Tag: Confucius

Change.

When I read this Rumi quote on a WhatsApp message, I knew immediately that this would be my suggestion for a Friday Three on One blog post and I duly recommended it to my fellow bloggers Padmum and Shackman who readily agreed. Please do go over to Padmum’s blog and Shackman’s blog to see what each has to say on the same topic. Thank you.

True, I have not been able to change the world.  I have however either changed myself many times or change has been thrust on me, whether I liked it or not.

Neither of my parents were fortunate enough to see two centuries.  My siblings and I were from the twentieth to the twenty first.  And what a change that has been!

My life, bar the last thirty years, has been one of change of residence for either moving due to my father’s transfers or my own besides my having been a bit of a rootless guy for a few years during my early twenties. I have lived in Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkatta, Koratti in Kerala, Assam, Hyderabad, Tirupur in Tamil Nadu and finally in Pune now for the past thirty years.

The result of all these changes of residences has been that I am proficient in five languages and can manage quite comfortably in three others. Though I can read only three scripts, I am now flooded with local language messages written in the Roman script from different parts of my glorious country which boasts of 122 major languages and 1599 other languages which of course included many dialects!

I have seen carefree bachelor status, married man status and for the last ten years, widower status.

I have seen my career going through public sector, multinationals, private sector and family / owner run organisations and have also worked in an NGO non profit organisation in a voluntary position.

I have changed from being a hard drinking meat eating executive into to teetotaller, vegetarian spiritual person over the last twenty two years.

I have also changed from being a very indifferent person where religion is concerned into a deeply involved in it person over the last 22 years.

Other significant changes that have taken place in my life can be called physical due to the inevitable changes due to ageing and also my issues with COPD and replaced and revised hip joints. From a very active person, I have now become more or less a couch potato though, thankfully not yet wheel chair bound. I however dread a fall somewhere, which can have serious repercussions and put me into one for the rest of my life.
I am not the wisest and I flatter myself that I am not the stupidest of men either.  I accept that change will happen.  I am sure to see more before I fade away into the sunset.

Two Lives.

No, I don’t mean the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lives. I grant my readers that I do know some of that type too but, I mean the lives that Confucius talks about.My second life started, strangely enough in an ICU ward of a hospital here in Pune in February, 2001. I had undergone revision to a revised hip joint and the trauma almost killed me on the surgeon’s table. I was in the ICU for a week and subsequently in the private room for another week before I could get back home whereas, I was released from the hospital after the earlier revision, in just one week’s time.

Those two weeks  on a hospital bed, gave me a great deal of time to think about my mortality and how ephemeral my life really is.  That the period coincided with my retirement from active career pursuits made it easier for me to stop chasing rainbows and spend quality time with my family and friends.  That it also coincided with my care giving duties for my late wife made it all the more imperative that I made the best use of the time given with her.

A bit of why-me-itis did follow when my late father moved in with me to spend his last days but though that was an unpleasant situation, I still did not go back to pursuits other than those that gave me joy.  I continue to live like that and am helped in that way of life by very understanding family and friends who have seen me before and after and prefer the latter.

I am indebted to Ekoshapu for inspiring me to write this post. Please take a bow Sir!  And, just to inspire you in return, here is something to mull over.

Life.

I am inspired to write this post by Rachel’s post The Day I Woke Up.

For the greater part of my working life, I had to travel extensively and when I finally retired, making the odd journey for pleasure was like new adventures. Even that has now stopped since the last three years due to health issues.

Now at the age of 75,  I lost my younger brother to cancer eight days ago.  He was just shy of hitting 74 in two months’ time when he died.  While my son and daughter in love were able to visit him and spend time with him , I was unable to due to my handicap.

Many friends and members of my extensive family have been communicating their desire to visit with me soon and I suspect that they want to do this before I pop off.  I keep telling them that I am not about to oblige any time soon but, who knows?

When I look at my life now, I could not but agree with Confucius.

“At fifteen I set my heart upon learning.
At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground.
At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities.
At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven.
At sixty, I heard them with docile ear.
At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.”
~ Confucius.

The next trip that I make may well be the final one.