I've Learned.....

I realized that I have been living a routine life. I wake up in the morning and go to work. Complete my work out and start with my day to day work. Everything in office happens at the press of a button. My meetings start in mornings and go on up to late evenings most of the time. I hardly get time for general chats with team. This was normal for me as I was accustomed to seeing and meeting my team daily. Even in the hustle & bustle, I did manage to squeeze in some time to meet my team occasionally and this was more on a one on one level. 

After sitting at home for some time because of lock-down and work from home I missed my team and felt a strong and urgent need to connect with and talk to them and understand how they all are coping up with this. In fact, even before I could express myself for having this meeting, the request came from the team saying that we all should connect. So, since all of them including me were eager to that we should have a team meeting, I too agreed. 

 We all connected over a video call. It was a different feeling altogether. I was able to interact with them on a more personal level. I enquired about how they were doing and what they were doing in these difficult times. This was not at all work related so all were in their usual best although I could see the lock-down effect on their faces. All of us eager and happy to see each other. It was heart-warming to hear them speak as to what all they were doing besides working from home. This call gave me an opportunity to take a sneak peek in their life, got to know them a little bit more. I came to know of their talents. 

That day I felt good and light and I thought it was a time well spent. Though it was not a face to face meeting, technology did come to our rescue. This was one of a kind meeting that I had with my team. My team felt it was a very nice and a warm feeling to connect with all as it made them feel part of a team.

They suggested that we should have this meeting twice a week as it was great to connect and learn from each other. It also helped all to get inspired by each other’s daily routines, while talking to each other helped refresh us all from our daily routines. Coming together and having this chat helped us all to boost each other’s morale. So now I am convinced that I should be having these meeting more often. There were no drinks no tea or coffee unlike the usual team lunches and dinners... but just a normal charcha which struck the chords of belonging.

We would have been reading a lot of how we desperately wanted to travel to foreign tourist destinations and how these beautiful places have lost its charm due to outbreak of COVID19. Suddenly, we realized that power is not that valuable, and money is not that powerful.

Despite having cars, money etc. we are grounded in the four walls of our homes. We have money credit cards etc. but we cannot go shopping, malls are closed. We can’t entertain friends over drinks and dinners. We can’t entertain ourselves in multiplex cinema halls. We have come to realize how small and powerless we are today. We have learned to survive with basic necessities, just buying what is required to run the household by just having simple ghar ka khana.

But most of all, I've learned that the most wonderful places to be in the world are in someone's thoughts, someone's prayers, and in someone's heart. And I often keep saying that  ??????????, ???????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ‘Life’ ??? ?? ????. This is another example of what is important and why it is important.

What do you say...

V S Parthasarathy

8th April, 2020