Resilience

“The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” This is the bookish definition of the word resilience. But I believe that the definition of resilience is different for different people, based on what they are striving for, what they are fighting for, and what their journey has been so far, and how they are thinking. For some, living a daily life becomes resilience, for some, building a successful business.

So it is a subjective course of discussion. My life philosophy holds a very significant place for resilience. I am a strong believer in it. I love those movements when I see someone embracing the same; it brings a very satisfying smile on my face.

Like this lady vendor, a mother of two. Whom I met while on the way back from Haldwani to Almora, selling fruit juice along with other homemade food items near a Dhaba on the highway; she lives in the nearby village. Her line “Ya to 8 ghante ki Majdoori pe jao ya, yaha 6 ghante juice becho, mujhe yahi sahi lagta hai, apna kam apne hath”. This line showed how she found a better way rather than quitting the game, and her willingness to be her own boss. This showed me a different face of resilience, in a different story, who choose to stand for themselves and make their own way.

The stall at the Highway

Similarly Pushpa who is almost of my age, one of the leaders who is associated with us under Hamari Bakhli, I didn’t realized how how far she lived until I visited her home for an official visit it’s a 15-minute taxi ride, till the gate of her area, but after that, it’s not easy at all, it’s a muddy road, of 2.5 KMs track it is manageable to go there, because its down the hill, but climbing back, on the same route is quite tiring given additionally it is a warm valley, sun feels stronger even in the month of December.

Me and Pushpa

Reaching her home was easy, and by that time I had realised that going back won’t be easy. After the meeting and the village walk, I asked her, “App enta dur roj training me kaise aate the, motivation kaha se milta tha, enta dur roj aane ke liye” and to that she replied, “Kyunki mujhe sikhnan tha”. Her reply is simple yet impactful. She gave me a very satisfying sense of motivation.

Adding a little bit to it, when we (Udhyam) began training there under Pushpa, it was 6 women, Trainee, but by the conclusion of the training, only 2 left and I used to go to oversee the training of only those two women, and I think Pushpa’s reply played a big role in my decision to go there, even though the output wasn’t much. Pushpa’s story of resilience made mine stronger.

There are a lot of such stories where people are showing up to their difficulties, choosing to find an alternate path, then quitting it. Inspiration does not always come from big leaders or famous people sometimes, it quietly exists in the lives of people around us, waiting to be noticed.