Weekend Muses | The Art of Waiting

Not every silence is a no. Sometimes it is just life asking you to be patient.

“Intezaar ka bhi apna ek hunar hota hai” - maybe nobody ever said this, but I have learned it the slow way. We live in a time of instant replies, read receipts, and notifications, where even a few days of silence can feel like a verdict. You send the application, the email, the message, and then you start refreshing your inbox as if the answer will arrive faster if you stare harder. It never does.

What I have noticed is that waiting reveals more about us than about the thing we are waiting for. Jab jawab nahi aata, mann apni kahaniyan banane lagta hai. Maybe they did not like it. Maybe I was not good enough. Maybe I should have said it differently. Most of these stories are written by our own anxiety, not by facts. The truth is usually far more ordinary. People are busy, systems are slow, priorities shift, and your message is sitting in a queue that has nothing to do with your worth.

So this weekend I am trying something simple. Do the work, send the message, follow up once with kindness, and then let it go. Apne hisse ka kaam poora karke baaki ko waqt par chhod dena, shayad yahi sabse shaant tareeka hai. In the meantime, there is a whole life happening right here, a morning chai, a long walk, a page of writing, a call to someone who actually picks up. Those are not consolation prizes. They are the life itself.

And maybe that is the quiet lesson. The waiting will end one way or another. What stays with you is whether you spent it fretting or simply living.

Do your part, light your lantern, and let the night do the rest.