The Sea
By Saai Syvendra ·
Can you separate salt from the sea? No, you can’t, if you consider the entire sea but if you consider a portion of seawater, you definitely can. Contest chair and fellow toastmasters, our life is like the sea. Emotion is the salt that is found abundantly in our life, the sea. Although you can’t separate emotions from your life, if you consider a portion of your life, like a portion of seawater, you definitely can separate your emotions! Let me demonstrate how
28th of August 2022.
Meow, Meow, Meow! The heart-wrenching wails of despair echoed through the kitchen, each cry stabbing my heart like shards of broken glass. I took my pillows and covered my ears, but it was no use. That screeching sound pierced through the pillow right into my ear. I checked the time; it was 4 in the morning, and mind it, this day was a Sunday. I was furious like a roaring inferno because we didn’t have kittens at home. That noise had to be my mother watching another “cute kitten” video. I got up, went to the kitchen, and yelled “Amma!” Oh My God
There were three kittens, which had cute written all over them but looked poverty-stricken. They were so thin you could see within. “Amma, how did these kittens end up in our kitchen?” “They were outside lying beside their dead mother. Poor fellows. They don’t even know that their mother is dead.”
The hulk which was raging in me calmed down. Imagine yourself in the shoes of those kittens. That incident kept me thinking for hours and hours.
11 hours later.
While taking a shower, I was still thinking about how the world is viewed by those kittens: and how they feel pain, sorrow, and sadness.
BANG! BANG! BANG! At the start, I was also confused like y'all. Then I realized it was my dad. “Syvendra, AL results are out?” “Ahh… AL results…” and I continued showering. “Wait, What?! AL Results are out?” I haphazardly wiped and wrapped myself with the towel and ran to my phone. I logged onto the website, and entered my index number, 5 2 8 9 8 4 0. Then I saw, my name, my index number, and a chart with the header - subject, and result. Physics - A, Chemistry - A, Mathematics - A. I felt nothing, not even the joy of finding a leg piece in a biriyani. However, as I looked up, I caught sight of Amma's and Appa's expressions. Their eyes brimmed with tears of pride and their beaming smiles could light up the darkest room. At that moment, their happiness became mine, surpassing the joy of finding two leg pieces in a biriyani.
Ladies and gentlemen, were you able to separate the different emotions I underwent? Where it started with anger to sorrow and was followed by surprise to happiness. Fortunately, I was able to separate them, analyze them, and come up with conclusions
The first one of them is self-awareness. Imagine if I ran into the kitchen yelling from the top of my lungs and not observing the environment, that scenario would have played out differently. When you’re taking decisions, be self-aware and detach yourself from emotions.
Now, let's move on to my second point: Emotional Influence. Though I didn’t feel anything when I got the results, I was influenced by my parent’s emotions. Emotions are contagious just like our dear old friend, Covid-19. At least during those times, we had a mask to protect ourselves, but sadly no mask will protect us from emotional influence.
Friends, by successfully separating the salt of emotion from a portion of my sea, I was able to arrive at important conclusions. I understand that we come from different walks of life, where I might be the red sea. You might be the yellow sea, the north sea, the black sea, or even Fancy. However, there's one thing I can assure you: the salt of emotion exists in all our seas, regardless of their nature. When are you going to separate your salt from your sea?
#Ovation'23
#2023
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