Limitless Inspiration

[box]A motivational speaker talks about getting inspired from the world around us. A man who listens to this talk isn’t convinced. But inspiration does come to him in an unexpected way, eventually. Here is a work of fiction by Kishor V R.[/box]

The biggest hall in the city was packed to more than its capacity and some people were standing on the edge of the balcony as well. I have many memories associated with this hall. I used to visit this place to watch plays and performances since my childhood. Facing a crowd here, therefore, was a dream come true. The atmosphere was good because more than half of them who had come to be part of the ‘National Convention for the Youth’ event were around my age. I was the youngest among the speakers who were invited. The hall was filled with banners which read the name of the event and its sponsors. After the inauguration, I was the first one to be called upon to speak. I stood on the stage and scanned the crowd. I saw a man with the peace sign on his T-shirt in a corner. The interesting thing about him was that he came to most of my sessions.

I looked around in the hall. I saw expectant faces looking back at me. I took a breath and started speaking. “It’s great to be here. When in school, I remember facing the crowd for the first time during the annual day while acting in a play. The hall was air conditioned just like this one. Although it was cool, I was the only one sweating. But now it’s different. I love being here. On behalf of all who will speak here today, I thank you for coming. Thanks to the organizers of the ‘National Convention for the Youth’ who invited me here. They wanted me to speak about my achievements. I am a speaker by choice and also one of the youngest entrepreneurs in this city. People do ask me about my success. They ask me if they should start early like I did to be successful. They ask me if my education has anything to do with my success.

“I am not successful because I have a good education. I am not successful because I started early. Anyone can be as successful as me. They just need to motivate themselves. I know some people have a problem with motivation. They say ‘Oh you are so successful because you have people to motivate you and I don’t.’ ‘I don’t find inspiration in anything these days’. I tell them that even if they do, they’ll shut themselves off because they spend their time thinking about what others may think of them. Some of you know me through some local magazines, newspapers and radio. Some of you may not know me. But that’s ok. It doesn’t matter who I am. I will not talk about me. I will not talk about my businesses or my achievements. This session is about us. Let me not waste your time. Let me talk to you about inspiration. Well, what is inspiration? How do you get inspired? Or do you get inspired at all?

“Some of us say that inspiration is the process of arousal of one’s mind. It is also described as an intuition to push you to perform a task. This is a definition of inspiration isn’t it? When do you get an intuition to perform a task? When do you get motivated? It’s when your dad tells you that he’ll get you a new bike if you do well in school, isn’t it?”

The audience laughed. A few of them clapped. I let the audience settle down and then I continued. “You can take inspiration from all around you. All you need to do is keep your mind clear. Some of you know that I blog. I also write for publications. I need to stay inspired to write on a regular basis. I have met lot of writers and bloggers who complain of lack of inspiration. They expect me to motivate them to write more. I tell them you have unlimited sources of it.”

“Let me tell you what inspires me.” Some people in the audience who weren’t paying attention became attentive. I continued. “I never had a single source of inspiration. I try to see inspiration in everything. I take inspiration from events and people I meet. I am fascinated with our planet ever since my childhood.” I hit the Enter key on the keyboard in front of me. The monitor, which was idle, came back to life. The projector beamed the image of the Earth taken from space on to the screen behind me. I moved a little so that the people could see the picture. “This is a famous picture called the ‘The Blue Marble’.

“Our planet was born 4.5 billion years ago. It was just a ball of fire then. It had harmful gases and it was too hot for anything. Besides it was spinning too fast. In due course of time it slowed down its spinning and the planet began to cool down. Earth also happens to be at a suitable distance from the sun to support life. Oxygen formed and water bodies came into existence which made this planet suitable for life to exist. The Earth was hit by asteroids, it went into ice age several times, and there were killer volcanoes and earthquakes which threatened to wipe out life. But it did not happen that way.”

“The story of our planet is inspiring to me. Now let’s get back to this room. Think about all the life forms this planet has supported. They have their own survival stories, their own success stories. Now think which one is the most complex, creative and the most intelligent of all the living beings that inhabit the Earth? It is us humans. We have learnt to speak, read and write. We have created civilizations, social systems, and governments, isn’t it? We are the most successful of all the living beings this planet has. Have we not survived? There are millions of different organisms for just one human. We are rare beings. Isn’t this fact inspiring enough to live the life like you want to? Yet some people feel low. To tell you the truth you can inspire yourself. So, if you want to learn a craft, or a hobby or a skill all you should do is to be proactive and make that start. Things, be assured, will fall in place. With these few words I will end my talk. Thank you all for being such patient listeners. Let’s stay inspired.”

