Never give up

If life has taught me anything, it’s to never give up. But this lesson didn’t come easilyI had to learn it the hard way.

Decades ago, I was a government employee stationed in a remote village nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. It was a place far removed from the comforts of modern civilization. There were no proper roads, no reliable way to communicate with the outside world in an emergency. My office and residence were one and the same: a small bamboo hut with a corrugated steel roof that rattled in the wind.

The village itself was modest, with no more than ten shops lining the dusty road. Among them was a tiny tea shop run by Anil, a man about my age. His shop was a simple one-room setup, rarely visited by customers. Anil lived behind the shop with his wife, and over time, we became close friends.

I had a weakness for samosas, and Anil would often make them fresh for me, serving them with steaming cups of tea. No matter how much I insisted, he would refuse to accept any money from me. So, I took to slipping the payment to his wife whenever he wasn’t looking. I noticed that Anil would close his shop soon after I left each day.

The villagers whispered that Anil was lazy. When I finally broached the subject with him, he opened up. It wasn’t laziness; he simply wasn’t interested in running the tea shop. Anil would often talk about his dreams, comparing his life to mine, and lamenting his lack of education. He was full of complaints about what he didn’t have, never seeing what he did.

Once a month, I had to travel to the state capital on official business, usually for about a week. On one such return trip, as I stepped off the bus, the news hit me like a punch to the gut: Anil had committed suicide. He had hanged himself in his shop, and his wife had left the village, moving in with her relatives.

I was stunned. Why would Anil take his own life? He was young, healthy, and had a wife who cared for him. For a long time, I felt guilty, wondering if I could have done more, if I could have been a better friend. Life in that village was difficult for all of usno steady electricity, no piped water, just rainwater collected in barrels. Yet, despite the hardships, we endured. We didn’t give up. But Anil had.

I learned some hard truths from that experience. Running away from your problems doesn’t solve anything. You have to face your challenges head-on, using every bit of your strength to find a way through. We all have our moments of doubt, our times when life feels impossibly hard. Job loss, financial struggles, accidents, personal criseswe’ve all been there. I’ve had my own share of setbacks, and each time, I’ve found that every hardship carries a lesson, a chance to grow stronger.

So, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. You’re tougher than you think, and every storm you weather makes you a little more resilient.

Never give up.