Success Story

In life, you are given a book of unsaid rules titled ‘Success and Failure’
And to explain this book briefly
If you are an artist who captures the world in a riot of colours
If you are a dancer whose supple body shapes up to every rhythm
If you are a writer who creates a world of words
Then I guess it doesn’t really matter
Because here’s your curriculum
Maths and science
Geography and history
Memorise these dates and solve at least thirty questions to get some practice
Your colourful personality won’t get you the marks
Don’t you know? Successful people study all the time
And you can always paint later,
Dance some other time,
Write on another day,
Do all these things when you are done studying
After tenth, twelfth or when you are set in your career perhaps?
So, will I wait till I grow old and then take up hobbies of my childhood?
I am told that I have to live up to the dreams of the people around me
But don’t you realise that one person’s dream can be another person’s living nightmare?
You say don’t compare apples with oranges but it is okay to compare one human to another, right?
They wait at the school to check my marks
They wait at the coaching to check my marks
They are waiting everywhere
Why can’t you see people for what they are instead of how much they have scored?
For once let life paint you in a riot of colours
Dance to the rhythms that define you
And write your own story because as long as you love your story,
It will be a success story.

Maliha Iqbal is a student and writer based in Aligarh, India. Many of her short stories, write-ups, letters and poems have been published on platforms like Creativity Webzine, Countercurrents, Café Dissensus, Cerebration and Borderless Journal. She can be reached at malihaiqbal327@gmail.com

Featured image: RAMSHA ASAD / Unsplash