We all love to be recognised at every stage of our lives. As a kid, our mothers more than anyone else take care of this need. They pat our back on every possible occasion and give us enough chocolates and other incentives to keep us fully charged. As we grow up this need possibly increases but may not get fulfilled.

At educational institutions, many teachers do not realise the value of recognition. They may assume that too much of recognition may go into our heads and make us too top heavy. This may be true and we need to be grounded at all times. But, in my view, recognition is never enough.

Some people think that recognition has to be in material form or financial terms. While financial incentives do play a pivotal role especially in early stages of a person’s career, it is the non financial recognition which really makes the positive and lasting impact on people.

I remember my wife losing her gold medal of college in a burglary at home. The value of the gold medal she got more than four decades back was not much in financial terms but the intrinsic value of the recognition she received was invaluable. I went to her college principal and requested them to give it to her again. They organised a special function and she could relive that glory. It was one of the best surprises for her in her life time.

Recognition and rewards are beyond trophies and medals we may receive in school, college, Universities or even in organisations. The value of the recognition is more valued than the material or financial value of the same.

I am sure most of us would not remember the cheques we may have received in our career. But the hand written certificate from your college principal or even from your lovable boss is a treasure forever. Many of us would like to frame such letters and preserve it for posterity.

I have to confess that I realised the true value of such non financial recognition quite late in my career. I used to be generous in recognising my team members both through rewards and verbal accolades quite regularly. However, one day I wrote a hand written ( my hand writing is not something I can ever be proud of) appreciation letter to my colleague and she literally framed it and told me when I was leaving the organisation that it was the best reward of her life.

We as parents, teachers, managers and leaders have to realise that human being need constant recognition. Recognition is not necessarily in monetary terms. On the contrary, true recognition is non monetary and valued more. The earlier we realise this in our life, the better it is for all of us.

I am not in any way negating the value of financial rewards or incentives. However, what I am trying to emphasise is that non monetary awards touch your heart. Like a hand written note is valued more than a letter even if printed in golden letters. We need to realise this and not miss a single occasion when we get an opportunity to appreciate anyone around us for the smallest good deeds we see.

Let us start by appreciating everyone around us from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

16th Nov 2020

I am a great admirer of nature. I believe we have so much to learn from nature. A friend sent me a small video on nature with a lot of life lessons and that video inspired this blog.

We can look all around us in nature and learn life lessons every day. Everything in nature is in a way living for others. The rivers run from the hills to the ocean providing water to everyone who needs it without asking anything in return for itself.

The trees provide shade for others while bearing the brunt of the heat of the sun themselves. We cannot imagine the trees asking for anything in return. Even in the monsoon, the trees are like nature’s umbrellas for us when it pours. The trees do not eat their own fruits nor do they consume their leaves. They share their fruits and leaves with humans and animals without any bias .

The flowers bloom in colourful ways to brighten the lives of all living beings around them. They spread their fragrance and allow bees to carry their pollen from one flower to the other without asking for any compensation.

The sun shines all days of the year for everyone. The moon is also around to help us wade through the night. Neither the sun nor the moon send us any monthly bills for their generously spreading light in our lives.

On the other hand, we as humans are living life selfishly day in and night out. We consume nature in all its forms and give trash and junk in return. We not only destroy nature in all its forms but regrettably are not concerned about our own future generations.

We may think we are happy if we live life full of material comforts. We may be happy temporarily. But true happiness is only when we make others happy. We realise that money cannot buy everything in life. It can definitely not buy health or happiness. Thus one of the best ways to lead a happier life is by making others happy.

Nature gives us opportunities to learn every single day in every possible way to make others happy. But we are so much engrossed in our own happiness that we are oblivious of making others happy. The day we wake up from this slumber, we may kindle our own conscience.

The most important lesson nature teaches us is that “change begins with me”. If we need to change the world, we need to first learn to change ourselves. Last month I learnt thirty one different ways of making life more sustainable every day.

It is like our gardener who designed this colourful art piece did not put her name on the photo nor wanted publicity for herself. Serving others is her nature too.

If each of us are willing to learn from nature, we possibly will give back to nature much more than what we take from nature. We will not only make ourselves happy but possibly make others happy too. Nature teaches us that making others happy because of us is the true meaning of happiness.

Let us learn from nature every day and in every possible way.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th August 2022

 

As a human being, we all are emotional and it is natural to us. We go through highs and lows in life and each moment tests our emotional stability. While most of us are able to deal with highs with relative ease, we find it challenging at times to deal with our lows.

When the chips are down, we look for solace. We look for support, guidance and a listening ear. In most cases our family members or friends come to our rescue and we are able to get over this crisis in our life.

However, there are some times when we are ridden by sadness over a prolonged period of time. We try to put up a brave face and surmount this challenge in our life. However, in many such moments we lose our mental balance. We find our grief never ends and we have no options to deal with this crisis.

We then find that our close circle of family and friends are not able to to support us. We sometimes even lose faith in God. It is in such moments of despair that we are willing to seek help of anyone around us who is willing to lend a patient listening ear. It is in such moments of despair the so called God men and God women exploit our emotional weakness.

They are prevalent almost in all religions and act like predators waiting for the prowl in a forest. They pounce on such emotionally weak human beings and offer them seemingly convincing advice and also at times emotionally exploit them. They abuse the human weakness and in the name of God seek favours of all types including sexual favours. They promise the impossible and unthinkable at times.

But as emotionally distraught beings, we easily fall prey to such predators. In my view, these God men and women are devils in the name of God. It does not matter which religion they profess, they are devils in human form exploiting an already depressed human being.

While many wise men and women may laugh at such unfortunate human beings visiting such God men and women, it is sad because they do so as the last escape from their personal crisis. They almost feel they are hitting their heads against the wall and these God men and women provide them a ray of hope and then exploit their emotional vacuum.

I would condemn such God men and women from all religions. We as normal human being need to condemn such people rather than the poor victims who fall prey to them for no fault of theirs. We need to challenge such God men and women and ensure they are caught by the police and do not exploit poor emotionally discharged human beings.

I am not aware of any religion in the world which supports such God men and women. But the irony is that they exist in all religions and thrive on the human weaknesses of men and women.

It is time to wake up. It is time to condemn them and make them hang their head in shame. Each one of us can make a difference by influencing people around us in our family and friends circles so that they do not fall prey to such devils ever in their lives.

S Ramesh Shankar

16th Nov 2019