Skip to main content

Let’s be Ready

I was facilitating a session for senior managers on Time Management. To being with, I have taken all of them through a hypothetical situation. I told them, God forbids, if all of them are told by their doctors, that they have only one month to live more, what all pending jobs they will try to finish before they are no more. This has taken a few minutes for everyone to consume. Once they internalized the scenario, there was pin drop silence in the hall and I have noticed everyone engrossed in deep thoughts. Around fifteen minutes passed, the silence was unbearable, and suddenly one middle aged person broke the silence in chocked voice, “I can’t complete all these in mere thirty days”. Then the second one said, “my daughter needs a Barbie house”, third one said, “I have to repay my home loan”…and so on and so forth.
Though this exercise was only to establish the importance of time management and prioritizing in our life, but did we ever think about this? This may happen to any of us, one fine morning, one can realize that, days are numbered. That sweet but inevitable death is not far and many pending jobs to complete!
We know that best approach to life is to live in present, without thinking too much about past and future. But when one realizes that only another couple of days are left, then one needs to concentrate on future. I have seen my mother going through this phase. When doctors pronounced that only about six months left for her, we thought of letting her know about this. She should be mentally prepared. When the initial shock was over for her, she used to tell us about uncompleted tasks which she would like to see before her last day. She expressed that she would like to visit Varanasi once, and take a boat ride in river Ganga there. May be, before this, in her life time she has never realized that a boat ride in Varanasi may give her a fulfilling death. And, the evening when she was looking at the evening aarti at Dashawamedh Ghat  from the boat, I have noticed tears of fulfillment from her eyes.
Have we ever pondered upon that “pending job” in our life, which, if completed, can give us a fulfilling death? For one, it may be getting his daughter’s room painted in a Barbie theme, for other, it may be securing his family’s future with enough bank balance. This needs a serious thought and the most fulfilling desire has to be captured. Then we need to work for that, and work really hard for that. Because we never know when this show is going to be stopped and without that fulfillment in life, death will not be a sweet one. Let’s be ready to embrace the inevitable in a sweeter note and let’s not curse her that she has come untimely.
Bitter facts, but true !!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Journey to my Core

Known-known faces, are they half-known? A full life makes the faces full-known! This was my preconceived notion when the idea of a re-union was being nestled. I had been debating with myself, whether to be or not to be there. I was confused whether the ‘known’ faces might turn up to be ‘half known’ after two decades of separation!! Twenty long years, is not a short travel. I remember, during my student days, I used to go through “Employment News” regularly to look for job vacancies. And for most of the HR jobs, the minimum post-qualification experience required were 15-20 years. That was quite an absurd requirement for a fresh college pass out, who was only having an MBA degree and a bagful of aspirations in his possession. Now, when I look back at the 20 years which I spent in corporate rat-races, then I realize, oh, what a journey!! Though the journey, sometimes, was tiresome and difficult through hilly terrains and rough patches, but whenever an oasis was found, it was...
4 comments
Read more

A Suicide Note

Please don’t get perturbed by the title of this article, more than a “suicide note”, it is a note on suicide. I, along with many others, have been deeply moved by the sudden suicide of a famous Bollywood star, in the peak of his career. Questions started cropping in my mind. What and why? News says that he has been undergoing treatment for depression for last few months. Was this suicide an affect of that? No one can answer all these questions. But we can ponder over a single connecting thread over many suicides, “depression”. In our society, depression is a negative term. Once you are in depression, people look at you with the corner of their eyes and general belief is that depression is a symptom of mentally weak people. We are so scared about the societal issues related to depression, that we even hesitate to take professional help. Because our society believes that once depressed, you are either “mental” or “to be mad”. We forget that as my physical health goes throu...
2 comments
Read more

“Ek hi toh hain”

I know this driver, at his 50s, who drives one of my Company’s vehicles; very humble, submissive and ever smiling, named Tajuddin. Apart from his gentle nature, I have noticed a unique feature in him. Whenever he passes by a Temple, he would salute the god or goddess there, with the same devotion as he does when he passes a Durgah . One day, I asked him about this and he, very humbly, uttered a simple sentence, “Ek hi hain na, sir”. What a matured statement, what a sign of endurance and respect for others ! I did never imagine this thought from a person, who has spent his life time in front of the steering wheel. This has provoked a serious thought process in me, as to whether we realize in our everyday’s life the value of this “oneness”!! If you concentrate in this festive season, the essence of “oneness” is very evident. The Dusserah festival, though known in many names across different provinces, speaks about one thread which keeps human being entangled. Be it Durga Puja in Ea...
Post a Comment
Read more