For the walls are meant to get cuddled not for laddering up. But hindrances seem to have favoured and fueled this inferno. Left too early by his parents, but cocooned and weaved well by his granny. Dreams warmth his insecurities and holes, wishes blanketed him during his cold nights. RK Alex, born in Phumlou mamang leikai, currently pursuing grade 12, this very young talent has grown from goodness to fame in just few blue moons.
Told he started falling into the world of painting from his newbie days. But now he has become someone state widely known for his unique leaf art paintings. You must have heard about him before but today I will project something I learnt and what you could probably learn too as well.
That noon, we had phone chat for over 20 minutes, he shared stories, he shared feelings. Something bright lashed me hard for the first when he broke about a time that pushed him to give up. “Why did you never give up?” I threw and bowled my everything to receive something luxurious. Just as expected, “I always felt like doing one more,” this depth kept me high for a while. Hugging the feeling of “atleast one more,” is the best way of keeping the brain in the least stressful state. Hunger in me went on, “What scares you the most?” Ever wondered why most even stop dreaming? FEAR, WHAT Ifs. “Thinking I might regret for leaving things I wished, scares me to not leave anything behind,” that touched me. Forever will I never forget those lines, making that FEAR scare you for ‘not doing’ instead of ‘doing’ will keep your dreams on the run. Before I loosen curtain further, he got me again, “Bro one of your videos changed my life as well.’ I didn’t speak for seconds, but sang loud in my heart. Ever had the feeling at times of being super useful? Cheerful as a happy king right? Those feeling were all rewarded to me at that moment.
The conversation went on, “Is painting what you are good at or something you love doing?” I have always trusted the feeling that, we should always do what we love more than what we are good at. He hired and hived more or less the same, “I am good in many other things as well but this is something I love to do. I keep failing, failing while doing what I love makes me want to correct myself but while doing what I am good at makes me blame the other giving myself no chance to introspect.” What more explanation should I stress? All said in the simplest way. That hunger of ‘one more time’ combines with ‘correcting himself’ to keep scaring himself from leaving things he could have done have fueled him high enough to roll over his wars to be fought.
“Aunty Nomita Rajkumari stood firm for me,” one of the names that pooped every now and then in his stories. Everyone with talents has a story to be written down, everyone at times need someone to tell them they are good enough to go on. “Have you ever had a doubt on yourself?” that was the last before closing. “I might have a lot of talents; I might have resources but the moment I doubt myself – everything will become so useless. It’s not the weapon that’s most important in war but the courage. And to build that courage, keeping someone close to you that keeps telling you that ‘you can’ is not less important than the deadliest weapon in the war.” That took it all.
There are thousands of Alex in Manipur, I see dreams that are vibrating, I can feel your potentials. You don’t need money, family, scholarship, school but ‘courage and willingness,’ the moment those two comes in you, nothing will stand your way.
(The writer is a Motivational Orator, based in Canada. And can be reached at
[email protected]; Facebook – Birkarnelzelzit – Young Thoughts; Twitter – Birkarnelzelzit, INSTAGRAM – Birkarnal, watch his WILL motivational videos by going to his YouTube channel @live with bir.)