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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Simplify our lives…!

In last few weeks, I have been hearing about the losses of precious lives of some of my very close friends and relatives, which makes me re – look at the life styles of mine again and again, as I have been advocating this self analysis for every individual to ratify their actions and of course, to take corrective actions, whenever necessary.

It was one of my very close business associate’s turn first to leave us forever, without even intimating any one of us…! My friend had a conference call with him at 10.30 AM and fixed up a meeting with him for another friend at 4.30 PM and close to 11.40 AM, we get a call that he’s no more with us….?! Hope you can imagine the shock it gave us and we are still not in a position to digest this fact. He had a huge cardiac arrest and died on the spot!

A few days later, I received a news that one of my batch mates and very close friend died in an accident. However, later I came to know that too was a cardiac arrest and he leaves behind his wife and daughter, who’s just 10 years old…?! What I could do was, as part of my deep felt sorrow, mourn by fasting for a week as a protest of my conscience to the Almighty!

A week later, I received the next tragic news that my very close relative dies of cancer and as a matter of fact, I had met her exactly three months back and she was in the pink of her health. We talked for long and I played with her extra ordinarily bright 8 year old daughter for quite some time! I just can empathize with the pain of this lovely child and her father and blame the cruelty of the fate….!!

I received another tragic news about a friend of mine, who is known to me for last three years who leaves his 2 year old child and wife…! It makes me think again and again to be grounded and reiterates the need of making our lives simple and happy!! I know it is easy to preach, but very difficult to practice…! However, if we intend to do so with determination, it is not impossible!!

I would like to quote an example of this family, who resides in a single room servant quarter next to my office building. When I open the venetian blinds of my windows beside my chair in the cabin, I see them and I keep looking at them for long as it has always been inspiring to observe them….! The family includes 5 members, Father, Mother and 3 boys (Approximate ages must be 16, 12 and 10 years). In the last few months, we have been working till 3 AM in the morning and that gave me an opportunity to observe them more….!

The first thing anybody will notice is the television, just across the door, which is switched on forever!! Even at 1 AM, I had seen it working…!! But since they started living in this one room quarter, I had never seen anybody shouting or quarrelling with each other…! I felt it is very unusual for a family from such socio economic back grounds, for the very reason that life is a huge challenge to them and they are roughened by the practical hardships of life!! Having worked with lots of women groups of such back grounds, I could look at the world from their perspective! But, for a change, it was all different in this family’s case! Their lifestyle was far superior and still with the flavor of village they come from, which we all miss a lot, though we pretend to reiterate that we don’t …?!

Only once I had seen the lady of the house raising her voice to the eldest child regarding studies…! Otherwise I could see that there was no pressure on children on home works or studies and on weekends (mostly on Saturdays) I could see all the children gathering on a mat spread in front of the house with open books to read/ write. I remembered my golden child hood and it was nostalgic to see these kids dancing on a rainy day in the small corridor in front of their house…! They were just back from the school and I was enjoying the looks of one of the first rains of the season! These kids came drenched and removed their clothes and threw into the house in a hurry and started dancing in the rain with excitement!! It was really nostalgic to watch that and it reminded me of my trips to school during the monsoon showers through the paddy fields and the red soiled water flows from the nearby hillock…! In those showers, we used to get soaked completely and used to make lots of paper boats and follow them on those small red rivers alongside the metal roads…!

Every time I see these kids, it reminds me of the denial we do to our next generation…be it in the name of pollution, be it in the name of hygiene or all crap reasons we had borrowed from the west! Did you ever analyze the end result? We make them couch potatoes and highly vulnerable to any viral attack as their immune system had already affected…! It is not that we should be ignorant about the modern day facts of pollution, but then there should be some equation for our young ones with the Mother Nature. I recently came across somebody talking about walking in the mud path with bare foot as a remedy to arthritis and he was addressing an elite crowd! This is what happens when we blindly adapt to western crap and realize late in life that we went all the way in the wrong direction.

We need to re-design our lifestyles so much that the basic fact of harmonizing with the nature should be kept intact and our younger ones should always be in sync with the Mother Earth. Again, I know it is difficult for everyone to pursue this, but if we are determined, there are multiple ways to make it fun for the next generation.

The lesson I learn from all the above news is that we should simplify our lifestyles as it will enhance our own life span as well as create a positive environment to live in for us and for all those around us. It is not impossible (if not complex!) to practice it, if we are seriously casual about it. I have been advocating this to those who are around me about the emptiness of unnecessary arguments and enmity as we tend to forget the objectives and goals in the process of these unnecessary arguments! Always, validate whether these arguments are worthy for moving forward or it is hampering it?!! 9 out of 10 times, you will get an answer from your inner self that it is hampering your objective of moving forward...!!