And I realized again, the real purpose of life!

Ever wondered that each and every creation of God or a substance/material has got a purpose to serve!!!

Yes, that's what I've been pondering over for quite sometime! With age catching up, experience increasing, knowledge base getting multiplied; there's another addition to my personality and that is to tell stories to my daughter and make her understand how she needs to cherish each and every moment, value all that she has in her possession and be thankful most importantly. The idea is to make her understand how she can make her life meaningful and make the most out of it!

Nothing better than this pandemic and lockdown which can make us understand the value of even the smallest of things that we possess and that's where the story started, which I am going to share. My daughter has a slightly different life than it was for me as a kid. She might have certain things in abundance which were scarce for me. My subject here is a pencil, yes a pencil! I used to get a new pencil when the old one used to reduce to just about 1.5 inches in size. And, the joy of getting a new one used to be a lot however in her case it is all easy, more than a dozen is always in stock, knowing the uncertainty about the supply due to the fear of another wave! And, this led her to feel that's it is all free flowing and a broken nib means a replacement with a new one!

Therefore, one fine day, I sat with her and I asked, do you know what's the real value of this pencil? No answer from her! Intrigued, she looked at the pencil and later said "I don't know", it is just a pencil! Obviously, not her fault, she is too young to kind of decipher what I meant. So, I continued and said, "the value depends on how you look at things. It has many great qualities and I would like to share those and want you to imbibe and adopt those qualities and be like this pencil when you grow up. You'll not just be a happy person but you will also find peace and real purpose of life!

First quality: You must remember that there is a hand guiding you. And, that hand could be of God, your mother, your father, your mentor, your teacher, your seniors etc. and they guide you in the way they feel appropriate so that the writing is meaningful and makes sense.

Second quality: After certain intervals, now and then, one has to stop writing with the pencil and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil go through some pain but afterwards, it is much sharper and pointed. So you must remember that you might have to struggle a bit and there could be some sorrow in life but you will become a better person, much sharper and focused.

Third quality: Use of pencil also brings in the use of an eraser to rub out any mistakes. It means that correcting something we did incorrectly is not necessarily a bad thing ; it actually gets us back to the right track which leads us to our final destination.

Fourth quality: The wooden exterior part is not all that matters in a pencil but something that is inside; the graphite. So always look at the inner beauty and quality and pay attention to what is happening inside you. This will work as a guiding principle.

Fifth quality: A pencil when used for writing on a page, it always leaves a mark. Similarly, you must know that everything that you do in your life, will leave a mark. And, you need to be aware and conscious that every action of yours will have an outcome.

Sixth quality: A pencil gets shorter and shorter with use, and our life too. Therefore, make the most of it till the time you are alive.

Seventh quality: It remains productive and writes till the very end. So your life needs to be useful, meaning, and must carry a purpose.

Listening to all of these, she said; Daddy, the moral of the story is that "I will use my pencil till it becomes very small". And, I laughed.....but I think my purpose of telling this story to her was served. :)

It is a paradox that the one who learns to accept and deal with scarcity often achieves much more than those who don't accept it. The inability to deal with scarcity leads to problems with money, education, skill development, and various other concerns. If children accept scarcity, they can develop the skills necessary to minimize its impact on their lives.

I hope that the acceptance of scarcity may also prompt her to discover alternatives which will minimize its effects. With time I am seeing some change and happy that the acceptance about the scarcity as a fact of life is creeping in and maybe she will look at things differently hereon.

With warm regards, Majid