Taking leaps of faith

Faith being an unquantifiable, abstract idea, one can never try to decipher the complexities that go into understanding and appreciating the same. Faith is not necessarily restricted to the divine; it could be a faith in your ability to face a challenge, to sing, on your parenting skills or to cross the Silk Board junction at any time of the day!

Faith in the higher power is such a private affair and to debate on the superiority of faith or the rightness of it or enforcing your view point on someone else’s faith or debating on the possible repercussions of not heeding the same, leads to dissent and worse, makes the situation volatile. Tolerance becomes the foundation stone for letting go and letting be and it transcends across spheres without being selective.

When in 20s, you believe the world is your oyster and hence claims of ‘no intention to get pregnant’ was all too easy to make. Oblivious to the baby in the making in my womb, I was on prescribed medications that were contra-indicative to pregnancy.

It was 4 am on a Tuesday, a day after I skipped my due date; I got a peculiar dream about the literature of the medication being read out in the recesses of my mind. Jolted awake, I scrambled out of my bed to read what was written on the drug strip and found that it was exactly as in the dream. I was shaken. I took an appointment with my gynaecologist, who felt it was still early and that confirmation would not be possible. Yet, I stopped the medication and all is well that ends well. Till date, I am unable to understand or share with many, including the doctor who was taken aback, how I could have insisted I was pregnant without any physical indication to prove it.

That was and is faith to me. Decry it; I will not take too kindly to the same. Neither will I flaunt it to others’ discomfort. I had one of the most beautiful roommates who would wake up at 5 am to offer her prayers and I was no one to question her. She and I got on like a house on fire despite a whole lot of theological differences.

To me, faith is the power that makes you achieve more or gives a sense of solace. Seek it at home or a place of worship; it’s your choice. I also believe that matters of faith and tradition were handed down through generations and they followed the diktat that was true at a certain point of time. Children were taught to value places of worship or told to follow certain rituals to keep them grounded. We grew up in a generation that emulated the quote of Tennyson, “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.”

Today, science and rationalism has taught our children and most of us to question. True to the nature of life, we don’t have answers to many; yet, we decide that our way is the high way. Does it bode well for the future? Well, only time will tell!