Belief

The conversation with the Alchemist.

5:00 AM (Kengeri)

The Alchemist: Why are you irritating me early in the morning?

Boy: Dude I am not getting sleep.

The Alchemist: I would like to hear something new. You are insomniac bro. Go get some peace and sleep . Spare me some now.

Boy: But it has become extreme now a days. Come on lets go drink some tea.

The Alchemist: You drink tea/coffee all the time and say you won't get sleep. May be you should work on your habits and routine.

Boy: Do you believe that drinking tea/coffee takes away your sleep? Probably i should drink alcohol. People say that alcohol gives you a nice sleep.

The Alchemist: Now you wanna sacrifice your liver for sleep. Crazy you.

Boy: I don't know man what to believe? It's so confusing.

The Alchemist: BELIEF is a complicated word. Don't be so quick to believe on anything and anyone.

Boy: I woke up at 2:00 AM yesterday. Tried hard to sleep. Somebody told me that physical exercise helps you get sleep. I did push ups. It didn't help me. Somebody told me meditation helps. I did. It didn't work too. It was 4:52 AM by then. So i decided to go to work without sleep. By that thought I went to drink some tea from a nearby shop. He opens the shop at 5:00 AM.
I have reached the shop. The shop owner knows me. He handed me a nice cup of tea without asking. It felt good. I took the first sip and started staring at the empty roads. I felt peace. You hardly see empty roads in bangalore. Then there comes a person after me. She took a biscuit packet. Opened it and fed the dogs present there. She took a packet of milk and left. This is not the first time I am observing this. She comes everyday i thought. I asked the shop owner that did she come everyday. He told me that she comes everyday and feeds dogs. He doesn't take money from her. She is a transgender.  He believes that if she comes, take biscuits and feed dogs it'll bring good business to him. Most of the time it brought good fortune for him. He is doing this for last 5 years since he opened his shop here. How true is that?

The Alchemist: May be and may not be.

Boy: Dude English please. Consider me as dumb as a kid. Explanation please.

The Alchemist: We have 2 brains. One takes the inputs from our senses. Helps us process it and helps to take logical decisions. We call it conscious mind. But there is one more which doesn't work on logic. It is as dumb as you. Sorry i mean it is as dumb as a kid. It takes what ever the conscious mind gives it.
If you tell yourself that you have stage fear and you can't talk well in front of an audience, you can't. If you tell yourself that you can't sing well in someones presence. you can't sing well on a stage. One can bring great fortune and at the same time great destruction by the autosuggestion they give it. If you believe in something, that means you are giving a auto suggestion to your subconscious brain. It accepts it. Your body and conscious mind responds to it and things start happening to you.

Boy: Wow! man. That's a great help. I know that you know science and all. You don't have to show off every time.

The Alchemist: The shop owner believes that doing so will bring a great business to him. His success is because of his hard work and dedication. But believing so will give him great strength and motivation to do so.

Boy: When i was in school i used to lit agarbattis in front of god before going to any exam. I scored well. But once my family believed that a prayer will cure a kids illness. They wasted too much time in doing this. They should have taken him to the doctor early. I lost a close one because of that belief. Is that what you meant when you said a belief can bring great fortune and at the same time great destruction?

The Alchemist: Now you are getting it right. That's exactly what i meant. Few times you have to take decisions with your common sense. As my father used to say "Dua ke sath dava bhi zaroori hai" means you'll need both blessings and medicines to heal.

Boy: I have believed my whole life that i can't paint or click good pics or write a good article or sing or ride bike or do good in my work. Probably i should go and try all of them. Shit! world might have lost a good story teller or a photographer or a great rider or an artist and god knows what.

The Alchemist: Calm down, chill .  You have spent a lot of time with these believes. You can't change them so easily. You have to put a lot of effort.

Boy: Will do it. Well you are always on a quest to bring change.

The Alchemist: Your personality is the result of the place where you are born, people you have met and the things you have believed in. Choose carefully what and who you believe in.

Boy: Yeah baba! Enough for today. Stop giving extra gyan. My head is bursting now. My eyes are red. I should go get some sleep now. See you some other day. Ta ta.

Mohamed Jamaluddin
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