A lazy Sunday morning ..the whole extended family had gathered at our grandmother's place for a family lunch. The happiest and loudest ones were of course the children small in size, big on attitude. After a while they sat down to play with jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces.
As the older kids (5 & 8yrs old) got busy trying to fit the jigsaw, the youngest one (1 & ˝ yrs. old) very casually picked up a few pieces of the jigsaws and walked away. The other kids had almost finished fitting in the jigsaws pieces when they realized what had happened .they rushed to retrieve the missing pieces (which, by then, had changed shape completely thanks to chewing, breaking etc.).
All hell broke loose! We tried to tell them that their jigsaw looked great and just 7 missing pieces could not take away the beauty of 993 other pieces. But they were inconsolable. They blamed their little sister for everything (who was least bothered and had, by then, moved on to other toys). In anger one of the older kids broke the rest of it too, saying he did not want an incomplete puzzle
What struck me about this incident was how the whole scenario reflected our own lives .made me wonder about the time and energy we waste trying to find those missing jigsaw pieces of our lives. In our hunt for we do not have, we tend to overlook what we do have (which is usually more than what we don't have).
And by the time realization dons, a lot of what we had but did not use or enjoy is already decayed or wasted beyond repair & becomes unfit for use .and like the little children, blame others for the incompleteness in our lives…and fate like the little girl quietly moves a few pieces while our attention is focused elsewhere.
Often while looking back on life, we realize what we needed was perhaps already there. What were missing were our own correct perspectives to see clearly .often, in our stubbornness to play the game according to our own rules, we waste time and before we know it the final whistle is blown.
Its difficult to fathom our obsession with the missing pieces .why do let a few missing bits overtake the joy or beauty from the other pieces that we do have? Especially in our interpersonal relationships Maybe its just insecurity that someone else may come in and fill in the gaps .maybe it's our obsession to try and recreate Heaven which is synonymous with perfection whatever the cause, whatever the reason, we end up losing far more than what we do not have or what we did not get somewhere, I guess, we forget that all of us have our own unique places under the sun & that is why God created us ..
#1 by lata ojha
Zindagi ka sach ..jo bade log jaante hue bhi andekha karte hain..bachchon ki kuchh baaton mein kaise spasht ubhar aati hain..Sach hai..Ishwar humko har baar saawdhaan karte hain aur bachche ishwar ka roop hi to hain.. bahut achchha likha hai sarita
#2 by PGR NAIR
Life spins around infinite jigzaw pieces -materials, entertainments, tales, anecdotes, emotions, mysteries, conundrums and diversions. It is an ever expanding puzzle with no possibility of solving it. Do the glittering pieces add up to a radiant whole? While the fun proceeds, this question seems irrelevant. At the end, it teases and haunts…..PGR
#3 by ANKIT SRIVASTAVA
Sarita Ji…Our elders always tell us “Santosham Param Sukham” but we laugh……Thx for reminding us the lesson. I also remeber the saying - “Child is the Father of the Man”.
#4 by Priyanka Om
heyy sun muje apne gtalk se preeyanka81@gmail.com per friend request vej ….ye mera naya mail id hai !wahan sari kahani bataungee !
#5 by Sharath gowda
Hi Sarita,Nice use of the metaphor of a Zigsaw puzzle to represent the many hues of our lives and the inevitable missing pieces..However much is written or talked about the concept of enjoying what we have rather than yearning for the things we do not,in todays materialistic world most of us do not follow that dictum.
#6 by sanat
riddles of life lead to opening up. a storming post.
#7 by Virag
This is problem with all of us isn”t it !!!!! we peep into past ………then train of thought take us into future …. and always forget to live in NOW …..
Very very Nice post … Thanks
#8 by RUDRA
Its difficult to fathom our obsession with the missing pieces….why do let a few missing bits overtake the joy or beauty from the other pieces that we do have?…. fragmented mosaic of changeability of relationships and the search to belong.. well the riddle lies within, never independent. a sublime post.
#9 by DM
Justice well done, to a good subject. The Jigsaw had the right pieces in place….Psychology fascinates. Well written Freud.
#10 by RUDRA
Its difficult to fathom our obsession with the missing pieces….why do let a few missing bits overtake the joy or beauty from the other pieces that we do have? Especially in our interpersonal relationships…Maybe its just
a real feeling, unwinding the riddles that bug us while mending fences, demolishing barriers.
#11 by Manojkumar Nair
yes boss..hope everything is fine at ur end..comments from ur gb are vanishing..do visit and comment on my latest post..keep smiling….
#12 by rajeshkumar ram
very nicely written great thoughts…….congrats!
#13 by sunshine
Unfortunately wisdom occurs only later after the experience… but thats how life is mean to be. :-))
#14 by Think Tank
Ah, such a nice piece and lesson… Just wonderful….
#15 by Anvesha
Nice one…jigsaw puzzle n life…i nvr observed dat until i read ur post…$
#16 by anamika r
Itni choti aur maamooli ghatna ko lekar.. Insaan ki puri zindagi ko compare karna… ye tum hi kar sakti ho dear…aur ha ye faltu ki lecturebazi nahi hai… yahi zindagi ki sachhai hai… as Tom said… realy a master piece
#17 by HariOm Chawla
This is a wonderful, eye-opening post, Sarita. Most of us do spoil the game of life in search of a few missing pieces - we”ve a tendency to see glass half empty.
#18 by nitin bhatnagar
gr8 post as usual..keep the good work up
#19 by rajeshkumar rai
had me thinking…..you have a great observation…and even deeper analytical powers.
