Happy Birthday To Me

25 Aug was my birthday. Hmmm, the nth one !!

My daughter asked me – ” Papa, how do ‘you’ feel on your birthday?” The first thing I realised was that its been a long time since someone asked me this question…

The immediate ‘reaction’ was to say that I feel great – obviously, right? But by now I have learnt to mind the gap between the stimulus and the response (Thanks Stephen Covey !!). So, I took a moment to reflect…and many a thoughts crossed my mind…

 

  1. At different stages in our lives, we feel different emotions for the same event (or the anniversary thereof). In the first 15 odd years, we usually look forward to the special day – looking for congratulatory messages, gifts, warm wishes from loved ones. Its our time to feel important and cherished. (The only people who I’m not sure about, are the ones born on 29 Feb – my cousin Akash happens to be one of them! Though they may celebrate it on 28Feb or 1 Mar in 3 out of 4 years, I’m not sure how they must be feeling about it).
  2. In the next 15 odd years – the youth time – there could be different feelings. Some people may still be looking forward to this occasion – but different motivations maybe 🙂 Some may want to feel they have matured enough and need not make a big deal out of the same – though in their hearts of hearts, they might be secretly wishing that someone gives them a surprise. Some of them may really outgrow the tradition and prefer solitude. As they say, to each his own.
  3. By the time we cross 30 or so, birthday could mean a lot of different things. It could mean an occasion to count your blessings; an occasion to reflect on the year gone by and the goals achieved therein, and set some goals for the coming year; an occasion to get together with family, with siblings or friends who have gone their way and would love to have a reunion of sorts; an occasion to reflect and meditate on the purpose for the rest of your life; an occasion to remember your DOB and wonder what nature has decided as to your DOD !! If only we knew what our DOD is, would be live our lives the same way we do right now?

Actually, it may not be age dependent. Anyone of us could have any of the above feelings at any of our birthdays. Nature gave us an empty canvas when we entered this world – and we are all paining our own pictures on it. Some of them will make sense to some people, most of them might not. Maybe we are still attached to what others think of our pictures (though still work in progress), maybe we have grown beyond the same.

 

My daughter nudged me again for an answer. I told her lovingly – “I feel blessed I have someone who cares enough to ask me how I feel.” And she smiled…

Birthday Read More »

Respect Worthy

I came across this picture – Sachin Tendulkar with Sundar Pichai. And suddenly feelings of respect filled my heart. 2 winners – one because of his academic and intellectual abilities and another because he didn’t pay attention to the same 🙂

 

Not really – you’ll say. And I couldn’t agree more…

 

The second guy chose to excel on the cricket ground. He is also a winner – but on a different playing ground. And winners always respect other winners – because they know that the other has paid a price, similar to themselves.

 

And, of course, I respect both of them – a lot.

But then a question came to my mind – do only winners deserve my respect? Does someone have to do something spectacular to be respect-worthy?

 

Well, if I look to take inputs from the social mirror, maybe so. But, wait – shouldn’t I go back to the basic life manual to get this answer? In short, to some holy book – maybe the Bible, maybe the Quran, maybe the Bhagwat Geeta?? What do they say? As far as I know they all say the same – respect every person. Oh, really? Do I know someone who does that? Matter of factly I do – my dad !!

I have always seen him respect others. I saw him giving the same respect to the rickshaw wala (we still have some of them in our hometown) as to his relatives. I saw him talking politely to the telephone guy, to the electrician, to the carpenter, to the government office clerk – in short, EVERYONE!! And when I asked him about it, he told me – there must be a reason why they came in our path that day. Maybe we will never see them again, but can we add a bit of joy and appreciation in their lives? Maybe by a friendly hello, maybe by asking their names, maybe by knowing about their native, maybe by merely giving a smile 🙂

 

Since I saw it modeled, I picked it up.

 

What about you – do you believe in adding that little value in the other human being’s life – no matter what stature he/she comes from???

Respect Worthy Read More »

The Water Problem

One of the recent things that have hit me, is the need to conserve water. Living in Bengaluru and reading about the water plight in Chennai, I’ve realised that I need to do my bit to save this precious resource – both in terms of my activities as well as sensitising the people in my circle of influence. Here are a few things we do in this regard –

 

1. Collect and use the water discarded by the water filter. We use a small bucket and use the residual water for plants, mopping and even washing.

2. Water control filters on taps – specially on the kitchen and utility taps, which are used by the maid

3. Control on water for shaving and brushing – both for ourselves as well as for the kids

4. Checking leaking taps – all they need is a washer sometimes. I spent 250/- in calling the Jaguar guy to put a washer (costing 10/- only) in one of them. But was happy that the leakage stopped.

5. Ensuring that the car wash guy only uses half a bucket of water for 1 wash – more hard work for him, but he realises the importance.

 

What are YOU doing to save some water?

Water Problem Read More »