Praise of if
In Praise of ‘If’ – S.Nagarajan
Haveyou ever read the inspirational, motivational poem written by Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling?
Do you want to know who can be called as a Leader, a Man? At the time of depression, do you want to know how to react to the events?
After spending quite a number of years, with all your energy, suddenly a failure occurs, for no fault of yours. You may be a victim of the circumstances. How the entire worlds evaluate you at that particular moment? Where are your friends at that fateful moment?
Whoever shared your wealth, are they supporting you at your adversity? What to do, then? Do you know what you should do at the time of failure? For many more such questions, you may find the right answers in – ‘If’ if you have not read the beautiful poem, for your ready reference, it is given below:
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.If you can dream – and not make dreams your master
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same. If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools.If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss.If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.
If all men count with you, but none too much.If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
Rudyard Kipling turneddown many honours offered to him including a knighthood, Poet Laureate and the Order of Merit, but in 1907 he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature. And he is ever remembered for his poem ‘If’.
Now contemplate on the mottos of your life. You can carry a copy of the poem in your wallet or you can copy it in the first page of your personal diary so that whenever you are depressed you can read it. More so whenever you have leisure you can read and memorize it.A boy fell on the ground while he was playing. He looked at his mom painfully. She cheerfully said to his son, “Rise my boy, with a handful of sand. Gain something whenever you fall!” The boy understood the lesson.Failure is not a failure till you accept it and quit the ground. Every fall is to rise again with some gain!
Pic Source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WlGHn8Ksfxg/maxresdefault.jpg