Steve Jobs once said:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”⁠

I remember this quote when I was writing the following story shared by one of my students, in my book Inner Mastery Outer Impact.

My mother grew up as an Indian immigrant in Uganda. As a small child, she and her brother would often go to the neighboring home to play with their little friend Jamal. My mother’s family was Hindu, and Jamal’s family was Muslim. Jamal would often be learning to recite verses from the Quran, and in the process of spending so much time at Jamal’s home, my mother and her brother also ended up learning many of these verses, though they were of no apparent use to them.

Their uneventful life was upended one summer when the coup happened. Uganda was taken over by the dictator Idi Amin. My mother’s family stayed on for as long as they could, but then things got very bad. There were reports daily of Hindu immigrants like them being imprisoned or killed. So one day, they packed up all they could in one big car, and took to the road, aiming to leave the country. On the way, they were stopped by soldiers. My mother’s parents stepped out of the car and were instantly shot and killed by the soldiers. The two children — my mother and her brother — were taken to a prison camp. 

One day, my mother and her brother were at the barbed wire fence on the periphery of the camp. They looked out and saw Jamal’s mother walking by, and waved at her anxiously. When Jamal’s mother saw the two of them behind the fence, she seemed to know instantly the fate that they and their parents had met. She went over to a prison camp guard and told him, “There’s been a mistake. These are my children. Please release them to me.” It was clear that these children and she were very familiar with each other, but that wasn’t enough to convince the prison guard. He demanded, “Well, if they are your children, they must be muslims. Children, show me if you can recite the Quran!”. And so they did. They were released from the camp, and later Jamal’s parents arranged for them to travel to Britain where they were raised by an aunt and uncle.     

Ponder this: Perhaps there is a prescient force in the universe that knows the full arc of our life, and it brings us certain experiences today to prepare us for the challenges and opportunities we will encounter tomorrow.

Have you ever had an experience that might not have made much sense at the time, but on looking back, is filled with meaning?

Warmly,
Hitendra

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