Inspiring Word by Ms. Smriti Irani : JUST BE
(Transcription of Video Speech)
If I have to contextualize my mother in this conversation, it is this. I’m 48 now, 49 in March. But when I was seven, suddenly one day, me and my other two young sisters were given a plate of rice and a black dal to eat. And we were huddled in a room, and there was an urgency in the house. The three of us could not see what was urgent.
Little did we know that my mother peeps back into the room and says, are you done eating lunch? We said, indeed. I was seven. The younger one was five. The youngest, two.
And as the leader of the pack, I said, Well, what can we do now? It’s a Sunday. She says, your bags are packed. And now you shall leave with me. I don’t remember asking her why the bags were packed.
I do remember her sitting in a rickshaw urgently with a cylinder bags. Two girls waiting for the eldest to join her. And I stood outside my house and I asked her why. She says, Well, one of the life’s complications is that I could not bear a son. So let’s go and build a house.
So I kept staring at that house and she was urgent in her bidding, and she said, let’s leave. She said, why would you stare at this house? And I said, guess what? One day, I will buy it. Now imagine for a 30’s woman, 41 years ago, thinking of a seven year old daughter and not knowing where the future holds for her.
She took me by the hand, and the rest is history. Came to Delhi, worked double, triple jobs. And one day, I did have the money to go back and buy the house. So I stood in front of it and I called her. I said, I’m right there where you left me forty one years ago with a desire that can now be monetarily fulfilled.
And as mothers are wise and get wiser with age, she said, honestly, tell me. Do you still want to buy it? I looked at the house and I knew my wallet. And I said, no.
She said, learn to forgive yourself, Learn to forgive your anger and learn to forgive those who did injustice to you.
And that’s your best gift to yourself. So if you have to be just me, the first lesson, genuinely be in the moment at that time, not necessarily looking at all that glitters, but at looking at whatever brings you peace. Be it a cherry blossom in Japan or in Bengaluru. Just be. If you have to be, just you.
While you learn to forgive everything, learn to forgive yourself for being angry, for being consumed, for running, for having no time. Because I asked Didi, I said, why the title just be? She said, because everybody is in a rush. People need to be still. And I wondered then, what makes everybody afraid to be still ?
Because when you’re still, the one person you need to meet is me.
So, Miss Abe, I never imagined I would be on a stage where I would make you cry.
That was not my intention. But let me say this. When I see you, I see the cherry blossom.
So just be because that’s the best gift you can give yourself.
Be shy. Be adventurous. Be tenacious. Be you.
Because in the whole world, there can be many copies, but only one me.
GoodSoul.in 