I had made a posting with this title sometime back and it became controversial for no reason really :-)

But anyway, the idea of that post was to present few incidents, which are otherwise rather normal and small events, but give some message which might stay with you for life. The two incidents discussed there had got me to start writing English properly (as in not write "u" instead of "you") and to keep the cellphone in vibration mode in public places.

There was another such incidence that had taken place much earlier. Interesting thing is that it had a major effect on my life, and yet as an incident I had almost forgotten it. Today somehow I was suddenly reminded of it. It was during my Navodaya days. On one of the weekends, I was coming home from the hostel to home with my father. A friend had given a message to be delivered at her home. We were trying to locate her home, but it was turning out to be difficult. I asked my dad to leave it since the friend had herself told me not to bother if it became too much of trouble. But dad won't give up! He made a causal statement, "Poochhte, poochhte to aadmi Lanka tak pahunch jaata hai" ("By asking one can find the way even to Lanka" - symbolic statement of course. Guess this saying relates to Lord Rama reaching Lanka, despite not knowing anything about the region!)

Now, as a grown up, you might not find anything profounnd in this learning. Very litereally it means that one should not be worried about locating things in a new place. One can always ask. But at that stage in life it was a major realization for me. Later, while I was doing my +2 at Ranchi, trying to manage ten things together, this statement always remained with me. At the end of two years I knew more about the geography of Ranchi than many of my class-mates, who had been there since birth. All in the process of finding out those weird tution locations, obscure test-centres and places where different forms can be obtained. (Of course, later I realized that all of them were not weird or obscure, just that I was new :-) ) And to a great extent I owe my enthusiasm for travelling to this atttitude. I do not normally feel anxious at a new place.

So much, for literal meaning. There is more too. In general, one need not be afraid of venturing into a new territory, doing something one has never done before. One can always ask (for help)! For the sake of fun, I had once analyzed all the messages in my sent-mail for one month at IITK. Around 25% of them contained the word "help" in subject line! This was during the time I was having an hyperactive extra-curricular life at IITK.

In short, it was a particular attitude which that one casual statement gave to me. And it "helps"!

Categories: Thoughts