Tag: Loyalty

Things I Don’t Tell About Myself

Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Akanksha, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie11, Nema, Noor,Ordinary Joe, Paul,Maria the Silver Fox, Padmum , Rohit, Will knott, and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get seventeen different flavours of the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by gaelikaa and Anu.

Phew! What a topic!!

If I don’t tell somethings about myself, how do these two ladies expect me to do so in this public forum? But having accepted the challenge, I think that perhaps it is time that I came clean about somethings about myself that I don’t talk about. Not because I am ashamed; I honestly believe that I don’t have anything to be ashamed about, but because I do not think that they are worth mentioning.

So, here I go with a list of things that are of importance to me, but of no consequence to others.

On top of the list is my spiritual quest. This is an entirely private matter and while I do share my experiences or sources of information with like minded people, I do not make a song and dance about it. If anything, I try and make a joke out of the whole exercise. I find that talking about this causes avoidable controversy and so eschew it.

I strongly believe in the theory of Karma. And that leads me to believe that there is nothing called free will.

I am peaceable by nature but under extreme provocation like any harm to my kith and kin, I am capable of extreme violence.

I love good company, good food and good music. Most people do not know this and think that I am comfortable in solitude, which too I am, eat anything on the table without a fuss, which too I do, and I love books and crossword puzzles rather than music.

I am very loyal and highly value loyalty as a characteristic trait in others.

I would love to keep a dog but have been forced not to due to my disability. If per chance a well trained and gentle dog came my way, I would gladly keep it for a pet.

I have a whole list of dislikes which I shall save for another day.

“Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.”
~ Lois McMaster Bujold

A Chapter Closes.

Earlier this evening, a very important person came to take leave of us. We have known him for the past eight years as one of the most cheerful and obliging people that we have ever known.

He was the Counter Salesman and home delivery person for the neighborhood chemist that we had been customers of, for the past fifteen years. The last eight years however, were when our purchases of medicines went up due to the illness of my wife. As part of their regular service, the Chemists extended home delivery service which was our lifeline. I would simply telephone them and by evening, the medicines would be delivered home.

The owner was a General Practitioner from Mumbai who took retirement and moved to Pune to spend his retirement in better climes. He became our neighbor in our co-op and opened this shop just half a kilometer away from where we live.

He has grown older and wishes to spend his time in better pursuits and has closed down the business with effect from last Sunday after he personally called on all his customers to announce the clousure and to explain the reason for the closure.

The Assistant who came to take leave of me, joins the doctor’s son’s business located about 15 Kms away from where we live. It is a measure of that man’s character that he came to take leave of us just as his employer did. He need not have. I however was touched that he chose to do so. He has assured us that he would visit us for a cup of tea whenever he came to the doctor’s residence on any errand.

We shall miss that man. On every visit, he would cheerfully ask us about our well being and inform us of any juicy news in the neighborhood. He would also share news about his children and their academic achievements. Whenever we needed some other help from him, he has never denied us the service as long as his employer did not object. Ever helpful and cheerful, that breed is a rapidly dying one. I wonder why. Apart from difference in the character, we also notice that other home delivery services have a high turnover of people. We see new faces every few months. This man however has stayed with one employer all these years and has just shifted from the father to the son’s employment.

Do you have such people in your lives? I am sure that there must be people like plumbers, electricians and other service providers from among whom one or two may be like this. What impact do such people have on your lives?