Relevance of Past and Future in the Present
before i start i want you to do me a
simple favor and reflect
how simple reflect upon everything that
is in your life right now not talking
about your surroundings i’m talking
about your life
everything that is in your life ask
yourself how did this arrive here
what choice what circumstance what
situation what led to this
outcome happening in my life right now
and
that outcome can be anything that
outcome can be your physical appearance
your mental well-being the questions you
seek answers to that outcome can be
anything
what led to these outcomes what
conscious choice led to these outcomes
and as you’re thinking of that conscious
choice ask yourself
when did this choice this situation this
circumstance come up which led
to the outcome that you have today in
your life ask yourself
when did this happen
it’s your past the simple answer to it
is your past
whatever choices you made in your past
whatever situations and circumstances
that led
to those choices they are determining
your present
outcome today and that pass can be
anything it can be immediate pass from
10 minutes ago where you ate a slice of
pizza and now you’re regretting because
you’re on a diet
or it can even be the past from 10 years
ago where you chose a significant other
who ended up chasing your life
altogether what is determining your
present
outcome it’s your past it’s the choices
that you’ve made in your past
so what’s the point that i’m trying to
make here a mere simple theory which
will reduce the miseries of
the regret of what has happened and
anxiety of anticipation of what is going
to happen
simply being said regret of the past and
worry of the future
and the theory being as simple as this
your present is a total outcome of the
choices you’ve made in the past
and your future is going to be a total
outcome of the choices you make
right now the answer is your past is
nothing more than a lesson
for the present and your future is
nothing more than a projection
of the present good morning ladies and
gentlemen my name is partoshana i’m a 22
year old storyteller who loves to travel
i’m also an entrepreneur a public
speaker and a dreamer who’s doing what
he’s doing with the sole aim of
giving it forward you know what
intrigues my mind today it’s this
question that i ask myself that
what makes a human trust the process
what makes a human believe in themselves
what makes a human have faith in their
capabilities
and i’m not talking about the good days
anyone can believe in themselves in the
good days i’m talking about the dark
days
what makes one trust the process when no
one else is what makes them believe in
themselves when the entire
world is turning against them what makes
them have faith in their capabilities
when
every single one is turning their back
against them what is that limitless part
that makes a person take those tiny
little steps forward
this is a question that i ask myself
daily and quite honestly quite frankly
i’ve not been able to arrive to an
answer yet so let’s give it another shot
you and me together let’s give it
another shot
so there’s this guy named kabir our guy
here kabir belongs to a lower middle
class family he lives with his parents
in a single room house in a beautiful
hill station named beer in himachal
pradesh you know he’s grown up seeing so
much happen around himself he’s grown up
seeing amazing sunsets he’s grown up
seeing jaw-dropping meadows he’s grown
up around tourists from all across the
country and even the world or
something
that
doesn’t have questions to impress his
teachers he has these questions
to learn to cater to his own curiosity
it was this curiosity that he had which
led him to trying
every possible thing around himself be
it hiking
paragliding cooking gardening the kid
did everything possible and he had
absolutely no idea that his curiosity
was actually catering to more than just
his finances back home i’ll tell you how
simple
how do i find my passion my answer
starts and ends
this simply you find your passion by
trying
just try you could not possibly say that
dal travel is your favorite until unless
you’ve
tasted rajma chawal
but you get my point right like until
unless you try every possible thing
until unless you try different things
you cannot give your mind the liberty
and the choice to pick on something and
say
keep mushy up now passion nahim alright
until unless you try different things
you don’t give your mind a chance to
choose a chance to choose what makes you
happy a chance to choose what makes you
the most driven
you don’t give your mind the chance so
try
and ladies and gentlemen that’s exactly
what kabir was doing as well his
curiosity led him to try
every single thing around himself he
tried and tried until it finally led him
to discovering
a camera and well that was it the whole
world that lied within that still
picture
you know the power it had the power it
had to speak the unspoken the part had
to feel the unfelt to express the
unexpressed
he fell in love with that power he fell
in love with that limitless power and he
knew it that this was what he wanted to
do for the rest of his life so for the
next two years he would study during the
day in his school and during the
evenings he would just go to the tourist
spots
sit with the tourists and go and ask
them
and in no time this photographer without
a camera
was famous throughout the hill station
and let alone the hill station people
from
outside started knowing him there was so
much hype around himself his identity
his talent
people created a wildfire people spread
his talent like a wildfire on the social
media everyone coming to beer knew kabir
already everyone knew that they have to
go to this one kid and get their
pictures clicked from him everyone knew
that there is this one talent that the
entire hill station is being known with
the boss and it was his resilient
efforts that once led him to getting an
offer from a bollywood director who
offered him to take him to mumbai and
said that i’ll mentor you
and make you a professional in my team
boss that was it
that was the moment that kabir had been
waiting for for all his life you know he
had discovered
the ultimate the limitless power in
those still pictures and he was like
yeah
you know the amount of happiness that
the kid had he was running and shouting
in glory he was running and shouting in
happiness
through the streets of that small
station everyone knew that something had
happened and he was running
in anticipation to tell it to the people
he had been doing it for his parents
only to have his heart broken into
pieces
man this guy wasn’t going to settle for
less he didn’t have a rancher in his
life as well who would go up to his
parents and convince them
