I was watching a movie last night and realised how important it is to call back every missed call we get, even  if we are busy with work or life at any time. In this movie, the mother calls her daughter from the death bed and she does not pick up. Then the father calls to inform his daughter that her mother is no more. This time the daughter is in a party and misses her father’s call as the phone was left for charging.

If we look back at our lives, we are not very different. We miss calls on our mobile or landline because we are busy at work or driving or shopping or partying. We may forget to call back but that may have been the most important call in our lives.

It may be a relative who has met with an accident and is in an emergency, a friend who has lost his father and is seeking help or a daughter in distress ,calling her parents. All of us are equally responsible for such lapses and it happens all around us ,day in and night out.

The best of education may not teach you this basic etiquette of life. We need to call back every missed call ,imagining that it may have been the most important call ,for the person calling us. Imagine we are in some deep trouble and nobody picks up our call and no one calls us back. The feeling of distress and disappointment ,is to be experienced to be believed.

We do not realise that neither our work nor our social life ,can justify our behaviour in such circumstances. There is no point in regretting not attending your mother’s funeral since you were busy attending a business meeting and forgot to call back your family.

I sometimes wonder, why we do not learn from the mistakes we make, every other day in our lives. We do not call back our parents ,while we missed calls at our work place. We may miss an important call from a friend or relative but just forget about it ,thinking we can always revert later. We do not realise ,that sometimes we may never be able to speak to the caller again ,since they may be breathing their last while they called us. We may have to live with that guilt ,right through our lives.

Relationships in life are much more valuable than wealth or anything else. It could be relationships within the family, it could be friends , relatives or even colleagues at work. If we cannot be of help to friends, relatives or family when they need us the most, we may not be worthy of living a fulfilling life.

I would like to dedicate this blog to the countless people, who generally forget to call back. I want to remind them and myself too that the call we missed may be a life changing experience for us. It could be the death of a near or dear one. It could be the happy news of a new born baby or it could be a distress call from a friend or relative.

Let us resolve today ,that we will never miss a call and if we do, for any reason beyond our control, we will always call back.

Let us start today. Just call back please…

S Ramesh Shankar

5th August 2023