The time was around April when I had visited my house for chath puja festival. It's a big festival for people of Bihar/Jharkhand (Bihar-a state in India where I'm natively from). As Chath puja is a big festival for us, those who live far from home, we generally go to home during this time. So both my uncle and me visited our home.

My uncle and me generally go on walks if we meet. By some excuse, he tries to include me to go to market with him because we generally would be busy when we are in home with house chores or feeding prasad to people or multiple n number of chores that comes in the package of chath festival. So generally he would tell, Piyush, lets go to market, we have to get some sweets or plates to serve prasad or to buy clothes etc. This was also one of the instances.

While we were returning from the market, he was sharing some of his story of his bad days and how he tackles them. I was also going through some health problem at that time. I don't know what struck to me, I decided to ask him. How do I cope up with bad days? When things don't feel right, when things look like they're falling apart, when you're alone sitting in a room at 3am in the night thinking what can be done, when you don't see a way out, what to do? I asked

"REFUSE TO GIVE UP" He simply told.

I'll tell you a story Piyush. He told. Once, long back, there were 2 stones. Same color, same material, same texture, almost identical. Once, a sculptor decided to make a sculpture. He took out his tools like hammer and chisels. He started hammering and chiseling on the first stone, thinking and trying to shape out the stone. The stone started crying and screaming with pain because his body was being cut. He was crying out loud to stop and that's what the sculptor did. He stopped. He couldn't see the poor stone in so much pain.

Then he went to the other stone, thinking the same. He wanted to create the sculpture. So he started hammering and chiseling on the 2nd stone. This stone also felt pain and was crying but this stone was tough. He trusted the sculptor and kept taking on the pain. Days passed, both the sculptor and the stone were working very hard and both didn't give up. At the end, came out a beautiful sculpture of a god. The pose, the hands, the eyes, fine details, everything was just perfect.

Now the sculptor gave the god's sculpture to a temple. People were offering sweets, prasadam, milk, abhishek, money etc to the stone while the other stone was used to break coconuts.

The point is Piyush, he told. If hardships come into your life, consider it as an opportunity that someone is trying to carve you to be better. Think that the sculptor wants to make something good out of you and bear the pain. Simply, Refuse to give up.

And that day, I decided and thought of creating a blog website because this story was simply deserved to be told. This story had a good impact on me. I'm grateful to my uncle for telling this to me. He has gone through a lot but still his will power is so strong. He simply refuses to give up. I admire him for that and for creating the life he wanted for himself.

I just wanted to share this story, I don't know who needs to hear this but I certainly did need this then. I keep reminding myself about this once in a while. So, thinking that someone else might need to hear this as well, I'm sharing this story.