Small Victories

Crisis brings forth many emotions.... fear, frustration, irritation, anger, depression, nervousness... all together.

How to come out of it? 

The Pandemic has hit the world big time. So far there doesn’t seem to be a solution for it. 

For me, last some weeks have been a revelation. People knowingly or unknowingly have been doing some interesting activities. 

A friend, a Furniture shop owner, has been busy in his Kitchen preparing different recipes for his family. 

Another, who never liked exercising, is skipping consistently and has already reached his first goal of 1000 skips at a stretch. His next goal being 2000 skips. 

While yet another friend, who until now behaved like a kid himself, has been adoring his new-born baby and helping his wife take care of it day and night. 

The question is, will these activities help them tide over the crisis? 

Will the clouds of despair be cleared by these small acts?

Maybe not. 

But, when I do an activity consistently and succeed in it, I feel good about myself. It gives me a self confidence which can’t be matched by listening to a Guru or praying to the almighty. Amidst the desert of unsurety, sadness, loneliness, this small success acts as an oasis of hope. It makes me feel good about myself. If I repeat a number of such small victories in different phases of my day to day life it will act as the fuel for doing further positive acts in my field of Profession. 

After all, a farmer, not knowing whether it will be a good season or will he be affected by a famine or floods, keeps on tilling his land and keep the seeds ready to sow. He knows only one thing, 

‘Let me do my Best,

He will take care of the rest’.

Let’s involve ourselves into meaningful activities and enjoy the small victories. We cannot escape the big challenge but these small victories will give us confidence to achieve similar small victories in our Profession too, which when added over a period will result into the ultimate victory. 

The Pandemic is temporary but our will power is permanent. Let’s Rock! 

The Great Shivaji Maharaj

• At the age of 15 took the oath of Swaraj
• Along with his mavalas won 35 forts one after the other. 
• Mirza Raje Jaisingh, in the Purandar Treaty, took over 23 important Forts. Shivaji Maharaj remained with 12 unimportant forts. 
• Shivaji Maharaj faces defeat for one year.
• Mirza Raje invites Shivaji Maharaj to Delhi for celebrating Aurangzeb’s birthday. 
• Shivaji Maharaj raises voice in the Court of Aurangzeb for being insulted.
• Shivaji Maharaj put under house arrest by Aurangzeb. 
• For four months, Shivaji Maharaj under arrest, plots a plan to escape with perfection.... and he along with his son, Sambaji do escape. 
• Shivaji Maharaj reaches Raigad and resumes his Rule. 
• Shivaji Maharaj invests 2 years to strengthen his administration. 
• After two years he starts on his Expedition to win back his forts. 
• After many years, when Aurangzeb arrives alongwith his huge army to attack Maharashtra, Shivaji Maharaj summons his Minister in charge of the accounts. 
• Shivaji Maharaj asks his Minister about the number of Forts captured by him so far. 

       His Minister replies, ‘from the river Narmada in Gujarat till the river Cauvery in Karnataka,  Shivaji Maharaj has spread Hindavi Swaraj to 200 Forts’! 

• Shivaji Maharaj smiles and says, all his efforts for so many years of gathering these Forts was for this very day when he would be required to fight the Mughal King Aurangzeb. Now is the time in history which will decide on who will Rule the throne in Delhi. 

The reason for describing this story today is, the testing time we are faced with because of the Pandemic. 

We are under house arrest, our wealth may have got eroded or will be. The enemy is in the form of the Pandemic or later on in the form of economic breakdown. But we should remember the lessons taught by the great Shivaji Maharaj. 

‘Even if our treasures are reduced to 30%  or lesser, even if we are put under house arrest for a long period, even if the enemy is at our doorstep to kill us, we should be stable. We should be proactive to plan, be patient, strategise to escape, work to create systems, be courageous and hardworking towards expansion so that one day we not only gain all the past glory but have more than 6 times the previous peak we attained. 

Nobody knows what the future holds for us. But history definitely has some answers for us. Let’s learn from history and create one ourselves. 

Social Service?

A handicapped man (let’s name him ‘Lakhan’) walking on one leg with a 2 inch thick stick for support, walked past me briskly as I strolled with my Mom for our daily morning ritual. Lakhan was accompanied by his 8 year old daughter in school uniform with a school bag tucked on her back. 

I sympathised with his crippled leg. Not even affording a simple crutch was hurting. A cycle would have served the purpose of taking along his small daughter to school but neither his body nor his financial condition allowed the luxury. 

