Finding the courage to step into the unknown

Reflections on dealing with uncertainty

Some years ago, I stumbled upon an article by Natasha Badhwar. It changed my life. The piece titled “Finding the courage to step into the unknown” dwelled on how we keep making choices laden with uncertainty. She writes:

Just like I cannot articulate why life exists in this beautiful, flawed form in the first place, I cannot really explain why we are often compelled to take decisions that are embedded with loss and uncertainty. I just know that you are familiar with this experience.

Last year, several migrants undertook collective journeys of thousands of kilometres. But as scenes of India’s workforce walking barefoot splashed across TV screens, the first to respond were ordinary citizens, non-profit and civil society organisations. Many of them put their lives at risk to be out there every day fuelled by the pain inflicted on fellow human beings. As Natasha says, these were decisions embedded with loss and uncertainty.

This year as millions suffer across the vast swathes of India, thousands of non-profits are rising to the occasion. It is without doubt a monumental challenge. Non-profits cannot replace the healthcare system in our country. Their capacities at best exist to support efforts. Maybe some can even demonstrate what it means to run a good healthcare system, but that is where it stops. Yet, organisations that work on education, livelihoods, governance and so on have all stepped in. Garnering resources, seeking expertise through networks, deploying manpower and engaging volunteers wherever they can. But what do we do to engage with things we don’t know. Natasha writes:

Sometimes leaving places that are like home for us is an act of survival. We choose to leave because we are ready to grow beyond the protective boundaries that have limited us. Safety can be claustrophobic. We brave risks we can name to unearth parts of ourselves that we have never known before.

We may not be able save everyone. Many of us in non-profits and civil society will also lose near and dear ones. And yet so many are out there every single day. Maybe we will all change for the better. Maybe we will know each other intimately like never before. Maybe we will all start to care for each other.

But before all of this begins to end, nothing can move if YOU don’t stand up to be counted. You, the reader, can do so many things to support those who are supporting the most marginalised in this country. Let me offer a way for you to contribute.

Initiative Spotlight

The pandemic gave several of us a chance to coalesce into an umbrella volunteer group. Since May, we have enabled movement of equipment, material, and supplies from across the country. At times, we are also able to procure material at reasonable costs. This highly networked volunteer group needs money to support regions that are on SOS, and facilities that are running short of equipment. Due to our nimble setup and personal involvement, we have been able to make a dent in areas as far flung as Manipur to remote areas of Karnataka. You can donate here (the campaign needs some updating and we are working on it. Like I wrote, we are doing a lot more than just oxygen cylinders).

All of us know that we have to rebuild society. How? None of us knows. Nothing happens on its own. We collectively have to decide what we will do to be different than who we are today. Natasha Badhwar offers us some clues on how we might reach there.

It is truly the miracle of life that so many of us discover that in our quest to find the home where we might belong, we realize that we have ourselves become the home we seek.

To read this life changing article by Natasha Badhwar, you can click here.