Life and some Learnings:
The story of my life has been of learning from and to whatever I am today I am not who I was but a product of many people’s lives and teachings. Every person who surrounded me throughout my childhood was a teacher to me. I never knew these were my learning mechanism but they became so ingrained in me that now as I reflect back I realize it was not just my teachers whom I learned from or my parents. It included the woman who used to come and clean our house, who taught me how important it is to make your work your best friend, no matter what you do. What will make the impact is how you do what you do. My Uncle who taught me the importance of money. Even in the scorching summers of Gwalior we never had an AC in our house, the cooler was used as the last resort. Every switch was off the moment we were to leave the room. The vendors on road selling samosa or eggs. The humbleness in which they provided their service. No matter how much I wanted to go to any other place I always turn out to go there. My peers who always taught me there is always a smarter one in the room. Nature who taught me its important to give before you take. And as I grew up setting up my enterprise with a vision to feed everyone who sleeps hungry at night. I still remember how I had no clue how I will do. I did not even know where to start. I still remember times my facilitator asking me what is it that you want to do and every time I had a different answer to it. sometimes I use to say I want to trave. Sometimes I used to say I wanted to do something related to food. But what something I never knew. It was in this journey of reflection that I realize that if there is something that gives me happiness it is by feeding people. And so I landed up working with farmers in my initial 20s. Even there as I reflect now, what great teachers they were, the entire village ecosystem. As we go into the villages, it’s a cultural shock to a lot of urban people. But if you live there with the people in the villages. They are the best teachers to teach you discipline and simplicity in your lives. Every day no matter it is raining or it's chilling cold with the sound of the hen almost everyone is awake and by 9 at night you won’t feel a sound. And they never complain if they are getting a meal three times daily. Even if its Dal Chawal for the rest of their lives or living on the floor sometimes with no fan. They are ready to go out and take a dump. And the women in the villages they are even greater teachers. It was going in the villages that made me realize the importance of the amount of work my mother does, 18 hours a day every day, 365 days a week, and the women in the villages it is even tougher where many go in the field for hard labor work. The small children in the villages taught me, Hope. With the bare minimum in the schools and no electricity everyone still managed to come to school and whenever anyone came to play with them. the smile on their faces taught me. the pains are always less when you can smile. My wife has taught me the importance of acceptance, how every time she cheerfully accepted the problems in our family life or at work. She always had the courage that the time will pass and the pain will reduce because happiness is intrinsic to humans. My daughters always taught me how love is for everyone and the importance of empathy in us. I still remember how both of them took their sleepers out when they saw a group of children walking on the roads with no sleepers. I remember how proud I felt that day.
Life thus I feel is a beautiful essence itself because it helps us meet a lot of teachers regularly every day. From the milkman who comes to give us milk every day early in the morning to the last tv series, we watch on Netflix at night. Everyone and everything is there for us to learn from and to change whatever we want n us. Adopt to what we want and adapt to what we feel apt.
