The Direction of the Wind

by Mansi Shah

Motherhood meant giving all of herself to Sophie, and Nita didn’t have anything left to give.

One of life’s greatest cruelties was that those who were innocent suffered more than those who inflicted the harm.

She was now embarking on a life of depending only on herself,

Her new life had to be worth more than the one she had given up.

She thought about how easy it would be to go back.

“Everything looks romantic in the moonlight, but the sun always rises the next day.”

Family and friends had surrounded her for her entire life, but they had heightened her loneliness. In this sea of strangers, she finally felt at peace.

That if those were learned skills, her mummy had not taught them to her. Or if they were innate, she’d been born broken.

hide the valuables so they are never temptations to their hardworking servants. “Loyalty should not be tested,”

She was now truly on her own, to rise or fall on her own merit.

You are free now. You are both free.

In her dream country, she had more in common with the servants who had waited on her than the wealthy class into which she was born.

“Life is about passion.”

“Passion comes at a price.”

“Planning can be quite tedious.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Sometimes it is better to just do what you feel.”

“There is so much pressure. So many people to consider. Being selfish is a luxury many do not have.”

Her current life wasn’t luxurious like her old one, but this was the first time she had picked her desires over convention, and it had freed her mind and spirit.

“Where will we go?” she asked. “Anywhere we want,”

People only spoke on the surface.”

It’s always what’s below the surface that’s interesting.”

She tried to quiet the thoughts of disgrace running through her mind.

Loss is a universal equalizer. The raw and personal nature of it resonates with everyone.

The direction of the wind cannot be changed, but we can change the direction of our sails.

“Money is the greatest curse of an artist. We need it to live, but it takes away from our life.”

She had felt trapped in her life in India, but now she was learning a new form of being trapped and wondered if people were always trapped by something, no matter what they did or where they were.

She had been raised not to leave her problems with other people.

Their bodies had decided for them,

perhaps with passion there was pain.

she knows she will get nowhere if she has no trust in her heart at all.

desire for a life beyond the one you were given

It seems much simpler to fall in line with what is planned for you,

There is no better place than joy, but it escapes us all at some point.

“that is a genuine pain. Realizing you are not enough for someone after you have revealed your true self to that person. Such a thing will haunt every fiber of your being for the rest of your life.”

you can’t carry that pain through the rest of your life. At some point, we must let it go and realize that even if we had not been enough in the past, there is still a chance to be enough in the future.”

There was no quality more desirable than compassion.

photographs were taken only of the good times.

accept what life threw at her and to adjust her responses.

She tried to follow her dreams while leaving her heart with you in India. A dream without heart is nothing at all.

Sometimes a person needs to close a door to open a new one.”

Everything has changed inside her, while everything has remained the same on the surface.

THIS

all families are dysfunctional in their own way but still find a way to love each other somehow.