for pursuing a career in photography he
didn’t but
he didn’t choose to give up he fought
with them he fought with them day in and
day out time and time out
only to hear them say again and again
nahi
as time passed the director left for
bombay and so did the offer with him
he was shattered into pieces man he
moved to new delhi he studied in iit
delhi and
being the natural hustler that he was he
landed up a high-paying job
in his third year but he hadn’t given up
photography yet he refused to give up on
photography he was still a photographer
without a camera but
he had his will
he now wanted to go to mumbai and earn
his way into the director’s team but the
job that he was offered from his college
asked him to stay in new delhi and once
again the same story
security
but no man this time kabir wasn’t going
to take no for an answer he was ready
to put everything at stake for this he
was ready to put everything at stake for
his dream everything
his career his job his finances his
financial security his future
the future of his own family the future
of the family back home in b himachal
pradesh
he was ready to put everything at stake
for this but he wasn’t ready to die
with the regret of not trying he went to
mumbai
he was disowned by his family he was
rebuked and hated for the decision that
he had taken
he was called a disgrace stupid
insensitive ignorant for the decision
that he had taken but
he didn’t stop he was still in mumbai as
an amateur photographer without a camera
but he didn’t stop he would work
relentlessly he would work during the
day as an assistant during the night as
a tutor he would gather the money save
up for a camera
make sure he’s taking up every possible
project never saying no for an answer
making opportunities for his own self he
just did not
choose to stop he loved it he loved it
he loved the hustle he fell in love with
the process ten years to that decision
and he’s still in mumbai he hasn’t made
it to the director’s dream team yet but
he’s happy he’s settled he lives in a
lavish two bhk on the 50th floor in
mumbai from where he sees
the world beneath his own eyes he’s got
a beautiful daughter they’ve named her
rwan
and she studies in one of the best
schools in all of bombay he’s got a
beautiful wife shania who’s a writer and
he’s got a profession that is helping
him pay the bills of his family in
mumbai and also of his family in b
himachal pradesh
who have now shifted in a beautiful
duplex bungalow with the garden
he’s hungry for more but he’s still
happy and that’s
that’s exactly what matters at the end
of the day now ladies and gentlemen the
story of kabir pretty much matches the
same story of the man that you see on
your screen right now i’ve grown up a
very curious kid just like kabir
i’ve grown up with a passion just like
kabir for pursuing a career in
filmmaking and music
but just like kabir nay i too made a
very bold choice a very bold decision in
my life
i took the decision of withdrawing from
a career in the indian armed forces
which if seen rationally was a courier
that could have fetched me a stable
secure
and a respected life something that has
almost every indian parent’s dream
and trust me when i say the
repercussions of that decision just like
a beer
they were heavy i was boycotted by my
own friends by my own family the people
that i expected the least
toned their backs towards me
our house helped started judging me
me but all jokes aside you get my point
right
i release i was boycotted from all
family functions i was isolated from
going outside my own friends turned
their back against me and
when this decision went public the
amount of
hatred that i faced the amount of hatred
that people bestowed over me
was absolutely insane i was called a
coward i was called a loser i was called
a disgrace i was called
a traitor i had people give me death
threats
on my own phone for god’s sake and today
you know when i look back at all of this
i just
sit and think about this question of
mine that what made me run after my
dreams back then
what made me trust the process what made
me trust the process when no nested
what made me have faith in my own self
when no one else did what made me
believe in my own capabilities
when the entire world was turning their
backs against me when i asked this
question to kabir he just
man he just he just smiles and says i
took that decision back then because i
didn’t want the regret
of not trying and i’m doing what i’m
doing today because i don’t want the
regret
of not trying enough and if you really
see it this speaks volumes about the
human nature
regret regret is often seen as something
that we associate with our past
but we let go of the limitless
capabilities and the power that it has
when we associate it with our probable
future
think about it once think about it once
and ask yourself why does that happen
simply because we fail to understand the
relevance of our past
and our future in our lives we fail to
understand the relevance of our past
and our future in our present i’ll put
it down simply for you
your past is nothing but an experience
for you an experience which stands
all as a book of lessons which you need
to refer to
while living your life today we would
only be wasting such a useful resource
as our past if we sit down and regret it
because when we understand this
one fact everything changes and the fact
being
that our present as i said in the
beginning of the speech as well a
present
is a total outcome of the choices we’ve
made in the past
and our future is going to be a total
outcome of the choices we make
right now and those choices the choices
that we make in the present they’re done
right when we allow our past to be an
experience
and not something that we regret khabib
didn’t regret not taking that offer up
he didn’t regret any bit of what had
happened in the past all he took all of
that was
as an experience as a lesson for him to
shape his future
by taking the choices in the present and
his choice being to move to mumbai
without taking no for an answer and god
did not make the most of it
he made the most of it despite being
disowned by his own family despite being
hated despite being called a disgrace
despite being called a coward
stupid ignorant insensitive and every
possible thing you can call him everyone
turned his back against him
yet he did it he did it to shape his own
future to shape
his own destiny he did it man he made
the most of what he had for the very
simple reason that
he didn’t want to die with the regret of
not trying
and he also didn’t want to die with the
regret of not having tried enough
until date man till date whenever i said
it till date whenever i ask him
every time the man just smiles and says
it’s true if you believe