I read about the play – ‘A Perfect Murder’ being staged at Opera House. Being an Alfred Hitchcock adaptation I enthusiastically went for it, buying an extra ticket from a lady at the venue. Seated next to her, I overheard her asking her friend, “ I hope you understand Marathi.” Before I could process the implication of that, the announcement on the sound system warmly welcomed the audience in Marathi, confirming what I knew may well be true.

Not entirely fluent in the language my first thought was to recognize that I had made a mistake and leave. But then I immediately had the next thought – ‘so what?’. I figured I had never seen a Marathi play and here was an opportunity to experience something I had never done before. I stayed, fully understood the plot and almost 70% of the dialogues, and had the most enjoyable time, watching some wonderful performances.

On my way home as I reflected with amusement on the evening, I realized three important things for myself.

The first thought usually comes from habit and pre-conditioned thinking. Often we operate with an auto-response to situations and people, neither exploring options nor taking time to change ourselves. Saying no has probably become easier than stepping out of our comfort zone. Giving ourselves space after the first thought may well reveal options we may never have considered.

The paradigm shift for me was asking myself the pivotal question – ‘so what?’. Life is never always going to give us things exactly as we want or expect. It is at those times that we can either fight life with anger, frustration, and disappointment, or we can align with what life is sending us by shedding our fear, opening our minds, and igniting enthusiasm by living with the paradigm – ‘so what?’

We often view things as desirable and undesirable, giving us either joy or sorrow. I realised that if we view whatever happens to us as an experience without the colour of good or bad, we start looking forward to everything that comes our way, making us richer with the wealth of experiences we collect over the years.

If we are not willing to experiment, we will never discover life to its fullest. When life is not going our way we need to take a step back and remind ourselves of the simple truth – Life is not about always getting what we want but making the best of what we get.

(Picture – Royal Opera House, Mumbai )