"Irony"

                   "Sappan Dey Puttar Mittar Na Hondey Bhawein Chullian Dudh Piyaey

                       Gai Jawani Feir Nahin Aandi Bhawain Lakh Khurakaan Khaiyey"

Hi everyone,

I found myself standing at a jewelry counter way too many times before I realized I had a problem! I was only in my mid-twenties, a mother of three children, and I would somehow find the time to go to my favorite local jewelry store. 

During one of those aimless/harmless trips while drooling over the most beautiful diamond ring, the saleswoman threw me her pitch: "Oh this is a beautiful piece! Why don't you get it? It will look beautiful on your long fingers." I smiled and sighed simultaneously and said, "I wish I could but I can't afford it." 

Our dialogue caught the attention of a much older lady who was there to do some serious shopping. The lady said to me, "When I had young hands, beautiful fingers, and a desire to own beautiful jewelry, I couldn't afford a ring like this. Now, when I can easily afford it and still have a love for jewelry, my hands are old and wrinkled and my fingers are too swollen to wear a piece like this. That, my dear, is one of the ironies of life!" I nodded my head, gave her a smile loaded with empathy, but didn't quite get what she was saying.

I didn't realize at the time how circular this paradox can be!

Putting a positive twist on anything negative that comes my way is not only a passion of mine, it's a philosophy that rules and runs my life beautifully. I had to find something good in this particular irony of life. 

What I have found is that knowledge has to be time-released and stapled with some experience or it's somewhat wasted. Although the knowledge that you seek all through your life stops you from executing your life on ad hoc basis, it teaches you to pay heed to the deafening silences that you may come across at times following your naive outbreaks. It also holds you back from embracing your oxymoronic tendencies; it's not fully absorbed if you get it prematurely. 

The kind of irony that I encountered at that jewelry counter so many years ago is the kind that can keep you in hope, the kind that keeps you going. It's the kind of irony that can take you as far in life as you let it, as sometimes it's better if you don't know what life has in store for you until it's too late. Until then you play the hand you are dealt!

A few years back standing at the same jewelry counter, where I was the much older woman this time around, (ironically I got to that point at the speed of lightning) I spotted a young girl trying on a stunning bracelet while listening to the saleswoman's pitch. Her sighing and admitting that she couldn't afford it was temptation enough for me to jump in their conversation with the "great irony"under my belt, but I didn't. Rather, I wanted that young mind to find out on her own, in due time, what she has at this time is much more precious than a piece of jewelry. 

I believe that, so to speak, irony is behind a lot of successful human relationships; particularly the  mother of all relationships: Marriage. By the time one realizes that it's not an ideal situation it's already too late, as one has gone quite deep into the biggest investment of his/her life and then decides to try harder to make it work. In most cases things turn around and work out beautifully.    

Irony is not a bad word after all!

Much love,

Shehla