Lesson from Flowing Water

T he realistic approach is ‘the art of the possible’. That which is not possible only leads to violence. A gardener once planted flowers in the park in front of my house. Some kids came and plucked them out. A vegetable vendor on the road saw this happening from outside and scolded the children away. The children returned crying with their parents and they troubled the vegetable vendor so much that he had to move his shop away from there. He interfered with something that was not in his domain. This is an example of being unrealistic. The society or the park authorities should have intervened in the matter – why did the vegetable vendor speak up? The realistic approach is to approach the real stakeholders and not step out of one’s own domain. What is your biggest learning in life? I was a seeker throughout my life. My pursuit began with the question I used to pose to God. I would often say to God: ‘O God, when will you come and till when should I wait for You to come?’ I used to often ask my self the question: If there is a Creator who exists beyond me, how should I discover Him? I had left Islam for about five years and had become an agnostic. I then discovered God and wrote the book, Islam Rediscovered. So, I found Islam as a matter of discovery and my belief is a self-discovered one, and not one of blind practice. This has been the biggest learning in my life. How do people become ungrateful? P eople become ungrateful when they take things for granted. They even take for granted the freely available life-support system that nature provides them.