#20 by venkata ramana
interesting observation mam..very insightful indeed.beautifully presented too!!
#21 by Karthik Dexter
Hmmmm another well composed, thought provoking post from you sarita… :-))
#22 by tanushree kulkarni
nice thought provoking post
#23 by Moe M
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#24 by Priyanka Om
Beautiful post well written ……………..post of the day i come across today !:)
#25 by toms abraham
Jesus Christ…………For the first time, i read a blog so many times before commenting. How we forget the blossoms while we wait for the unblossomed. Masterpiece buddy……….Masterpiece………
#26 by Gaurav Hajela
Its human tendency to look for more despite ignoring what we already have. Yeh Dil Maange more…
Although I must say some times missing pieces are more critical then the ones which we already possess. Without those 3 pieces the jigsaw puzzle is of no use as it cannot be completed.
#27 by Snehal
just superb……..thanx for sharing
#28 by Anonymous Poet
marvelous!!!! I simply loved the correlation of the missing pieces of jigsaws with life, it is so very true that in searching happiness altogether, we forget to be happy! and the search itself drains us out of all those small lil things that we have around us, loved this post of yours as usual and more the philosophy of life behind it. conveys the thought profoundly!! keep writing buddy!
#29 by Anonymous Poet
marvelous!!!! I simply loved the correlation of the missing pieces of jigsaws with life, it is so very true that in searching happiness altogether, we forget to be happy! and the search itself drains us out of all those small lil things that we have around us, loved this post of yours as usual and more the philosophy of life behind it. conveys the thought profoundly!! keep writing buddy!
#30 by bubblymasti
God has made us perfect, but as a child of 1 year, we throw away (rather chew away) our perfect life with anger, greed, lust, jealousy, hatred, attitude and unrforgiveness. Hope, we learn not to do, and enjoy the life our Master has given us to relish.
#31 by Shiny Vikas
Wow Sarita!so beautifully written..each word,each exoressions,each incidence…its simply superb…..and what u have shared is soo true ….its oo late we realise what we missed …looking out for other things and miss what we already had……which cud have really changed our life for better.thanks sarita for such good writings.
#32 by jasminder singh
very closed to human……..v. nice post yaar….thanks
#33 by rakesh tiwari
nice written by you sarita
#34 by tanuj neogi
What a wonderful allegory with such a beautiful narration! Let me quote two lines from Rabindranath Tagore “if u cry for the sun in the night, the sun does not come back but the stars are faded by the tears”. The remaining 7 pieces take away all our happiness. Irony of life! Hope u”d be decorating our iland with more of such posts in future. We”d look forward to……………………..
#35 by Tarun Singh
Its heart-warming to see that someone has start looking at the 993 ”placed” pieces of life rather than the missing 7 ones - This is what matters eventually - what we term as happiness- our ATTITUDE …. way of looking things … I hope those reading this will see the glass ”half full” and will see the empty half as an opportunity to make a delicious cock-tail
…
#36 by Nilesh
It is a human tendency, people want what they don”t have.
Nice post.
#37 by p k
beautiful…u have conveyed a very powerful message by this post…all of us…all the creation on this earth is a big jigsaw puzzzle…jiski poori picture upar wale ke haath mein hai…so its very important that we realize the importance of us and live life to the fullest in the circle allotted to us in the big puzzle of this world…and let live others too.
#38 by rasheed
food for thought…..
#39 by Manojkumar Nair
nice post sarita..nice philosophy of life..i guess there is something which is keeping all of us running..call it jigsaw puzzle or something else..i choose to believe that its bit risky to get contended with life..i believe the main challange for most of the people is to identify what is that jigsaw piece…finding out that piece is always a fruitful journey and fun provided we identify what is that piece..it all starts seeming boring journey and lot of hard work when we dont know where we want to go..the beauty of ur posts is you are a very good observer and you can easily link up those matters with bigger perspective of life…keep it up buddy.
#40 by seema n
very rightly said sarita . nice blog
#41 by chandrakant parmar
life…………….is ……..a ………..i dont know………………
#42 by hina sharma
yaar sarita you are right, it is like this only we keep looking for those things which we don”t have, we fail to realize this simple fact that life can be beutiful even without perfection. I need to learn a lot from this jigsaw puzzle, cause i always find this problem in me. Thanks for sharing a practical thought beautifully.
#43 by AAMEEN KHAN
Nice to read your blog..and i read comments of pradeep too…. and i would say if you take the life in its true spirit, its not a puzzle, its a way to enjoy……and i am enjoying my life everyday…….. I told you once, my fanda……Forget the Past, dont think of future & take the life as it comes.
#44 by sharmila m
Absolutely rt.R search for perfection s wat spoils d game.A lil imperfection n fact makes d thing more appealing than ifit had been fully perfect…gr8 reading.
#45 by rahul
very true..life is like jigsaw puzzle n v devote our entire life to complete it…sumtimes v fix wrong piece at right place n sumtimes right piece at wrong place but true hapiness comes when we put right piece at right place…isnt it….good one…tx fr sharing….tc
#46 by Pradeep
Too good sarita……. life is indeed like a jigsaw puzzle for most of us… we keep on searching for missing pieces and at times the pieces (like happiness, love etc. ) are found to be lying just beneath our eyes / focus…… great philosophical views….. loved reading ur post…
#47 by Laxmi
and thus end up missing d goal
#48 by Laxmi
its true…………..often ppl get frustrated if things don”t work their way and don”t look for better options available