After the session ended, I was surrounded by people who had questions for me. Some of them took my autograph. I saw the man with the peace sign T-shirt approach me. He looked frustrated. He did not introduce himself. “I have read your blog and I have attended your seminars too. Your words haven’t made any impact on me like everyone says it will. I was a writer. I also ran a business. I took some bad decisions and lost everything. I have not written since a long time. Now I have nothing. It’s all gone. My wife left me. My children want nothing to do with me. I don’t have anyone to motivate me. I spent the last few months drinking. I have quit drinking now. I thought you would talk about how to get motivated. I am disappointed you did not do so,” said the man.

“Sir, I am sorry you think that way,” I began. “I cannot tell you how to be motivated. Being a source of motivation is not my job. My job is to tell you that you can motivate yourself. No one can give you an instruction booklet on how to live your life or how not to live it,” I said.

“Your idea about finding inspiration from this planet doesn’t make sense. I live on a modest budget. I don’t have friends like you do. I don’t have anyone I can turn to. I could have done better if I had some friends. People say I am not good enough. Can I keep in touch with you so that you’ll push me to do what I want to do?” he spoke fast.

“Don’t wait for it. No one will come to you to motivate you. You should motivate yourself so that others see that spirit in you. Don’t let others tell you what you can or cannot do. I used to think that I will be inspired only if I have a girlfriend, or if I have money. But it never worked that way. You said you quit drinking. That’s good. Now you can start new. Ideas and inspiration can be found anywhere. You can find inspiration even in your house”, I said. I took leave of the man and walked to my car and drove away.

A few days later when I was at home, I received an e-mail from the man with the peace sign T-shirt. “Dear Sir,” began his mail. “You were right about finding inspiration within my house, though I must admit that it came in as pure coincidence. One warm afternoon, a few days ago, as I was lazily browsing the newspaper, I chanced upon an article that featured a differently-abled person. As I read through, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was a schoolmate of mine. I knew he had an attack of polio when he was young and used to be constantly mocked at in school. The article mentioned that he had represented the country in the special games conducted a few months ago. He was a swimmer. I would like to say that a smile broke on my face after I learnt this, a genuine one at that. It was not like we were best friends or that we were in touch. I felt happy for him, for what he achieved. That night, as I lay on bed, I wondered what it would have been like to beat the odds and emerge this successful. How did he overcome his disability and achieve the seemingly impossible? I admired his spirit and perhaps, like they say, I had a faint hint of the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am sure you will not be surprised if I said that I attempted, as a first step of getting back on track, to figure out where he lived. It wasn’t easy, not tough either – I had to ask around a bit and one day, I landed up at his house. Among other things, I saw one whole shelf dedicated for all the awards that bore testimony to his achievements. There were pictures of him beaming. However, I also didn’t miss the tiredness that comes of achieving something after overcoming a practical difficulty. When I turned around, I saw him standing and I gave him a warm hug, the warmth emanating out of respect and adoration. As we talked he told me this, ‘I see myself as handy-capable. I hate it when I am being pitied by someone else. So you can see how much I detest self-pity too.’ That, I believe, Sir, was my spark of inspiration. Those words. He radiated the spirit that you said others have to see in an inspiring person.  I realised innately and not superficially that all this while I was finding excuses for my failure. I have begun to believe that I can resurface from where I am just like many people have. I have started writing again. My eagerness to get back to my wife is now my motivation. I have restarted from where I had left off. So I guess I will see you in the field soon,” he concluded.

And that definitely made me smile.

Kishor V R grew up in Mangalore and now works as a technical writer in an IT organization in Bangalore. He is also studying Mass Communication through an open university. He loves reading suspense and thrillers, watching movies and browsing the internet. Cooking up stories is what he can do best and he aims to be a successful fiction writer one day.

Kishor attended the Bangalore Writers Workshop, an interactive method of bringing a group of writers together and allowing them to study the craft of writing while receiving constructive feedback on their own work. For more information go to http://bangalorewriters.com/.

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