Author: S Ramesh Shankar

Born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, I have been brought up in different parts of India. Graduate in chemistry and post graduate in personnel management and industrial relations. Have been a HR practitioner for 38 years in the industry and have experience in working in steel , automobiles, FMCG and engineering industry. Was head of HR for Siemens in South Asia based out of Mumbai till March 2019. Currently founded hrishti - joy forever, a social enterprise to give back to society and work as Chief Joy Officer.

Live on hope

All of us have ups and downs in life. We go through crests and troughs and have to own up both of these cycles in our lives. We are delighted when something good happens to us. But, when something unfortunate happens, we are down and out. It is human and there is nothing to feel bad about it.

It may be worthwhile to reflect at this point. Who is responsible for it ? While at the spur of the moment, we may conveniently blame others in our life, in reality the onus of responsibility for our behaviour and actions lies wholly and solely on us, as individuals.

Our past does not determine our future. But our actions determined our past and the same will craft our future. We also need to realise that our behaviour impacts people around us and we are responsible for the same. We are human and may make mistakes. It is important to realise our mistakes and seek forgiveness wholeheartedly and from the bottom of our hearts.

We need to realise that we cannot and will not succeed in this world all alone. We need family, friends and colleagues to succeed in work and in life. So whenever we make mistakes, we need to have the courage to stand up and own them and seek unconditional apology from the people whom we may have adversely impacted.

The sun rises the next day after every sunset everywhere in the world. Similarly, if we go through downs today, there would be ups in the future. This is the cycle of life and nature. We need to live on this hope always.

While we need to live on hope, we also need to take responsibility for all our actions and behaviour in life and at work. If we are willing to change and accept responsibility for our actions, tomorrow will always be better than today.

None of us want to live a life of misery. We would never like to hurt others or make life difficult for our near and dear ones in life. But if by any chance we do either, we need to stand up and own responsibility for our behaviour and actions.

“To err is human, to forgive divine” goes the saying. We need to learn to forget and forgive each other in such situations and move on in life. Forgiveness is Godliness. It may be difficult to forget and forgive others. But, if we have the courage to do it, we will discover the humanness in us.

I am a born optimist in life. I have always believed that the future is going to be better than the past. But we need to create the future of our choice by our own actions and behaviours in life.

The future will not dawn on us from the sky. We shape our future by our own actions. Let not the dark days of the past worry us too much as we need to live on hope and believe that the sunshine of tomorrow will wipe away all the tears from our past lives.

Let the journey begin today.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th Dec 2023

 

Living for yourself first

A friend of mine called the other day and said she got an insight while spending time with herself. She is an accomplished professional whose spouse is a professional in the same field and she has two beautiful children – a daughter and a son.

When I asked her what the insight was ? She said that ,today after so many years of marriage and professional working in a company “ she realised that she needs to live for herself first ,before she serves others in her life ,including family and friends.

I thought ,this was quite insightful. Many of us spend our whole life time ,living for others and in the process forget that we also have our individualistic needs. Our health may be fading and we may never have spent time ,on things we enjoy in life.

I am not for one saying ,that we need not serve others. Even this friend of mine did not mean, that you need not help others. She is a working professional and takes care of her family including spouse, children and parents from both the sides.

What she meant is that ,sometimes ,in our quest to excel at work or taking care of family and friends, we forget our own individual needs. Self care is as important as caring for others ,she said. I more than agree ,to this concept.

If we do not take care of ourselves, nobody else will. Our health is in our hands and so are our other interests and hobbies. If we cannot spend time for our own selves, nobody else will. We may realise that health is impacted after we are down with some disease or handicap, since we neglected our own health ,all the while.

If we do not discover our own passions in life ,by spending quality time on them, nobody else can invest that time ,for us. Even if somebody is willing to spend some time with us, it may not kindle joy in us.

I walk every day and also practise yoga and play badminton whenever time permits. I recall many years back ,when I used to skip my walk on some silly pretext ,my wife used to remind me that diabetes is mine and not hers. This was a very timely reminder to me that if I don’t take care of my own health, others can do nothing about it.

Life is also that way. We need to find time for ourselves every day. We may call it “me time” or whatever one wants to call it. We need to discover and re-discover ourself, as a human being, every day of our lives. We need to maintain our health and be physically, mentally and emotionally fit . It is then , that we can take care of others better.

I am grateful to my friend for sharing this insight with me. It has not only reminded me of this important aspect of life but also may be a good reminder for many of my readers.

Let us pause, look at the mirror and discover ourself all over again today.

S Ramesh Shankar

3rd Dec 2023

Life is a journey, not a race

We live life every day as if we are running a 100 metre race. At most of the times, we are in a hurry and we do not have time for anything. If you ask anyone around, they say they are running against time. I sometimes wonder if it is worth living such a life.

We need to realise that life is a journey, not a race. We need to learn to enjoy life in our own way. We need to learn to take a pause or a break, whenever we need it. We need to learn that ,we are not competing with anyone else in life ,except ourself.

Sometimes people do not enjoy the journey of life. It is almost like taking a vista dome train through the green valleys of the western ghats and either sleeping all the way or working on your laptop. If we do not have time to look around and enjoy the beauty of nature ,around us, during our journeys, we are missing a lot in life.

Life teaches us valuable lessons ,every day of our lives. It gives us ample opportunities to celebrate life ,if we want to. But, if we are busy only comparing and competing with others, we are wasting our time. We can always learn from others ,without competing with them.

This is true ,both for our personal and professional lives. We need to learn to lead our personal life at our own pace and determine our own priorities. We tend to live for others ,all the time and sometimes even forget to enjoy ourselves.

I am not saying for a moment ,that we need not serve others in life. I am only saying that we need to take care of ourselves well before we take care for others. Caring for others should not be ,at the cost of our own lives.

I have met many working professionals in my career, who have no time to enjoy life. Everyone starts believing that the organisation they work for ,will come to a grinding halt, if they are not around. This is the first misnomer ,they need to shatter in their lives. There is not a single individual without whom, the organisation cannot survive.

I have also met people who say they have no time to take care of their health or to pursue their hobbies. We are the masters of our own destiny. If I don’t have time for anything in life, I cannot blame the world or my family, friends or colleagues, for it. I can only blame myself for the same.

We need to learn to manage our time and priorities in life . It may be a good idea to review and reset our priorities ,from time to time. We may realise that what was important yesterday to us, may not be relevant today and vice versa.

The day we realise ,that life is a beautiful journey and not a mad race, we may start enjoying life , in our own little ways. This realisation cannot come from heaven or from others in our lives. It has to come from within us.

We need to challenge ourselves and press the Ctrl+alt+delete button in our lives now and then. We may get new insights and discover the beauty of our life ,all over again.

The time to rediscover life is now.

S Ramesh Shankar

30th Nov 2023.