“I have no time” is something I have heard from people from all walks of life and at various life stages. I have always found it mysterious since I have never found lack of time in anything I wanted to do in life.

I have seen students stating they don’t have time to study. I have seen players claiming that they don’t have time to practise and employees claiming they don’t have time to complete their work. Spouses in the family also state they don’t have time to do household chores.

I have been a student, played sports, worked in corporates for almost four decades and happily married for the last 38 years years but never felt that time was ever a constraint for me.

I may or may not have succeeded in all my endeavours as a student, player, employee or a spouse but can never blame time for my failure in anything.

I once asked a colleague as to why he was late for a meeting at my office in Mumbai. He blamed the traffic for the same. I asked him if he would have a missed a flight if he was going on a holiday to Goa. He smiled and said no. So, it our attitude to life and our priorities, which makes all the difference.

As a student if I don’t have time to study or play, it is because I am not planning well and prioritising what is important for me. How can I blame my school or my home for the same. I can neither blame my parents nor my teachers. I need to blame myself only.

If I move to the workplace, I find employees claiming they are under heavy work pressure and do not have time for other things like hobbies or even time to spend with their family. I find this amusing too. Having been through all stages of my work life, I never felt that I did not have time for hobbies or my family. Of course there could be some days when you are tied down but it cannot be an excuse forever.

Life is no different from study, play or work. Many of us think that life is a journey of doing things we may not enjoy all the time. It is not true. It is the way we define what we want in life. It is like if you take the road and drive without any destination in mind, you may reach where you do not want to go. But, if you plan your drive you will go where you desire always.

It is time to challenge ourselves and ask the fundamental question – “What are my priorities in life ?” . How do I want to spend the rest of my life ? I am responsible for my life. The day we realise it, we have crossed the bridge.

We can prioritise both our personal and work related things. Then plan for it and make it happen. We have to be like an Olympian who after winning a gold does not rest but starts preparing for the next Olympics, which is four years away. Let us believe we have all the time in the world to do what we want to do.

Let the new journey of life begin today.

S Ramesh Shankar

12th February 2022

 

 

I have always believed that learning and education need not go together. I have met people in life who have never gone to a formal school but know the world. On the other hand, the best of professionals from the world’s best educational institutions ,do not sometimes inspire us, with their knowledge or skills.

I was reflecting on this subject on “what inspires you to learn from whom ?”. I thought about the people I meet every day and got my insight.

I meet people who have worked in multinational corporations in very senior positions but their every day behaviour puts me off. Then I have met graduates from the best educational institutions in the country, whose arrogance repels you from them.

On the other hand ,I meet a housekeeping staff in my community, who inspires me every single day. Starting from her genuine “Good morning” wish to her enchanting smile, everything about her makes me a good learner.

I meet her everyday and learn in every meeting of mine. Her work ethic is unparalleled. She comes to our community at 630 am so that she can earn a little more by taking additional responsibilities beyond her work hours which commences at 8:30 am.

She is meticulous in her work and does not need any supervision for her quality of output. Her smile is endearing and I have never seen her in a tiff with any of her colleagues. She is ever willing to take up additional work and support her colleagues at work.

She volunteers to make tea for all of her colleagues and is the first to come to work and almost the last to leave. I have never seen her complain about anyone or about work to me or any other office bearers of the community.

She is ever helpful to her colleagues and to everyone who seeks her support. She goes out of the way to get support staff for our residents whenever they need one. I had recently wanted a temporary housekeeping staff since my regular help was down with typhoid.

She recommended a young widow to work for us. This girl came and did her duties in the absence of our regular staff. I assumed she was her relative or friend. But my respect for her went up when I came to know that she did not even know her but wanted to help her since she came to know that she is a young widow with two children and was in the look out for a job.

So, my insight from all these experiences is that you need a great attitude and willingness to share ,to learn from others. This lady is the best in whatever she does and her attitude is worth a million. She is always smiling and willing to share. I am not even sure if she has any formal education. But that does not matter ,for you to be the best in whatever you do and also share your smile with others.

I wish I could be as simple, grounded and caring as my colleague in the community is.

May be worth trying.

S Ramesh Shankar

8th Jan 2022

I sometimes wonder whether we eat to live or live to eat. It may not be either or, as it could be both too! I eat to live. I believe, I eat food to survive but some may live to eat and it is fine too. Eating to live or living to eat is a personal choice and everyone has a right to live life their way.

I have never enjoyed cooking. I enter the kitchen only when it is inevitable and I have no choice. I do help my spouse when she needs help in cutting vegetables or doing some other chores in the kitchen. But cooking is not my hobby. Sometimes when people ask me what I would like to eat – I would reply – anything and they would be amused. The people who enjoy food want to plan for it and put in a lot of efforts to cook and relish it.

I can spend an entire day with fruits and snacks to survive and not cook anything if I am alone. But for some others, this may be a torture. So, if I have a guest, I need to cook good food for them if they enjoy food and not offer snacks just because I can manage with them.

In my view eating to live or living to eat is a personal preference. I neither believe my philosophy of eating to live is wrong nor someone else enjoying food and living to eat is wrong. However, the problem is when one thinks the other is not ok.

When people want to take you out for dinner to a famous restaurant in a new city and you are not that excited, they feel disappointed. They may be right in feeling unhappy as they are putting in extra efforts to make you happy, but they don’t realise that food is not your priority. On the other hand, if you say no, you are making then unhappy since eating good food, is life for them.

In my view neither eating to live nor living to eat, is right or wrong. What is wrong is our belief that the other person is not enjoying life as we are doing. We tend to typecast people based on our own frames of life. The moment someone does not fit into our frame of life and living, we feel they are wrong.

Our ability to live life on our own terms and letting others live their own way, is a better way to enjoy life. The day we realise that we have a right to live life our way and others their way, we may be right. We also have to learn to respect the opposite of our worldview of life.

It may be easy to say this, easier to write about this but rather difficult to practise it. In life, most things we adore may not be what others do. The day we learn to live life our way and let others do their way , we have arrived.

Life is all about live and let live.

S Ramesh Shankar

15th Oct 2021