Sweat It Out

It is a familiarly strange feeling. It is beginning to get hot and humid and I suddenly feel the sweat on my body. It has a distinct odour, which is not repulsive and of course not pleasant. But it has more to it than just good or bad smell. It takes me back to a familiar world. It reminds me of the agony, the anguish and the uneasiness, the tossing and turning at night in a tiny room, with insects hopping around in the dark, having cut through the defences of the mosquito net at the broken window.  I can now see glimpses of the streetlamp throuh the window, when I am woken up by a thirst, which I know would remain unquenched.....until morning arrived. I can also hear bottles crashing, people arguing and they tell me, while I lie wide awake in sleep, that Chaos prevails in this world, at all times.

But this flashback, strangely enough, soothes my mind and my thoughts. It brings relief in its own peculiar way. Along with the feeling of agony, I can sense pleasure, along with anguish, I can feel happiness and along with the uneasiness, I feel a kind of comfort which the cosiest of "bean bags" can never dream of providing me.

I ask myself why and unlike interview questions on college academics, I immediately get an answer. The answer is "Hope". I sleep with this sweat, not for taking rest at night, but for working harder the next day. I do not sleep to forget what has happened but I sleep to continue the journey I have set out on. I do not quench my thirst with water, because this thirst is only symbolic of  what I have set out to achieve and can only be quenched when my dream is realized.

"Hope" gives me comfort as I can picture myself lying on the green grass which grows on the pastures I wish to rest on, away from this chaotic world. It makes me feel happy because I can feel myself enjoying the Sun, staring at it without battering an eyelid. And it gives me pleasure as I know there are lots of pains I must take to reach my destination. And what is more pleasurable than pain?

But is it only sweating naturally which reminds and inspires me to keep going? Not really. In the comfort of air-conditioners and twenty-four hour internet services, I still do feel the urge to "sweat it out". And it is not just me, it is the human body, which wants to get rid of stagnation, which wants to inhale the freshness and rikindle the fire which enables it to forge its way ahead.

The obvious question: is it important to "sweat it out" (in both the literal and the figurative sense) to be able to succeed? I am no spiritual Guru but I am certainly of the opinion that human body, through its evolution, has retained certain characteristics and habits which govern its functioning. And one of these characteristics, in my opinion, is to be able to labour and to toil. Not only does it provide exercise to the muscles and fresh air for the lungs, it motivates an individual and instills positivity at the same time. So, be it a farmer toiling on the fields near the city of my birth, or be it a successful industrialist who runs marathons, they essentially belong to the same class, that of the primitive human and what makes them tick is "sweating it out".