As my mind floated on these thoughts, my eyes saw a strange site. 

A man on his motorcycle riding triple seat with his 14 year old son, sitting between him and his wife, stopped near Lakhan. His wife alighted from the bike, helped Lakhan’s daughter sit over the Petrol tank of the motorcycle and again boarded the bike. With four of them on top of that 100CC bike, the man rode away. Lakhan turned back for  his home. Not a word was exchanged in this whole exercise! 

We keep on hearing this crap about Social Service. We read these slogans of ‘Save the girl-child, educate the girl-child’ on huge hoardings. 

Here is a poor handicap, resolving to educate his daughter. Another mercenary of god helping him achieve this inspite of not having enough resources himself. Each character involved in this whole process going about as if it’s their everyday job and with a smile on their face.

My learnings : Let not even a hint of ego touch me on my quest towards making this world a better place to live in. Let’s help our fellow being as if it’s our every day job.... with a smile on our face.

Dreams or Duty

In our younger days we have an affinity for the impossible. The aspirations run high. Dreams fuel us to the sky. Some Dream of becoming Famous, some want to be Rich  while some rare ones wish to create History.

Moving ahead in life, some fumble, some are unfortunate to confront major challenges, laziness capture a few while some just derail from their journey.

Responsibility of our family. How important is this?
Taking care of our aging parents, sacrificing for our siblings, going for whatever is necessary rather than our aspirations.

Dream or Duty? 

Could we accept the conditions and fulfil what is expected of us rather than going for what is liked by us?

Duty is for others, Dreams are for us.
Can we align our Dreams with our duty?

For me, Duty is my priority, always. 
Dreams can wait. 

Fear or Dream

I have an opportunity in life. I have to take a decision. What will be the basis of taking the decision, fear or dreams.

Is it a compulsion or is it my aspiration? 

Am I forced to do it or by doing it I feel energised.

Fear makes me insecure.
Fear makes me alert.
Fear keeps me grounded.
Fear induces me to get into the details.

Dreams encourages me to go for the impossible.
Dreams makes me innovative.
Dreams gets me to touch the sky.
Dream induces me to go for speed. 

It's time to take a decision. 

For creating history, I will Dream.
For achieving the decided goal, Fear will be my anchor.

The Message or the Messenger

Buddha’s Message

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

Jesus Message

For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? 

Krishna’s Message

Hell has three entries- greed, anger and lust.

The Message or the Messenger, what should it be?

We tend to worship the Messenger and forget the Message. 

In a relation, should the focus be on ‘what’ was the reason for the failure or ‘who’ created the failure. 

‘What’ has seeds of improvement. 

‘Who’ has the stink of ego. 

‘What’ has the beginning of progress.

‘Who’ has the beginning of the end.

‘What’ will lead towards enrichment of a relationship. 

‘Who’ will spoil the existing beautiful chemistry. 

Professionalism seeks ‘What’.

Emotion blames it on ‘Who’. 

In all my failures in life, let me seek the ‘What’ and get into the highway of improvement, progress and enrichment of relations. 

‘Who’ is a non entity for me. 

What about you?

Acceptance and Expectance

ReBirth Foundation, an NGO working for Organ Donation awareness, organises various Events as a part of the awareness exercise. 

One of the it's signature Event is 'Green Corridor', a short film competition on Organ Donation.

This year, in Season 3, we have had a couple of Participants whose movies got disqualified due to different reasons. This got them so worked up that they were ready to go to any lengths to prove the Juries as to how their film are worth the competition. We could feel the pain in them. But, at the same time it was perfectly justified to avoid a film which gives a wrong message. 

Expectations from the film makers due to the efforts they had put in was huge and acceptance from them that the Juries decision was right could not happen. 

In the process a lot of emotional drama got involved.

This got me pondering on Acceptance and Expectance.

Due to expectations from loved ones, non fulfilment hurts me.

Should I let go and follow acceptance or should I make them aware of my expectations from them and warn them against it next time.

I came to the following conclusion.

My fitness, my son's career, daughter's independence, the quality of performance at my workplace, does not have a substitute. Hence Expectance is right and Acceptance is not the answer.

My wife's nature totally opposite to me, my colleagues misunderstanding me, my friends negatively commenting to tease, may always be tolerated. 

Acceptance will be followed and Expectance will not be practiced.

In other words, 

Expectance for Principles, future implications, quality, goals in life.

Acceptance for ego, emotions, relationships.

I pray to god to give me strength to Accept and will to Expect and Intellect to know the difference.