Two mistakes and an inspiring story

Well, I accept that I couldn't spend much time at this place, off late. This month has been very tight and I could get break only for 3 days in the whole of 30 days of this month. One way its good - I could meet more number of people, and make more money ;-). On the other hand its bad - I couldn't meet most of my regular people that includes my family.

Whats to share with you, now? I am not eligible for talking anything about the terror attack on Mumbai. I am not eligible to talk any thing about the attack because, like many others, I too think very emotionally for couple of days whenever such tragedy occurs, talk very big things and later forget about all this once we get back to the comforts of the day to day life. At the height of Kargil war, I named my second son (Amol Sriram) after slain hero Lt. Col. Amol Kalia. I promised myself that I want to do some thing in such way that both of my sons would do something good for our motherland. But, frankly, I do not think I am doing anything in that direction. Let me not blame it on anyone. I hope, at least this attack reminds me few of my forgotten promises that I made to myself and strenghten the resolve for doing something good.

Should I talk about the current state of the industry? Not either. Really I haven't tracked it in the last one month other than giving cursory looks at the headings that talk about 'reduced confidence levels, pink slips, revised targets' and etc., The perception is that we are heading for the worst and it may take couple of years to recover. But its just perception, for me, at this point of time. I do not have figures and a reference point. So let me not say anything about it.

Se what's left? Let me tell you about a person. Let me call her 'Minu', its not real name. I met her around an year back. She was good at her studies and also good at other activities. But the drawback was that she was little arrogant. I always used to think she could do even better but never tried to share my thoughts with her. I told you already, she was little arrogant. And slowly I lost her contact as well.

All of a sudden, she is back in picture, few weeks back. She shared what happened in the last few months in her personal life. I was stunned. I was stunned not because of what happened to her. I stunnded at my ignorance about the other side of the coin and biased thinking.

I still maintain that she was little arrogant. But, I mistakenly attributed every thing about her to just that - arrogance. But in reality, she had been under tremedous pressure from her personal issues and her life was virtually out of her control. She had to fight with her family, friends, her own wishes, her own goals ... all most every where she had to fight and uncharecteristically she had to compromise in all most all of her personal matters. She was fighting loosing a battle. We never knew ... I didn't have even a single clue. And some where, she lost most of her dreams. It was a truma.

Now I am really happy to see that she is trying to reconstruct her life. She is hardly into her early 20's. But, the way she is trying to forget the past and build a new life for herself is really impressive. Only people with strong mental abilities can recover this fast. I am sure she will be successfull. She is not short of talent, not short of abilities, not short of spirit. She will be successful.

Why I am telling this story? For two reasons. This story reminds me two of the mistakes that we generally commit.

One of judging others without really knowing about them. Its very tempting to pass judgements about others and branding them as 'good', 'bad' and etc. We all know that we never know fully about others (for that matter, we may not even know fully about ourselves). Still, we commit the mistake of passing comments. We do not get an opportunity to realize how painful it is for the person who is receiving them.

Second mistake is about 'not taking care of the people who are not so good at us'. Let me explain. We generally tend to spend more time with people who give us lot of importance and with whom we are comfortable. And we generally tend to avoid the people who we feel 'not so good'. Our perception may be just perception or may be real. Still, I guess, we should not 'leave' those people. No one want to be 'not good'. Every one wishes to be appreciated. If we just show little more patience, spend more time with those 'no so good at us' people, we really can build good relationship with them and do lot of good for all of us.

I accept that I made these two mistakes in the case of Minu. Fine, life is the best teacher, for all of us. Let me learn few things out of this and not forget them again.

I wish Minu a great success that can make her family, friends and others happy about her. I request you also wish the same for Minu and many other such spirited fighters.