Here is a list of quotes and shayaris I keep going back to as I try to navigate through my peak adulting years away from a place I once knew to be home-

1. Zakir Khan’s kabhi kabhi na badi baat keh deni chahiye, uparwala dekh raha hota hai, aap jesa kehte ho na vese hii hota hai. usiko tathastu kehte hai

Roughly translated-
Sometime you should say big things, impossible things
The gods are always watching
Whatever you say, somehow ends up happening

Tathastu. I grew up listening to the elders or the priests say this when I would touch their feet for their blessings or maybe ask for or pray for something and I wondered if their blessings really had the power to make things happen. Saying “tathastu” is like saying amen after your prayers. It basically means “may your wish be granted”.
I make promises like “mum I am going to be so famous that you’ll have paparazzi following you” and “didi I will repay all the money you’ve sent every time I wanted silly things mom-dad would refuse to buy” and “dad you just have to say the word and I’ll fly home to hug you in an instance” when I am actually living on a tight student budget, not saving a single penny, and barely keeping up with the social commitments I make on weekends. How and when will these promises come true? Will they? I still say such dramatic things because I know my gods are listening or at least I hope they are and I am just one tathastu away from the life I have been dreaming about.

Satinder Sartaj’s ibaadat kar ibaadat karan de naal gal ban di hai, kise di aaj bann di hai te kise di kal bann di ay

Roughly translated-
Pray. worship. Have some faith. Things tend to work in your favour when you continue to have faith and worship the higher power. Things will work out, for some sooner than others. But it will all be okay just continue to have faith.

Lately, I just feel like the world is out to get me. Nothing is fully wrong but I constantly feel like nothing is happening the way I want it to, the way I planned it to. But I can’t complain about it. I am surrounded by so many people who don’t even have half as much as I do, they are struggling and hurting. I have so much to be grateful for, I have so much that some would kill for. Then how dare I complain about the little I don’t have, yet. My problems seem like such first-world problems. So instead of complaining about my pain or struggles I shut up, thank god for all that I have and continue to have faith. I hope and pray that everyone gets what their heart yearns for, may I get what I desire. Soon.

Wajid Shaikh’s himmat kar, sabr kar, bhikar kar bhi sawar jaaega
yakeen kar, shukr kar, waqt hain guzar jaaega

Roughly translated,
Have some courage, have patience. You might fall apart but you will get back up, stronger
Have some faith, be grateful. Its just a bad time, it too shall pass

In continuum with what I said for the previous quote, I tend to find solace in the words sabr and shukr. Sabr means to wait and shukr means to thank. When you want something in life and you are doing every possible bit you can to achieve it, and it still isn’t happening for you then all you can do is wait. Wait for things to work out. Sometimes waiting gets too harsh and upsetting and negative that is when you say your thanks. You thank the gods for everything you do have and continue waiting for more to come. While it takes courage to want more, it takes faith to continue waiting.
Time is so fleeting that your bad days become good and good turn bad in the blink of an eye. All you have to do is have some faith and some courage.

Jaun Elia’s wo mujhe padh paaye, itni uski taaleem nahi

Roughly translated,
They aren’t wise enough to be able to read me, to understand me

The constant need to be relatable, to not be taken out of context, to be understood actually roots from our innate need to be liked. Why do I care so much if they get me? If they truly see me for who I am? If they agree with what I feel? If they understand me? Why do I need to be understood?
Because I want to be liked. I want to be agreeable, amicable, jolly, and politically correct with a similar sense of humour and the same sense of the world as everyone. But how will we be the same? You don’t know where I come from. You haven’t seen the life I have. I have no idea about your struggles and victories. I don’t know your story. So it’s okay if you don’t get me or if I don’t relate to you.
I will not belittle myself, or adapt myself to a size, a shade, a person I am not just because I want to be understood. I understand me, I get me and that should be enough. I cannot let people-pleasing take over who I am. Neither should you.

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Your twenties are so weird. You are supposedly having the best time of your life but you’re also deciding who you will be, and what you will do for years to come. In the words of a genZ kid,

life is really lifing and I am not here for it.

But since I don’t have an option, I am trying and finding wisdom in poems and songs, in experiences and mistakes- mine and others’, in life and in loss.
I hope this helps my fellow adults trying to have it all.