Life - The Magic of the Unknown
by Suma Varughese
A fortuitous leap in the dark made all the difference, says the life positive editor-in-chief
Fifteen years and some months
ago, I took a fl ying leap into uncertainty…
and landed safely into the
waiting arms of Life Positive.
I was then editor of a mainstream
magazine. The tension between the
values I was promoting through the
magazine and the ones I practised
became so acute that I spent a few
months in acute nausea.
The time came when I was finally
led by my inner voice to quit. What
was I to do? Intuition
suggested I freelance.
Obediently, I put in
my papers. As the day
wore on, I quaked internally.
What was
I thinking? I had a
mother and cat to
support! Just as I was
breaking the news
to my mother that
night – and how she
started, poor thing –
the phone rang. It was Parveen Chopra,
founder-editor of this magazine,
telling me that he was looking for a
Mumbai correspondent. I had only
met Parveen once, four months ago
when he was working on a book on
New Age in India. I had no idea he
was starting a magazine. And here
readymade on the very day I had
quit, came the only prospect I would
have considered taking.
A relationship based on a miracle
is bound to felicitous. The last 15
years have been many things – exciting,
meaningful, joyous, enriching,
infuriating, frustrating, even agonizing
at times – but it has never been
nauseating.
Yes, there are moments of deep
frustration when you work in a
magazine with limited resources, but
these moments pass. They do not
scar the soul.
What stays is the deep satisfaction
of earning a livelihood doing something
that you believe
in and where there is
a seamless continuity
between the values
you propagate and the
ones you practice.
What is priceless is
the opportunity to do
work that is benign,
that is contributing to
the welfare of those
around us and that is
helping pave the way
for a radically new era.
And that is what Life Positive has
taught me. I have learnt to trust in
the magic of the unknown; to have
faith in my intuition for it is far wiser
than I; to never settle for what is
soul-destroying. It has given me an
unshakable faith in the universe. Today
I know that as long as I do what
is right, I will be taken care of. What
else does a wayfarer need?
See more articles on Life at: http://www.lifepositive.com/Articles/Life
