What are the chances you would experience the entire gamut of human behavior in a span of 5 days… the probability to experience the bad and the ugly unfortunately is higher these days… but I had the opportunity to see all 3 in its glory…
The Good:
My daughter
came to me and said, “Papa I have a project on Migration experience and would
like to interview your colleague on her experiences”. With a delight (cos of
the person she chose) I said, “sure will check with her kana and let you know
if possible (her calendar is as packed as can be)”. 2 evenings later my girl
got her 1st interview done successfully and was super elated to
share it with her teachers and classmates... there is a saying that goes “While
a lazy person finds excuses a busy one finds time”… apparently if that busy
person has a golden soul they find more than just time as shown in the
sincerity, warmth and joy with which she gave the interview… all these
adjectives are a reflection of herself… what gives this innate goodness to her..
is it the family upbringing, the society she was brought up, the journey of her
life so far or something else…
The Bad:
An inconsequential
no context email from a colleague triggered an unwarranted but expected
negative response from another colleague… and this is not the first of such
reaction from that person… many have given feedback before and many will do so
in the future… but to what avail? why could that person not take a step back to
understand the context, objective and then respond to a given situation… what
triggers this “load and shoot” behavior of this person… is it the pressure of
the project (one of the worst managed), an edginess from a tired mind or is
that the default setting…
The Ugly:
“Can you
clean the table”, came a cold voice to the person who had the task of managing
our table (along with others) in the restaurant… and was doing a pretty good
job as shared by others in the group… few discussions later the person
asked “was I too direct”… many were quiet and a couple said “yes”… “I don’t
care” came the response from the said person… sure it is obvious… what
prevented that person from conveying the same message with a “please”, “help”, “thanks”
and “a smile”… why this innate rudeness to others… again was it the upbringing,
the society’s value system (where lack of humaneness still prevails) or a feel
of entitlement (in that context)…
In the above
events, I believe all the factors mentioned play a role in shaping those behaviors, but the most important factor is “self-reflection or lack
of it”… do we as humans take stock of our thoughts and behaviors regularly and
finetune ourselves and our core values accordingly? While we expect to be
treated with respect (and rightly so) should we not give the same to others? Is
it that difficult to comprehend and acknowledge?
With these lingering
questions in my mind (these few days), I go back to “The Good” story to wrap it
all up and usher in the festive season with positivity and hope… after all as
our mythologies, history and folklores keep saying “Good will / should
supersede the Bad & ugly”…
So here I
go… “Tipping my hat off” to the beautiful woman (gifted with a soul few
have) for making my and more importantly my girl’s week… after all it is people
like you who make our lives better and sprinkle it with smile and happiness…
Our world
needs more such people and I really hope my daughter adds to that count…
