A Tribute to my ‘Life Shapers’

Have you ever pondered how we are what we are today? Most of us, most of the time, believe that it’s we who shape our lives, it’s we who cast ourselves in a mould which we chose for us and it’s we and no one else, who bring forth the beautiful human being or the ferocious animal that we are today! Nah. We don’t deserve neither the complete credit nor the utmost reproach for what we are. While I agree that a large part of us is what we think, act and do, however the entirety of us has a significant contribution coming from what I call our ‘Life Shapers’.

What / who are our ‘Life Shapers’? Certain set of people who come our way during certain set of path breaking events which occur in our lives, and do something which is not less than act of God, and in the process very deeply and strongly influence us, is who I’m talking about. It’s irrespective whether these people influence us positively or negatively. Either way they make us think, act and do as we think, act and do in those situations.

While I reminisce my life, I cannot help but pay my tributes to my ‘Life Shapers’. For the sake of brevity, which is a must for a blog, I’m not including my immediate family, who deserve nothing less than a complete book to be scripted for their contributions in being my ‘Life Makers’. Also, as much as I want you to know who my ‘Life Shapers’ are, in order to respect and retain the privacy of their identity, I decided not to reveal their names.

I would like to start with offering my gratitude and deep respect for the selfless love and affection showered upon me during my childhood by my aunt who was also our next door neighbour. If it were not for her, I would have lost my left arm. During Class VI, I had met with a rare accident of a metal piece piercing my arm and creating a gaping hole, exposing raw flesh and bones! While my mother almost fainted at this horrific sight, my aunt acted with coolness of Dhoni to put a handkerchief on the freshly created pit in my arm and speed of Sachin to rush me to the nearest doctor for the stitches.

There are some incidents in life which make you realize the importance of the sensitivity certain individuals carry for you, even if they are more like strangers to you. And when you realize the greatness of their act, you feel small for not owning that kind of sensitivity for them or for other similar acquaintances. This takes me back to my engineering college internship at BHEL Haridwar after my 5^th semester. After a good number of active days, I was struck by heat stroke which caused a relentless fever that was not wanting to go away inspite of treatment through injections by none other than the senior most doctor. When the situation was almost out of control, one of the Bengali aunts took charge, made me lie down on the bed and started pouring cold water on my head and forehead. She did it slowly, bucket after bucket, and after 3 to 4 buckets the fever broke. It was no less than I getting a second life.

Have you been in a situation where you along with your immediate family had to be underground for a couple of days in an extremely tense situation? I hope you don’t take my point literally but understand it figuratively. Well I’ve been, and in this given situation got to discover along the way a few individuals who stood with us like a rock. While one of them took care of the office since I couldn’t take any phone calls and the other one took care of our parents, there were those who offered us their roof, inspite of realizing the risk they were carrying, and fed us until we were out of the given situation. I don’t think we can repay them in this life.

The world is full of numerous examples of exemplary customer service, a few of which are rare gems while many of those are just to fill the endless print media. In my experience, it was the two days of shelter and food service provided in its airport lounge by one of the India’s leading airlines, to one of most impatient passengers who when put in a sudden stranded situation, acted almost like brats, during the unprecedented deluge and flooding in Mumbai in the year 2005, which would fare by far the finest examples of customer service ever witnessed. It gave me an insight into up to what extent a private organization can go to take care of its customers.

Some persons are born with a gift of gab. And if you find one, who happens to have the same set of chemistry as you have, the connect is automatic. No doubt it takes a few sittings over the chilled beer to synchronize and many more drives and sittings to refine the synchronism, the result of it is extremely satisfying. Then it becomes an occasion where you don’t have to act, you just have to be. The knowledge exchange of ethereal thoughts and ideas happens so effortlessly as if it doesn’t require any external medium to flow. The end result of one conversation is a sense of joy and peace of mind, until the next conversation.

Have you ever been spotted? I’m asking in a positive sense. Have you ever been spotted for your professional knowledge, skills and experience by someone who’s searching for someone like you, who after establishing a contact gives you enough room to think and come back and at the same time doesn’t let the gap be so wide that you lose your interest in pursuing the opportunity? One who feeds you enough information to feel motivated to consider the opportunity seriously, and only enough to motivate you to find more yourself and feel glad about the opportunity. Most importantly, the one who continues to act with the same values as before the deal was struck. I’ll be happy for you if you find a person like this.