By The Sunny Sidewalks of Istanbul
NOTE: These insights and short stories represent chronicles from my travel diary. I have gathered such insights over the years through conversations with complete strangers during my travels to Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe. Some of them experienced and successful in their careers and some still struggling. These very individuals went on to become friends, colleagues, clients, and vendors of mine. Given the fact that a lot of the people were from a Middle Eastern background, you will probably notice a general theme.
In many ways, these topics helped me shape my own opinions about the world. It took me some time to organize them in sections in order to make it easy for the reader to follow. With the help of a friend, I finally came to the conclusion that it should be segregated in the following sections: 1) By The Sunny Sidewalks of Istanbul, 2) Bread and Butter
Humor
Even if it’s not smart, it’s still worth it. Seek humor every step of the way throughout your day; cherish it, nourish it. Because you are a powerless and fallible creature and you already have a million reasons to be miserable.
Tolerance
People are always going to be different. Different values, different religions, different beliefs, different practices, different ideas.
The challenge is in bringing them together so that they may know one another and learn from each other and grow as a collective body.
The Teacher
I’m going to teach my kids the languages and the trades of the world. I will discipline them when they are still young. I will teach them that every action of theirs has a repercussion on the society and if they really want to add value to people around them, they will have to go out of their way to learn to ask the hard questions and do the hard things.
And then, I’ll let them go so they can sing their own song.
Passion
Passionate people are already in motion. They are constantly doing things. They have momentum. Reach out to them. Bind them to a goal. Create the kind of value that is far greater than all of our cumulative values combined. Share the wealth. Ignore those who stand against your goals.
Remind yourself that it will not last if you don’t do it with love.
Coercion
First, you find people with similar or possibly even greater values than what you hold. And then you go out of your way to make them the best at what they do, assisting them in becoming a better and stronger version of themselves. And you do this while keeping your own set of values intact but open to being molded and making sure they know what your values are.
It is also important to involve in constant debate and engage in effective dialogue among yourself. After an x amount of time, either you will grow into their set of values or they will grow into yours.
Either way, both of you are going to be at a much better place than where you started.
Persistence
I sat outside her office for a month until she decided to put me in that program. The very first day in that class, I had the biggest smile on my face. Sitting among the best and the brightest. But that excitement was short-lived.
I felt lonely. I didn’t feel like I was among people who wanted to be there. Maybe 1 or 2 who knew their purpose. But the majority of them were floaters i.e. they were really smart people who didn’t know what they wanted to do. I really wanted to be there. That excitement faded away quicker than I thought.
But I had decided to be there and had decided to do it anyway. If you think it is your calling, you have to suck it up and do not expect everyone around you to be equally excited. It was your game, to begin with.
And if you realized it was not your game, it is best that quit early and start anew.
Addiction
We are all emotional beings and we all have weaknesses. Let’s take alcoholism for an example. Alcoholism is a monster with a very friendly face. We get very easily acquainted with each other. And it seeps under our skin and feeds on our emotions. It also feeds on the emotions of our loved ones but we don’t realize it. Slowly the monster gets bigger and bigger under our skin. We keep feeding it more and more emotion until a point where we become very vulnerable to react.
It gets to the best of us so easily.
Freedom
It is only in the moment of true anarchy do people break open from the shell that they have put in front of others and come out as the real, raw and unleashed version of themselves; and at that precise moment with no rules, they are free.
Some people choose to break open and live even without the anarchy.
Fight
Learn to pick your fights. You will never win them all but if you learn to play smart, you will win the important ones and lose the ones that were necessary.
Equality
Not being quiet when you feel the need to raise your voice.
Peace
I was in Istanbul for my grad trip. It was 4 AM and I was woken up by the striking sound of the Azaan (a religious call to prayer in the Muslim world). I was hearing the Azaan after a very long time. For a fleeting moment, I was reminded of my childhood. My friends were asleep in the other room. I quietly got off my bed and climbed the winding metal stairway connected to my room, up to the roof. There was a thin sliver of orange in the sky. I sat on the floor of the roof, lit a cigarette and soaked myself in the stillness of the moment.
