Follow Your Own Path (BlogChain)

Out into the World: Unlocking the Brighter Side

Saranya Iyer Adds to the Chain

I came across a beautiful post on Substack today. It was written by the renowned author Elif Shafak – the author of ‘The Forty Rules of Love’. 

While researching her new novel, she came across a 19^th century painting by prominent Ukrainian artist Kyriak Kostandi. Titled ‘Out into the World’, the painting captures a young woman travelling in a train carriage. Her head is tilted against the cool glass of the window. She is looking outside the window but there is a catch – It is not at all clear what she is looking at, nor could one decode her state of mind.

Whether she is running from the past and looking toward an uncertain future or she is relieved that she has freed herself from the shackles of the past and is looking at a promising future. Whether she is thinking forlornly about the past with wistful longing and hesitant about running into a future which is being forced on her – no one can tell.

There is a transition which is taking place and not only has she physically embarked on a journey but mentally too she is withdrawing herself from something and preparing to embrace a story which is waiting to unfold with arms outstretched.

Pratishta’s words made me reflect more deeply. The song she chose to highlight, if I may juxtapose it with the subject of the painting, we sense a resonance.

I would like to emphasise  once again the lines from the song ‘Just Around the Riverbend’ mentioned by her in the blog.

To be safe we lose our chance of ever knowing
What’s around the riverbend
Waiting just around the riverbend

The young woman is taking a leap of faith in her decision and moving forward. Had she been safe, she would have lost the chance of knowing what awaits her at the end of her train journey. Perhaps this is her chance, a long pending closure of her past that had derailed her.  Perhaps this is the way she will get what she is long manifesting for and can reclaim her lost self.

By daring to unlock the unknown, she is rewriting her story. What is awaiting is a mystery to her as much as to us but she is ready to face the consequences of it.

In the painting, the artist has used bright colours for the scenes outside the window as against to darker shades for the elements inside the train. It is as if, by setting off on this journey, the young woman is stepping toward brighter side to lighten the melancholic tones of her life.

Through Pratishta’s words, I find a sense of closure for this painting that had unsettled me, and left me in limbo.

Keep Dreaming and Discovering

Pratishta Natarajan adds to the Chain

Life is full of synchronicities. As I gear up for graduation, there are so many paths and so many obstacles. It is so easy to feel bogged down by expectations. I was just feeling this way when I read the comforting, insightful words on this thread.

When I feel this way, I often come back to music, especially old Disney. I feel like they somehow managed to capture all the complexities of human emotion. When I was a kid, I appreciated a song like “Just Around the Riverbend” purely for the incredible music and the sweeping visuals. It was just a beautiful, catchy scene. But as I grow older, the meaning resonates on such a deep level. Back then, I didn’t understand the heavy weight of standing at a crossroads. Now, I realise it perfectly captures that very real tension between choosing the safe, expected route and daring to step into the terrifying, thrilling unknown.

This morning, I intuitively began singing it, and it aligns perfectly with the heart of what has been discussed on this thread.
I wanted to share some of the lyrics with you:

What I love most about rivers is you can’t step in the same river twice.
The water’s always changing, always flowing. But people, I guess, can’t live like that; we all must pay a price.
To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing what’s around the riverbend.

And another stanza that is my favourite:

Should I choose the smoothest course?
Steady as the beating drum?
Should I marry Kocoum, is all my dreaming at an end?
Or do you still wait for me, dream giver,
Just around the riverbend?

I encourage you to listen to the full song, and I hope it resonates for you as it did for me! Let’s keep dreaming and discovering what’s around our riverbend of life.

When the Path Begins to Align

Saurabh Aroraa Adds to the Chain

There comes a quiet moment in every journey when the world grows louder than the self. Expectations begin to shape direction, and comparisons attempt to redraw one’s path.

Yet, to follow your own path is to return to an intimate knowing.

It is not merely a choice, but an act of inner alignment. It’s a willingness to pause, to listen, and to trust what feels true. In this stillness, meditation becomes a return. The noise softens, borrowed voices fade, and clarity begins to emerge; subtle, yet certain.

Doubt may linger, but truth does not seek validation; it simply resonates.

And when you walk in that resonance, the path begins to align. Quietly, naturally.

In the end, it is not about where you arrive, but who you become.

Know Your Path Well

Deepa Natarajan Adds to the Chain

Following your own path happens at many phases of your life. I think, it’s a continuous and ongoing process. Just when you have followed your own path for a while, you start questioning, ‘Is this the right path?’, ‘Do I need to rethink?’. This could be your career, your personal life; what felt good back then starts feeling not so right when you look behind. That’s when you don’t hesitate to choose another path.

But while in the process of following our own path, we also need to to be aware of the process. Someone I consider my mentor gave me these two songs to remember, which I think could be a good starting point (turning point?):
1. Jaate the Japan pahuch gaye Cheen: This is from the Bollywood movie Chalti ka naam gaadi. My mentor used to say this seldom works. You start your journey to Japan, and end up going to China, which isn’t desirable. It’s good to know where your path is leading you to. Be sure of that. You cannot leave a lot to exploration along the way.
2. Ekla Chalo Re: A poem by Rabindranath Tagore which has been played over years has many versions. It says ‘walk alone’. Dare to walk alone, my mentor would say. Karwaan judta jayega, karwaan badhta jayega. More people will join your journey, and your tribe will keep growing.

These two songs have been guiding me, and will continue to.

Keep Nurturing Individual Creativity

Sridevi Krishnan Adds to the Chain

This blog post got me thinking about Lego building. Imagine giving two colours of Lego blocks to a group of first graders. One child builds a tall tower, carefully alternating the two colours. Another builds two twin towers, each in a single colour. Another creates a connected structure, almost like a small box. And another arranges the pieces like a train, one linked to the next.

Same pieces but different outcomes and as adults, we would do nothing but appreciate this.
“Look how tall your building is.”
“Wow, twin towers.”
“This box is so neatly connected.”
“A train, each block helping the next, how creative!”
We celebrate their original imagination.

Now, let us fast forward a few years where we’d start buying Lego sets. Now, the unsaid expectations (for the most part) take a shift towards following the instructions to build exactly what is shown. To be fair, this is an achievement. The number of pieces are more and the structures are complex. The steps require focus and patience while having fun.

But, notice the shift from creating something of our own to recreating something that already exists. This is not to say recreating is of lesser value. Both matter: recreating, and even rekindling the original imagination behind it.

Let us not forget to keep nurturing the individual creativity that fuels each of us to create something entirely our own.

Follow your own path (The Starting Point)

A Blog by Michelle Sanjana Satish

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. Paulo Coelho

Expectations

Society has its way of placing rules / norms of how we should live our lives. I think we have all come across this at some point, for example what stage you have to be in a career, how many degrees to obtain or when  to get married / have children . 

It Doesn’t Matter

We all have our own purpose, destiny in life. It is important to follow the route that we want to follow, it doesn’t matter if we are considered late bloomers . What matters is enjoying the journey of life rather than the destination.

Live the life that you want to live not the life that society has paved out.