The men who refused to break
The world measures success in milestones. Degrees earned. Careers built. Families nurtured. But for some men life was a relentless contradiction. Everything they wanted slipped through their fingers. Everything they never wished for became their reality. Yet, against all odds, they persisted.
They had excelled in studies. Not just as bright students, but as who devoured knowledge like a starving soul. Their certificates, medals, and academic honours could fill a museum. Yet none of them secured them the life they had envisioned. They were best among their peers. The most disciplined. The most hardworking. But when the time came, doors never opened.
They turned to competitive exams. Tens of them. They studied day and night. Mastered subjects with precision. Solved thousands of questions. Dreamt of the moment their name would appear on the selection list. But each time, they fell short. By a fraction. By a rule that changed overnight. By luck that never favored them.
Rejection became a routine. Failure, a constant companion. They watched those less deserving as per worldly set norms, rules, regulations or criteria climb ahead. They saw mediocrity rewarded. It stung. It crushed them. But they never stopped trying.
When jobs failed them, they turned to business. Hundreds of ideas. Thousands of attempts. From small shops to ambitious ventures. From trading goods to offering services. They tried it all. Some ideas flourished, only to collapse overnight. Some never took off. Partners betrayed. Customers disappeared. Their investments turned to dust. But they didn’t give up.
Each failure taught them something. Each loss pushed them forward. People laughed at them. They called them cursed. The men who would never get things right. But they refused to be defined by those words.
Then came love. A promise of companionship. A home filled with warmth. For a while, they thought they had finally won. But life had other plans. Their marriage crumbled. The one person they trusted walked away. Love turned into indifference. Laughter into silence. Home into a mere structure of bricks and walls.
Society whispered. "They failed in everything. They are destined to be alone. Unlucky men”. The society ignored them.
Everything in their lives unfolded in opposition to their wishes. Where they sought stability, they found chaos. Where they yearned for success, they met failure. Where they desired companionship, they encountered solitude. It would have been easy to break. To surrender. To disappear. But they chose otherwise.
They woke up each day, dusted off yesterday’s failure, and moved forward. Not with blind hope. Not with false optimism. But with sheer will.
Years passed. Their friends settled into secure lives. Families. Careers. Comfort. They had none of it. Yet, those who once pitied them saw something remarkable. They saw men who had been defeated a thousand times but have never broken.
The men who had nothing, yet possessed everything—courage, endurance, and an unyielding belief in life itself. Suicide was easy escape. They never imagined. They never broke. They fought in life, with life, for life with valour, till the angel of death caught them one morning of the day —they were determined to get success.
Their name? Irrelevant to history, perhaps. But to those who truly understood, they were some among contractuals, daily-wagers and need base workforce of J&K—the ones who found joy even in sorrow, the ones who refused to surrender. One was my friend from four decades. His words, advice, laughter, warmth bring chill down my body each minute, each day I reflect.
World, life, society couldn’t defeat them, but death did. They died, so will all.
Dr. Ashraf Zainabi, teacher and researcher
