Having cheated death twice – I now know the purpose of my life.

7th July 2005 – London

My wife and myself lived in a flat in Southgate, North London.  I was deputed through an I.T. company to work for a client based in Oxford Circus. My wife worked for a recruitment agency in Aldgate.

We would usually take the Picaddilly line from Southgate and change at King Cross for the central line. That day, the tube was cancelled. We took the replacement service bus and reached work about 15 minutes late.

Later, we got to know through BBC news that there was a blast at King’s Cross station roughly at around 8:45 a.m.. There were many explosions later including Aldgate where my wife worked.

We survived to live longer. It was not that close, but could have been. Many did not make it. My prayers for their family and loved ones.

The next incident, seven years later, was a close call for me though.

30th August 2012 – Near Mangalore, India

I got down from a bus travelling from my home towards Mangalore for a wildlife photography shoot. I crossed the road and stood at the divider and stepped down on the road……3 hours later woke up in a hospital and survived with just a right leg fracture and a minor head injury.

I was in the hospital for 2 weeks and saw many worse accident cases around me.

My sister handed out a book to me while I was in hospital ‘You can heal your life’ by Louise Hay.

It could have been over had the car been driving 20 miles/hour faster than he was. That is when I wondered, there must be a reason God wants me to live longer.

I started researching about life, the purpose of life and why does one get another chance….That is when I accidentally bumped into Quora – a question and answer platform, where I was active until recently when I started blogging here.

On Quora, I discovered that many who have lost all hopes in their life posted questions such as ‘Why should I live ?’.

Many have written about their life’s challenges – cancer, depression, business failure, job loss, divorce and failure in exams.

Quora does a clever job of displaying suicide helpline contact details whenever people post questions that mentions ‘suicide’. However, not many use the service.

I have answered many questions and gave assurance to live on and asked them to get in touch with me if they wish to.

This is not a big deal at all. What does it really take for someone to hear out someone in distress ? Just a few minutes in a week ? Can’t we spend that much time for someone who just needs an assurance that they are not alone and life will get better with time.

You may reach out to me on Quora here

I have also learnt that once life got better for these people, they wouldn’t bother to get in touch with me. It is fine with me. I have accepted the fact that this is how life is. We are all humans and we reach out to people only when we are going through a rough patch. When life gets better, we forget those who were there for you, when you were in serious trouble.

Sometime last year, I met someone who explained to about  ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ – a powerful chant in buddhism for enlightenment. There is no magic here. Just a realization that we are all part of the universe connected in some way. We have our bad karma’s and good karma’s from past life.

Chanting ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ alleviates the bad karma and gives you more buddha wisdom and courage to deal with all problems in life.

I have found the purpose of my life. It is not just about pursuing my dreams.

It is about sharing wisdom, be there for people to hear them out. I am here to let people know that they have the wisdom and strength to solve their own problems just like I did.

By spreading the wisdom, I am alleviating my bad karma and inviting good karma.

I have found the purpose of my life.

I wrote this post last year and I shall continue with what I believe in this year too.

I also believe in practicing what I preach.

Have a great 2016.