There is a railway track you can walk on without a ticket.
Walk as far as you like.
Stop at a station.
Look around.
Turn back.
Come again tomorrow.
The track remains.
For years, I have been laying such a track through ansiandyou.life.
Writing.
Observing.
Photographing.
Thinking.
You can walk there freely.
You don’t have to know me.
You don’t have to agree with me.
You don’t have to buy anything.
Just walk.
Perhaps, after a while, you begin to recognise the landscape.
The questions.
The way of looking.
The silences between the words.
And perhaps, the person behind them.
That is where trust begins.
Not with a promise.
With time.
Then one day, you may find yourself at a station.
You have somewhere to go.
There is a train.
There is a driver.
You have seen him before.
You have watched him drive.
You decide to board.
Now you are no longer observing the journey.
You are part of it.
You bring your life.
The driver brings his attention.
You talk.
You think.
Sometimes you remain quiet.
You tell him where you want to go.
He drives.
There is only one class.
First class.
Quiet.
Private.
Unhurried.
You are not buying information.
You are choosing to travel with someone you trust.
That trust was built on the track.
The driver has a life outside the train.
A body to care for.
People to return to.
Work worth sustaining.
And when the exchange is right, something simple happens.
The passenger gets the journey.
The driver continues his work.
The train keeps moving.
The track remains open.
This is how I have come to think about wealth.
Not as the prize.
As continuity.
Perhaps that is what I recognise in Samudra Manthan.
The ocean was churned.
Many things emerged.
Some precious.
Some dangerous.
Lakshmi came too.
But the churning came first.
Perhaps life is like that.
Take care of the body.
Keep faith with the people who matter.
Do the work.
Learn.
Serve.
Earn.
Lose.
Begin again.
Keep churning.
And slowly, things emerge.
Trust.
Freedom.
Capacity.
Wealth.
A body of work.
A life that can sustain itself.
The track remains free.
The train keeps moving.
ansiandyou®
Written and photographed by Aniruddha Singh
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