"C'est la vie"

Dear Zindagi,
                     
I remember writing letters of this sort in my personal diaries or journals. Now that the habit of writing a diary is a thing of past, this is a wonderful opportunity for me to thank life and fall in love with it all over again. C'est la vie in French means  "That's life" in short. It is what you say when something happens that you do not like but have to accept because you cannot change it! Life is a mixture of events, some may give immense happiness and some leave you stranded and teach you the much needed lessons. How much ever hard a phase may seem in life, it passes too. This  is the biggest lesson I learnt, that time heals the wounds and always gives a chance to begin afresh! In my 20s when I was struggling, figuring out my actual ambitions in life and fighting my body-weight issues, I  started hating and cursing my life. I do have many hate letters written in my personal journal , cursing life and God for the life I got :-).

I know "being slim" was and will always be the in thing. How much ever attractive or smart you may be, you know for a fact that looks matter and mostly the first and foremost factors which attract a person to other person are - good looks, physique, the debonair way of dressing and so on so forth. It takes lot of maturity to actually know a person and like him or her. Due to my obesity I used to shun from any kind of relation-ship even if life gave me some fair chances!  The same life gave me few great memories and friends who made me feel good. I realized I am good looking, no matter what. I slowly came out of the shell of self consciousness and mingled with people who can hold an interesting  conversation for more than 15 minutes atleast. The life which made me feel like a  loser due to turbulent graduation years and body image issues made me feel like a star when I cleared job interviews effortlessly and got a wonderful opportunity in a reputed organisation.

It was always a roller coaster ride as I sailed through my adolescent years.  Which major subject to choose? Maths or Biology? Which choice has more career options? What do I actually want to do? Do I like that boy? were the questions which strangled me for long. All I wanted to do was "have fun" and let time decide the best for me. I was a topper, rank holder all my life but YES I never actually had clarity on what I want to do and neither do I have a clarity now. I love this suspense. When life hits me head on I feel prepared as I faced many uncertainties by now and have come out of them in  flying colors. Education and career-wise, I transitioned from being a full blown Biology student who is quite  attached to the subject, to a Bio-Technology student, to a Software Engineer , to a Technical Writer and I am quite happy on the podium I am standing today with no idea of  what future holds for me. 

I am at that juncture where I feel happy by my acts and not the place or people. This made it easy for me to live even when I am surrounded by some folks who can pierce me like a prickling cactus. I bloomed like that brilliant flower in mid of cactus spines.Years of life have taught me how to respond to cacti or just not respond to them. 4-5 years back it would have been an impossible scenario to me, but thanks to life which taught me to bother about things which actually mean something to me.

Crossing all my 20s , now after a decade,  I feel like a winner at 31 when no one's shit matters much. I have outgrown opinions of others about me but I don't like to announce my victory to the world because when did world actually care about it? 

When I remember my 20 year old self and when ever I am facing life as my opponent I recollect Baz Lurhmann's powerful sunscreen song shared below. This  holds good for me till my last breath and summarizes days of my life!  Listen to it carefully! Concentrate on all lyrics. If it didn't relax your nerves and change your perspective a bit, let me know!

Once out of my la la land where day dreaming ruled my hours during my teen years, I realised life is not a bed of roses. There is not  going to be a knight in shining armour or a dewy eyed Shahrukh Khan waiting for me at the end of the tunnel :) The real need to work on self-love and on things which made me feel better and happy dawned on me, some time immediately after my graduation and I sensed that things will slowly fall in place when I love myself. Losing body weight felt good , not for any Tom, Dick or Harry but just for myself. It did boost my confidence , when I started wearing clothes I liked, which earlier were not available in malls in my size . You know how the best attires are made for skinny people :) I  danced to myself on my achievement but I understood I may gain weight once in a while and free advice would always be dispensed by anyone and everyone regarding all aspects of my life!

There are funky people like Aunty Acid and so much humour embedded in universe in so many forms which come to my rescue when I feel like dispensing an advice to folks around. Having some inbuilt humor in me helps in overcoming the biggest obstacles or the nosiest  people around!

Source : here . hahha . Joke is on u ;)

"The next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it." --- Frank Clark

All in all I feel content with the life I am living. On this day if I get a time machine and travel back in time, I really can't think of editing something I have done already because how much ever you travel back, life is always full of surprises , challenges, smiles and tears and it always lifts you up after making you fall down. I am trying to take life as it comes and make it less complicated because it all depends on how I react to life and its happenings and I will always remember to count my blessings! Ending my post with a beautiful quote by Abraham Lincoln!

Love you Zindagi,
Afshan

source : here

“I am writing a letter to life for the #DearZindagi activity at BlogAdda“.

Being a die hard SRK fan I am quite intrigued by Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi, in which the talented Alia Bhatt acted too. I just can't wait for it to hit the screens on November 25th. Watch the teaser below.

Dear Zindagi - Take 1: Life is a Game