Reaching Out.

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it.” -Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist (1875-1926)

When I came across this beautiful quotation, I immediately thought of what is happening to me in and through this blog and I am sure, most of the readers who visit this blog. I am sure that a lot of the blogs that I visit regularly also are from people who will feel exactly as Rilke did.

We now have the internet and the medium of the blogs to achieve this magnificent goal. During Rilke’s time, telephones and telephones were also rarely used, and communications were incredibly slow. Despite that, his desire to reach out to the world resulted in his extensive travels to Russia and throughout Europe. Without traveling, we can meet people, relate to some, exchange views, advise each other, share our joys and sorrows, comfort each other etc. I am reaching out. So are all of you who read this.

Are there any other inspiring quotes that you can come up with that reflect this phenomenon?

I believe that this is divinity at work to bring the world closer and to enable people to reach the level of togetherness that nature wants.

Reaching Out.

Out of the blue, I received a telephone call from a young friend who lives way down South in Tirupur. Tirupur is our hosiery center from where many of the world’s popular cotton hosiery garments are exported. It is an industrial town with a high floating population and a much smaller resident population. Among the resident population, I have many friends as I spent most of my working life in the textile and accessories business. On two occasions, I had even lived there to handle a couple of projects.

My association with my young friend Srinivasan goes back to 1980 when I was located in Delhi. We had a branch at Ludhiana, another textile town in the Punjab. Srinivasan, Srini to his friends, was part of the Ludhiana team and a very valuable one at that. He had left his native state of Tamil Nadu and gone to Ludhiana for employment.

When I was transferred out of the North, Srini requested me to help him get transferred to Tamil Nadu, and using my network, I was able to help him. He made good use of the opportunity and grew within the company till the entrepreneur in him prodded him to be on his own. That too has been handled successfully by him, and he is a respected resident of Tirupur. He has been in regular touch with me all these years and calls me up when the mood takes him.

Srini is a typical family man. He has been a great support and inspiration for his siblings and other members of his family. He has got a wide net work of friends and business associates who consider him a decent soul ever ready to help others who are in need.

To illustrate his nature, let me tell you why he called. Just to say hello and to spend a few minutes reminiscing our past. He did not have to ask me for anything and on the contrary wanted to know if he could do anything for me from all the way there. That he remembered and called me to be just in touch was such a boost for me that I wish to share this with my readers. Such is the power of connections about which I had written earlier.

Coincidence? Serendipity? I do not know. Since I read the book, I am getting quite aware of the power of connections with many others turning up in my life. Perhaps I am just more aware.

I find it truly amazing. Have you started being aware after you read my post or got to know more about the book that I wrote about?

Connections.

My readers will recollect my post of December 4, 2008 on an article by Jerry Davich called the Ground Zero Mentality. In that post I had talked about the book that Jerry and his cousin Dennis Berlien had written called ‘Connections – Everyone Happens For A Reason.’

I have now had the privilege of reading the book. It is a small book by the standard of current surfeit of self help books, only 170 pages long. What it packs however, is a total knock out punch. Once I started reading it, I just could not put it down.

The book essentially talks about reaching out to others and what can happen when one does. It takes us into the lives of some remarkable people and their stories.

Since by nature and inclination, I am a compulsive ‘reacher outer’, a trait that I believe I inherited from both my parents, I could identify with and relate to many of the experiences written about in the book. I have always wondered why most others cannot be like that, and this book comes along at a time when I think is most appropriate.

I strongly recommend this book to my readers. You can get more details about the book, its authors etc, in its website.