Life as I find it

A most interesting weekend. Raka had gone to do his ALHP with ISABS. I thought that after a week of sensitivity training kind of stuff, he might appreciate the opportunity to find some peace before returning to the bustle of life.

So, I went to Modi Resort on the evening of the 5th which was the party night for their event. I knew over half the community there, and was made very welcome and enjoyed the opportunity to connect with people I knew. We danced for a looooong time.

I spent the next day lazing around, and finally, when Raka was free from the event, we went to a friend’s bungalow near Neral, at a place called Keki Baug, which is full of well maintained bungalow plots for people to relax in. This place belongs to Harsha Joshi, a friend of a friend of ours called Raghu. Actually, Raghu stays there more than Harsha.

Raghu is this nature lover, who once was a business partner with Harsha in some electrical business, which is now Prolite Autoglow. Raghu is famous with all the women, because he is an amazing cook, a bachelor with no intentions of marriage and an amazingly caring heart. Raghu often keeps an eye on this place (and enjoys it) for Harsha.

Harsha is the guy heading Prolite Autoglow, the head of a joint family of fourteen members in Mumbai in todays day and age, a guy whose circle of loved ones expands with each person he comes across.

So, we went there for a spot of peace and quiet and romance before heading to the chatter of the city. It was fabulous.

The house itself is in a well maintained lawn on a slope, with a stream like fountain with a bridge across it. Very picturesque and peaceful. At the foot of the property, there is the backwater from a dam and the season meant that they vally is absolutely beautiful……

What’s even more beautiful is the people. Harsh and family bring “open door policy” a whole new meaning. An example would be that Raka had never met them before, and a day after we arrived, they arrived with some friends from abroad expecting and empty house, and we all had a great time together when they found us there. How many people can bring special guests home to find people they don’t know settled happily and be genuinely happy to find them enjoying the space?

We felt that it was our home too, and indeed it reflected in all we did, from caring for the place to planning future visits…..

More than the land and the home, it is this inviting nature that had us feeling so…. healed. In a world where people are so focused on owning their properties that they forget to enjoy them, Harsha’s attitude enriches all it touches.

We ate pakodas to celebrate the rain and spent a most enjoyable evening with Roxanne joining us for a while. Roxanne is a story in herself. You shant there and do nothing and she happens to you. She tells you about things, asks stuff, and answers herself too…. an animal lover and the manager for the property, Roxanne is one interesting person to meet. May be I’ll write about her separately.

Too many people give up easy. Perseverance is the key to achieving anything.

What use is a webmaster who makes a site and sits passive? He is not a webmaster - he is a designer and the poor site is an orphan. What use is a climber who doesn’t practice?

It is a fantasy that we will be able to “maintain” our current success. Performance and results like everything in life are ever changing. You can’t maintain them, because they are not snapshots to be frozen. What you can do is make efforts that bring a sense of the results being sustained. The sustaining is a new challenge.

Many people don’t understand this, or maybe they don’t want to understand. Because, if they do, they will have to actively make efforts and bear their responsibility infinitely.

It is not as bad as it sounds. Its worse!

The thing with getting that zing out of life is not “maintaining” and “sustaining” and such insipid words. It is exploring! Going beyond boundaries, current abilities and all that we know, to know new things.

It is a shift in our attitudes from passively suffering what life doles out to actively pursuing what we want. Once that shift is made, you will never find yourself worried about sustaining performance, because you will know what you did today is going to be insignificant before what you are going to do tomorrow. No doubts, no uncertainties.

If you are certain of your commitment to excellence, you will find yourself completely accepting that each new moment brings a learning and development curve.