Thursday, April 17, 2014

stories from life

if you look around and pay attention, there is always a story lurking behind every stranger we meet every day. some of these are just short stories with no clear beginning or end - just a slice of life. there may or may not be a lesson to be learnt. but some stories leave you with startlingly clear and striking life lessons.

in the past couple of weeks, i have heard three such amazing stories. told by friends and family. and these stories did not lose their impact even in the retelling. i hope to share them and the lessons i learnt from them.

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the first story was shared by a friend who also happens to be a life coach and facilitator. he spoke of an uncle who is a spiritual leader in his community and is someone who loves to mix nuggets of wisdom among meal-time conversations. now, my friend was at a time in his life when he was not clear of where he was headed. so one day this uncle chats him up on his career and life purpose. when my friend told him that he was not clear about what he wanted to do or that he couldn't see many exciting options, the uncle pointed at the window in the living room and asked, 'what do you see?'. my friend answered, 'i can see the tree and the flats opposite'. uncle asked him to go up to the window. he then asked, 'what do you see now?' my friend could now see the road below, the whole tree, all the flats around and some people down. uncle told him to go down the road and then asks, 'what do you see now?' the answer comes - all the flats on either side of the road, the play ground, the gate of the colony and the road beyond. he then asks my friend to go up to the gates and then to tell him what he could see. and my friend replies, 'i can see the main road, the vehicles and the town beyond.' 'and that', says the uncle, 'is what your vision is. the more you get out into the world, the more you can see, learn and expand your horizons'. 

powerful, that one.

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the second story was shared by my husband, p. recently on his way back home from a trip, he took the local train. mid-morning from dadar station, he managed to get into an empty coach. just before the train started, a man in the typical maharashtrian attire of white shirt, pajamas and topi sat down opposite him at the window. a short while into the journey, this man spits out the paan (betel leaves) he was chewing on. p acting like the good citizen tries to stop him from spitting. the man gets affronted and p says that for a moment there he had a choice - to carry on the skirmish which could blow into a full-fledged fight or to let go. he chose to let go. and to leave a disgruntled fellow passenger. about 10 minutes later, this guy starts dozing off. and in his drowsiness moves to keep his arm at the window. p shakes him up and moves him away from the window telling him sweetly, 'sir, you are wearing a white shirt. that would get stained red with the paan spit.' the emotions visible on the man's face varies from shame, gratefulness and a hint of someone caught doing something which he knew was wrong. he would never ever spit out a train window at least.

karma is indeed a bitch! and you just need to bide time.

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the third one was good fun to hear but it took me some time to wheedle out the lesson. this one was shared by a friend / mentor / relative / life coach / facilitator. he loves to read and buy books and must have at least 5000 books in his personal library. recently while out shopping at a mall, he dropped in at the crossword store. upon entering, he had to deposit the shopping bags he had with him. now, he is a person i have known to connect with people, irrespective of their social strata. i have learnt from him the habit of asking the courier delivery boys and the postman if they wanted a glass of cold water particularly during a hot day. and i have seen the look of surprised gratitude that offer brings about. 
coming back to the story, just to connect with the doorman at the book store, he offered the shopping bags in both his hands and with a deadpan face, said, 'these bags have bombs in them. please handle with care.' the doorman was a young well-built chap who took the bags with no evidence at all of having heard the dialogue, kept them in the shelf and gave the required token. for a moment there my friend wondered if this fellow was deaf or if he was just resigned to hearing such stupid jokes from visitors or just did not care. after browsing for nearly an hour, he headed to the counter with a book he had purchased. the queue at the counter was long enough for my friend to land up pretty close within the sight of the doorman. and once again he tried to catch the attention of this fellow with no luck. the guy just kept looking straight ahead of him and opening doors, collecting bags when visitors came in. after a while, he gave up trying to evoke any response or recollection from the doorman, paid for his book and came to collect his shopping bags. the doorman collected his token, retrieved the bags and returned them saying, 'these bags have bombs in them. please handle with care.' complete with the deadpan face. my stunned friend just stood there for a second and could not help himself but grab the fellow in for a hug.

assumptions and pre-conceived notions keep us from making connections.

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1 comment:

Suresh said...

Congrats and welcome back to the blogging world. Hope this is the start of a series on life and learning's.

Stories emerge from unexpected people and time. It is up to us to keep our antennas open to capture them and absorb their lessons.