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What's in Your DNA?



We all experience a stage where we are of a confused lot. Not quite sure what's in store for us or where life is going to take us. At this point its common to look at life in disbelief and doubt our capabilities. We tend to miss what comes naturally to us, even discard our strengths.




In the movie, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, a visionary sheikh believes his passion for the peaceful pastime of salmon fishing can enrich the lives of his people, and he dreams of bringing the sport to the not so fish-friendly desert. Willing to spare no expense, he instructs his representative to turn the dream into reality, an extraordinary feat with the help and involvement of Dr. Alfred Jones, Britain's leading fisheries expert.

The visionary sheikh’s dream however gets stalled as a result of strong opposition to removing salmon from British rivers. The Government suggests that he used farmed salmon instead. Not quite sure if a farmed salmon which has not run upstream for two generations and bred for dinner table will run, the sheikh declines the offer.

The British government ends involvement in the project. Dr. Alfred has to resign from his government job in order to continue with the project. Back home during a confrontation with his wife Mary, he gets rebuffed for falling in love with his colleague on the project. She refers to him as weak and tells him he will be back within six months begging to be taken back. For it’s in his DNA. Though Mary departs the thought stays on with Alfred making him realize what he has missed. Alfred convinces the sheikh to give the farmed salmon a try telling him it is neither research nor his finding but his faith that the farmed salmon will run upstream.

The farmed fish when are finally released from their holding tanks into the river swim upstream much to the delight of everyone as predicted by Dr. Jones. For it’s in the DNA of the fish. It's what make them unique (and us too). Swimming either upstream or downstream comes naturally to a fish. It makes no difference how many generations have passed or for what it has been bred. It’s there embedded in the DNA. It's best thing that they know. Come an opportune time, it comes out in a flurry.

Likewise many times we fail to realize who we are, discount what we have achieved and never quite believe what lies within us and more importantly what comes naturally to us. We rarely tend to reflect what’s in our DNA. What binds the fabric of life? What is it that comes naturally to us? What is it that makes us unique? It's all there within us. Its in our DNA. No matter if we have used it before or not. No matter what the odds are. In such times its not what prevails as a norm nor what we have done before but what matters is the leap of faith, a belief within that helps us swim through, take the leap to swim against the tide. For its in our DNA. 


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