Someone once told me, “Whatever will be, will be, Que sera sera!” It was a dodgeball match, and despite the best players, we were about to lose the match! Worried to the core, my competitive side twenty years ago asked our coach, “what if we lost the match?” Then he said those golden words to me which I had no clue about back then!
 
Interestingly, when I was a teenager, there was a Bollywood dance number by the famous actors Prabhudeva and Madhuri Dixit, “hey kay sera sera, joh bhi ho so ho, humein pyaar kaa ho aasara, phir chahe joh ho,” which means, “whatever will be, will be, let anything happen; we have love for our support, if anything ever happens.”
 
Back then, my younger, romantic-self got butterflies about “whatever comes in love, we are ready to face it, and when love is there, we have nothing to fear.” This song was catchy enough for me to sing and dance, but boy! Never did I dig deeper than that! Never did I ever try to understand the true meaning of these words, until now!
 
Fast forward to twenty years down the line, I have come across multiple phases in life where my dreams have been shattered, plans have failed, and life has taken twists and turns to its extreme. However, as any mature adult would, I also have learned to live without making a big fuss out of it. I have learned that after every sunshine, there will be darkness! Likewise, every dark night ends with a bright, sunny day.
 
For the philosophical person I tend to be, I have learned that the good comes the bad, happiness accompanies sadness, and vice-a-versa! I’m mentally prepared for the worst at any given best day! Even when life is giving me the sour-most of all lemons, I concentrate on making a lemon cake! I keep my spirits high and remain positive ‘cause I know this down phase won’t last long!!
 
Every now and then, my 8-year-old daughter will ask me, “mama, what if I will fail to do this?” “Mama, what if I mess it up?” As a doting mother, I always tell her that the result is not in our hands, only the effort is! We can only try as best as we can, but we have to leave the rest to the future to see! In a way, “whatever will be, will be” has unknowingly become the philosophy of my life!
 
I was amazed to know recently that there is even an English song related to this phrase! I was watching the animated movie “Mary and Max” and I came across that song by Pink Martini. I researched for the original song by Doris Day, and I must say, this is the enlightening song for me!
 
More often than not, we tend to be so worried for the future that we forget to live in the present moment. We choose to cry for that one big failure instead of cheering for the multiple small successes in life. We make plans to its perfection and when it doesn't work out that way, we end up getting frustrated and depressed, thinking lowly of ourselves. But, isn’t that life? Full of surprises and never meant to be the way it is supposed to be? Twists and turns, roller-coaster-ride ups and downs? But whatever life has in store for us will be! We are merely humans and the only control we have is over our own efforts, our actions, and our reactions! Nothing more, nothing less!
 
Instead of crying over the spilled milk, we must learn to find a new bottle of milk! We might even learn to find the cow itself at times if we can't find the milk bottle! We may be sad for the perfect job that we just lost, but we must be prepared to find a better one! We may mourn for a lost love, but we must learn to live for the many lives that surround us!
 
(Honestly, if we could follow the philosophy of this song, we would be keeping the psychiatrists out of business!)
 
Whatever comes, we have to face ‘cause, “whatever will be, will be!”

Sometimes, the best option is to do nothing and let it be!

The true essence of a fulfilling life is to live by “que sera sera!”
 
– Madhu Shrestha 

Madhu is a master’s student in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology.