A Story of Resilience in Action

The year that went by, gave a lot...

It brought a lot of adversity, challenges, loss, grief, heartbreaks, helplessness and so much more

Among other things, it brought into our everyday vocabulary words like #resilience, #wellbeing

Every one seems to be talking about the idea of resilience, the imperative for building resilience and the challenge of doing so.

While there are many theories and approaches to the idea of resilience, I'm grateful for the living example of one in my mother, Kumud Tanhai who is a poetess among many other things . A couple of years ago she envisioned a childhood dream of publishing a book and wanted to have it done on her 70th. Last year, during the pandemic she struck the item off her bucket list. The release of the book on the birthday was quite an event. Among other things, a celebration of achieving childhood dreams.

More about that story here - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/tale-chasing-childhood-dreams-overcoming-challenges-bhavana-issar/

Today, I received the second book of poems written by my mother. As I looked at these voluminous books of nearly 60 poems each with cover pages of her paintings, I was reflecting on the journey of these books. Reflecting about what I believe is Resilience in action.

While Resilience is about enduring, adapting and thriving despite adversity, one of the key ingredients of resilience is #discipline. After she decided that she wanted to publish the book (originally only one) , she decided the goal post the date and worked backwards. It meant writing 2-3 poems every month. She went after it like a project, with a determination and dedication that some corporate honchos would dream their teams went after their sales targets... Not just meeting the monthly goals but evolving the target and over achieving by 100% !

Today, as I held the book in my hand I opened the book to the poem titled "My mukammal hoon" ( translated I'm whole/ complete ). A poem about the journey of life to accepting oneself and believing that one is complete and whole... And how although painful, it's this journey that really opens the world of possibilities , possible provided one has the resilience.

It is, indeed immense pride, gratitude (and an equal amount of pressure notwithstanding!!), for the legacy of resilience, that I have inherited!

The book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08QM6NSN2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_J908Fb5QDKZPA