive for. That feeling is enough in your pursuit of purpose, whatever that may be, and will become the map that will lead you to YOU!

Afterall, if you think it, it’s yours.

By Promita Banerjee Nag

An avid word enthusiast and content-churner, Promita is fuelled by novel writings, ideas and light-hearted banter. A teacher by passion, she treads the path of unequivocal learning with and through her students. Mother, music and ‘mishti’ mostly convince her. If you wish for a tête-à-tête, feel free to reach out to her at promita033@gmail.com.