Reach Out

Thought Thought (Day 45: 14-Aug-2013)

and grab your success.

In our daily lives, each of us have different version of what success is. To some it is in spirituality, to another it is financial, to the next it is family. The world is full of opportunities. If you can’t find the door, create one and open it up for yourself. Below is the story of Nikita, born to parents who had their origin from the beautiful hilly regions of Sri Lanka.

During the early war days, her parents had immigrated to a small coastal town in Tamil Nadu with their one month old daughter. She grew up listening to stories about how beautiful her motherland was and how the war had taken it all away from the hearts of its citizens. She vowed to herself that one day she, a Sinhale, would do something to ease the pain of her countrymen, even if it is in a small way.

Nikita, now a doctor, became a member of W.H.O because of her selfless nature to help the needy. The only success she wanted in life was to be accepted by her natives. Nikita felt that as a Sinhale, she too had the responsibility in helping rebuild her country. She always felt that as a human, she too was in the wrong for what was done to them over the years of war and tragedy. She wanted the Tamils and Shinales in her country to accept her attempts to repay them in kind.  

As part of W.H.O she reached her birthplace for the first time, only to witness poverty and sickness everywhere.  She did everything that the W.H.O’s textbooks dictated to help the needy and all she faced was rejection from the localities. More than rejecting her health care and treatment, they rejected her because she was a Sinhale who had the opportunity to escape the pains of war. The people saw her as a traitor who left her fellow citizens to suffer while she was able to lead a good life, even if it was in an alien country.

Nikita realized that the people there did not understand the pain they had to endure leaving behind their loved ones, or the struggle she and her parents had to undergo to be accepted into the Indian society, or that even if she was a doctor, she was still a refugee and not a citizen of India, or that she did not enjoy any of the luxuries that these people imagine she did.

In her aim to realize her success, she had the best intention for the villagers as well. She knew that reaching out to them was the only way in which she could reach her goal. From then on, Nikita started to be more open minded about what she was doing for them. She spoke to them about her struggles and prompted them to share their sorrow and pain with her. As days went by, Nikita was accepted as one of their own. They treated her like an angel who was kept safe until then to be was sent to them, to take care of them. With the turn of events, W.H.O made her a permanent medical practitioner in her homeland. This was Nikita’s success. She strongly believed that doing one’s duty alone will not bring success and that we also need to reach out to it to make it ours.