Yet Untitled 099 - It Will All Work Out

On the miracle of encouragement

Dearest Yet Untitler,

I woke up this morning thinking of an Indigo Girls song called “Love Will Come to You.”

Right after, I thought that I must share it with a single friend of mine. It’s a song that’s helped me in the past by simply telling me that something I really wanted will happen, and I wanted to tell my single friend who’s been wanting not to be single for some time just this.

I wanted to tell him - while I’m unsure of how it’ll happen, I know that it will.

The miracle of encouragement is not founded in logic

It seems to me that it’s founded in belief.

Another time, decades ago, I was disappointed after receiving a rejection letter from my university of choice. I had only applied to one other place, and was scared that I’ll be rejected from there as well.

I called up my mom, and she said this:

“I give it to you in writing that the other place will make you an offer.”

There was no logic to what she said. But she kept repeating the same thing over and over. Then the dreaded letter came, and sure enough - I was accepted!

I often think about this moment. Not only did it steer me out of a funk, it seemed to lead me by the hand straight to my desired outcome.

Mum sprucing me up for my graduation ceremony, something she manifested! Cambridge, c. 2003

When the mountaineer Anurag Maloo had fallen into a crevasse while descending from Mount Annapurna (read the story here), most experts believed him to be dead after he wasn't found for three days. A tremendous worldwide rescue effort was mounted but as the days went by without Anurag being found, the situation became grim. In fact, when some of Anurag’s well-wishers refused to stop their efforts, whether it was finding ways to expand the search or to simply keep praying for him to be found, some of them were told off for their seemingly misplaced hopes and pushed to accept that he was dead.

Well, here’s Anurag in the next photograph, one year on, dapper in his jacket, healthy, receiving a hug from me from at the Polish ambassador’s house in Delhi, where all those who rescued him - the ones who refused to give up hope - were felicitated a few days ago.

Annapurna’s Anurag, the happy man who encouraged himself into a second life, Tilak Marg, New Delhi, c. April, 2024

Having mentioned Hope, I think that the word lies at the heart of what I’m calling ‘the Miracle of Encouragement’. In fact, when Anurag was encouraging himself at the bottom of a 70m deep ice hole in the Himalayas, he was doing it via imagined scenarios of his rescue, all of which ended with the hopeful outcome of him being reunited with his family.

In fact, when Anurag was eventually pulled out of the crevasse by Polish mountaineers Mariusz Hatala and Adam Bielecki and brought to a hospital in Kathmandu, the doctors told his family that while there was a small chance they might be able to resuscitate him, Anurag’s brain had likely already died. Anurag’s brother Ashish and his cousin Sudhir conferred and decided that they must do everything they could to bring Anurag’s heart back to life at all costs. They would deal with everything else later.

Here’s Anurag in the next photo, eloquently participating in a discussion panel around his amazing story of survival. His brother Ashish is somewhere to the right of frame. Sudhir didn’t make it that day, but I’m sure he was there in spirit, happy and encouraged that his decision towards hope had proved miraculous.

All the moments I’ve described above; there seems to be no logic to them. But somehow, in each instance, a pact towards a particular outcome has manifested that desired outcome alone.

I find this fascinating. And encouraging.

Often I find optimism derided as naieve, and me - a ready vessel for optimism’s use - often taken less than seriously for being so. But the other day, Vishesh Gupta - chairman of Bharat Soka Gakkai spoke at a sustainability concave referencing Mahatma Gandhi who referred to himself as an “irrepressible optimist”, and I think this encouraged me enough to get past my occasional embarrassment of my optimism and proclaim it before you in this instalment.

Dearest Yet Untitler. It will all work out. I hope you hear me when I say this and believe it as I do. I believe deeply that when both you and I believe it, the encouragement becomes a powerful prayer that sparks with ichinen (the Japanese phrase for the Buddhist concept of life force), itching to manifest. Ask my mom. Ask Anurag. Ask his brothers Sudhir and Ashish. Ask me who woke up and believed that my dear friend will find love.

We’ll all be telling you the same thing.

Thanks for listening.

Lots of love

V

PS. Psst. We are one instalment away from one hundred mainline Yet Untitled-s! This calls for some celebration. Any suggestions? As always, I’d love to hear from you. Hit me up with a comment!