CURIOSITY

CURIOSITY

Curiosity fuels your mind.

Curiosity spreads your knowledge base.

Curiosity inevitably enlarges your repertoire.

Curiosity turns you flexible.

Curiosity makes you agile.

Curiosity lets you adapt

Curiosity powers you to adopt.

Curiosity enables you to promptly respond to shifting environments.

Curiosity enhances chances of serendipity coming to your aid.

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

Ever tried, ever failed, no matter, try again, fail again, fail better.

Samuel Beckett

What leaders – good leaders – do. They stay calm and resolute at a time when they face an insurmountable challenge.

They express calm and their actions would  reflect that.

They do not jump up and down and shout, “ We have a problem, a tremendous problem,” and scare everybody.

They would play it down. They would never create panic. They would show confidence and strength. They would tackle the challenge and succeed.

FLEXIBILITY

FLEXIBILITY

You have to train yourselves to be flexible all through your life to enable you face challenges or competitions squarely.

The inability to switch mid stream, when you learn your strengths are neutralized by your opponents or contenders, would be your bane.

If you are narrow in your outlook, in your everyday roles, in your career or in your skill set Armageddon would be staring at you.

You would be in an unimaginable predicament when your expertise is suddenly fulfilled by artificial intelligence or automation or outsourcing and  you do not adapt to the transformation or refuse to improvise and hit a variable..

FIGHTING CORONA IN UTOPIA

Utopia is no man's land. It exists nowhere.  But it is omnipresent.

In Utopia if you have to see a Doctor for a lifestyle disease, you have to undergo a Corona test. Interesting part is you do the test today and see the doctor tomorrow with a Covid 19 negative certificate. But what is the assurance you are not Covid 19 positive on the day you see the doctor? 

Mandates are mandates.

Now you can hoodwink Corona, visiting the doctor on the Zoom platform. The good doctor charges you double what you pay on a personal visit on the zoom consultation. You have to upload the scanned copies of the reports for the doctor's perusal. You have to be tech savy. And the commandment of the omnipotent is that you are under reverse quarantine. Venturing out is taboo.  The proclamation prohibits misadventure or misdemeanour or activism on your part. You will be severely dealt with.

The doctor initiates the consultation only after the fee is debited from your account and traverses the long or short  distance to the doctor's account. The doctor finally advises you to repeat the medicines for two weeks and sets the date for the next consultation. Long live the doctors.

In Utopia if you are Covid 19 positive, the law enforcers and the health personnel force you to pay US Dollars 5000.00 and get into the private hospital of their choice.  If you reject the offer you will be plainly told that it would be inconvenient for you if you attempt to be treated at the common man's facility. 

Say no, Utopia is Utopia and you would be quarantined for 60 days and you would  starve. in a facility that has no facilities. 

  

SHATTERED LIVES

Ammachi - Dr. Annamma George, our mother - had passed away on 5th August 2020. She was 95, sixteen days from celebrating her 96th Birthday. 

Anna Kochamma was solid gold. 

How are you all holding up?

We find the going tough. 

For Lila it's the loss of her dear mother. 

Yesterday she was telling me, "At times I wonder, did we do everything well for Ammachi." 

Has an iota of suspicion we didn't do everything right all through the years we had stayed with her

I assured her it isn't

You did everything possible.

Don't even think otherwise

I miss her everywhere I look for her. She's not on her seat at the dining table. She's not in her room. She's not on her bed. She's everywhere, but nowhere. There she is getting up in the morning, emerges from her room holding a flask close to her body, walks slowly to the kitchen. She sits there on a chair at the kitchen, swallows a full mug of hot water with glum,glum and enjoys her tea.

Returns to her room with the flask of hot water. 

She did all this routinely each day of her life till  7th June 2020. It differed on the 8th. She was hospitalised - the first admission - in the night that day. There were three admissions in as many weeks.

There was visible disorientation in the morning. The routine was broken. Later she came round. Went on as usual. We didn't think much of it as normalcy had been restored.

I am sitting on my chair observing all this while scanning the newspapers.

Where is she? 

I miss her.

Ashwin had a special relationship with her.

Anoop too.

They miss her. 

Aaron was crying aloud seeing her inert.

Little Evana was telling us yesterday when we were in Ammachi's room, "Valiyam illa"

(Great Gandma is not here), looking at the vacant bed.

LOCKDOWN STRESS BUSTER

True, Lila finds joy in stitching.

But I am amazed she's doing it when she's under a  multiple  lockdown(not the triple lockdown of the authorities)

It's the stress.

She's not growing young.

She has her invalid mother whom she cares for alone with love and affection.

Not the paid stuff where you never receive your money's worth.

She cares for everyone in the house ensuring they don't lack in anything.

She has been confined to  home since March except when she looked after Ammachi at the Hospital.

She doesn't complain.

Yet, she finds time to express herself in one of her favourite pastimes. Says it relaxes her. 

The caption in three words eloquently captures all this and much and much more.

BOY MEETS GIRL

A little bit of History. 

These days no one is interested in that. If you set out with a historical narration you can see people are disinterested. They are  impatient with you for your intrusion into their secluded egotistic life. 

November 20 1977. 

A 27 year old young man and his 24 year old sister had set out from their abode. They took the Fast Passenger to Trivandrum. They were seen off by their father and mother. The mother was recuperating. She had been critically ill and was just out of the Hospital. 

The long journey was to meet the girl and her family in  Trivandrum. There was the proposal. 

When the young man met the girl he told her explicitly that his mother was suffering from an incurable disease. He left it to the girl to choose.

The marriage took place on December 29  1977.

The girl stepped happily into a house that had been steeped in  inadequacies. The mother soon had a relapse. She was admitted in a premium hospital. Almost two months later she was discharged with the doctor's remark, 'Prognosis given.'

She was brought home. After a few days she had slipped into a coma.

The beautiful girl who had become a part of the family through marriage -   three months old - took in the crisis with a composure that astounded her husband.

She took care of the mother in the best way possible. The girl who had just left a home of plenty and comfort had no hesitation in looking after her newly acquired mother in law. She had no inhibition in cleaning up or feeding the invalid.

There was love, love and love. There was affection , affection and affection. 

How many would replicate her? Not many, I am sure. 

Many moments came alive at once.

The young girl now is a proud grandmother. She had her own space in the world when she had been  employed.

Unmindful of whatever she had been or whatever she could not be she leads a happy contented life. She passes oñ, transmits and transcribes the quality ingrained in her. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and AFFECTION, AFFECTION  and AFFECTION. 

Some people are like that. Again not many. They are rare. They are unusual. The legacy, impossible  to replicate.

Here she is looking after and supporting four generations as her niece has rightly mentioned.

She looks after her mother and cares for her happily. 

She's Lila, our Lila.

True, the bar has been set high.