A FEW LESSONS OF LIFE
As I woke up today following a dream which reminded me of a number of incidents occurred in my life so far, I thought of sharing with you a few apparently ‘stupid’ events each of which taught me some wonderful lessons.
Life is undoubtedly God’s most amazing gift to all living creatures. Life is something about which all human beings are simply overwhelmed. I view life as the greatest teacher. Even the silliest or the most ‘obvious’ happening teaches us something or the other. Well, so let us move on to the incidents.
As a little boy of six or seven years, I had a great fondness for chicken and I wanted it every Sunday without fail. My uncle made sure I would get what I wanted and not scream at others. However, as a matter of fact, others were not that fond of chicken and so sometimes he had to get chicken only for me. One Sunday, thanks to my mother, that ‘special’ thing was not there at lunch and I started shouting and refused to eat. She had to take me to the bedroom and the help of a ruler to stop me as I, being a stubborn kid, did not want to listen to and understand her explanations. Years later I realized why I was beaten that day. When you are in a group, everybody in the group is as important as yourself. Never let others fall in trouble for your own interest to be fulfilled.
In childhood, I was very short-tempered. When somebody did something other than what I wanted or tried to irritate me for fun, I used to have faith in actions rather than words to react. As a result, everybody at home and even some people in the neighborhood, at some point of time, had to see the ‘bad boy’-self of an otherwise ‘good boy’. This habit stayed with me even when I was grown-up a bit. Then came one of my birthdays when, instead of celebration, I had to go out for a mock-test as I was preparing for a number of examinations. This time it was my mother who was making ‘sarcastic’ comments about my negligence to studies, excessively long sleeps and so on. I tried to ignore her for the time being, but suddenly my ‘faith in actions’ woke up and I had my worst birthday which I could not forget even in years. That day I left without eating, and was not in a position to talk when I came back. The very next day, when my mother came to my study, she was crying. I was shocked because she never shows her tears to me. In fact, whatever she was saying the day before, though a bit hard to digest, was very much true.
Another incident in this context occurred when I was in my first year. Very few of us had computers and so those were of great demand. I was to type my user name and password to log in to ‘Orkut’ with one of my very dear friends sitting next to me, holding the mouse. While I was typing the password with my eyes away from the screen, he placed the cursor in the box against “user name”. No sooner had my password been disclosed to others than I started beating him like anything. When I realized he was just making fun, it was all over.
So what did I learn? When somebody does something you are not comfortable with, do not lose your temper immediately. Instead, try to figure out why the person is doing so. Those who love you will, in general, not do anything that makes you face serious difficulties. You may not like the style, but the objective, in most of the cases, is to be appreciated.
I would like to conclude with one more incident of my life. Following a good result in my tenth standard board examination, I faced the media for the first time. They asked me about the people whose contribution towards my success I would like to mention. I named my teachers and my mother. After the media persons left, my mother said, “Why didn’t you name your father? Well, he didn’t guide you in your studies, rather it was I who did, but don’t forget that he used to take you to school and tuitions and bought you the books, notebooks, pens and pencils whenever you needed.” If you consider the daily life as a wonderful drama, there are people who play the roles of character-actors rather than leading heroes. Do not forget those supporting people since, without them, the drama is never complete.
