LAST STEPS

Last Saturday recorded the demise of a dynamic socialist and freedom fighter, Shamrao Madkaikar, at the age of 101 years. While much can be written about his immense contribution to his various causes, this Monday Muse chooses to focus the primary reason for his longevity... nurturing by his son, daughter-in-law and family members.

Shamrao showed immense passion for life, but it was the round-the-clock care and attention that helped him live well. He was confined to a wheel chair in his final years. Yet he was surrounded by support that only true love can bring. His son, Narayan seemed to be repaying the debt of parenting by playing the father to his own father.

The Hindi film, Baghban had posed the pertinent query, “If a man helps you to walk your first steps in life, why can't you help him walk his last steps?” Though Narayan had no hesitation in parenting his parent, our society has too many elders without care-giving assistance. Not just physiological needs, emotional needs too are short-changed.

To be better at parenting parents, we must revisit the things we did while parenting our children... overt depiction of love, encouragement, patience, tolerance and unwavering support. Surely that is the least we can do to those who helped walk our first steps in life... by helping them walk their last steps with dignity, love and caring... like Narayan did with his father, Shamrao Madkaikar.

Now it our turn to BE BETTER at parenting
by helping walk the last steps of the aging!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

PURSUIT

It is quite a common site to see dogs chase vehicles that pass by. Once an amused observer asked a dog owner, "Do you think your dog is ever going to catch a car?" The owner coolly replied, "That is not what worries me. What bothers me is what he would do with the car if he ever caught one."

So often, so many of us behave like that dog who pursues a meaningless goal. And since success eludes us, we keep getting agitated and stressed out. Eventually pursuit itself becomes the main occupation while the thing being pursed remains consistently elusive.

For everything we set off to pursue in life, it would be better if we ask ourselves the fundamental questions of the relevance, the need and the worthiness of the goal that we chase. For every pursuit, we should be clear about what we would do when the pursuit ends in a result.

Pursuit of the meaningless is a habit that merits a avoid
Let’s BE BETTER at ensuring that goal is not a void!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

PURPOSE

“I am not really a cartoonist. I just draw!” – Mario Miranda

Mario Miranda died yesterday. Surely his impressive body of work as well as his inspiring life will continue to delight and motivate so many of us. It is pertinent to note that the above quote of Mario illustrates his clarity of vision of what he did and what he set out to do... to draw!

To draw had always been an irrepressible instinct for Mario. As a child, he would use charcoal bits from the fireplace or mud to draw on the walls of his house. His mother bought him a book and Mario’s picture diaries kept getting compiled. Eventually, he turned his passion into his profession. Nevertheless, he did not allow his original purpose to be doused at the altar of his profession.

Most doctors set out with a purpose to serve, most lawyers set off with a purpose to ensure justice, most teachers set off with a purpose to share learning, most journalists set off with a purpose to unravel the truth, so on and so forth. However, down the line our purpose is diluted by cynicism or complicity or lure. Like Mario, we need to be better at being true to our original purpose.

We need to ask ourselves whether we have forsaken the original purpose for whatever we set off to do. It is a primary responsibility to our inner self to be aligned with a path that is worthy and a cause for satisfaction and happiness. For we have seen that Mario lived a fuller life by not disconnecting from his original purpose... to draw!

to BE BETTER at staying true to original purpose...
Remind yourself why you set off on this course!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

BULL’S EYE

There is a story of the FBI being called into a small town to investigate what appeared to be the work of a skilled sharpshooter. All over town, many bull’s-eyes had bullets that had penetrated the exact centre of the targets. When the investigators finally found the man behind the shooting, they asked him how he had been able to shoot with such accuracy. His answer was simple: First he shot the bullet, and then he drew the bull’s-eye around where it had hit.

Often, the temptation is to rationalize our lives in such a way that no matter what we do, we flatter ourselves that it’s okay. Instead of living our lives with precision and clarity of focus, we chose a delusory approach to living. We choose to construct a self-laudatory Bull’s Eye around our aimless or wayward attempts.

When we position the target around our result, we deceive not only others... we deceive ourselves. Surely it would be better if goals are pre-determined and pre-declared. The Bull’s Eye must be identified before the actions, to hit target, are unleashed. Otherwise, we will be diverted from the attitude and approach to hit the real Bull’s Eye!

to BE BETTER at the Bull’s Eye game...
first set up target and then take aim!

- Pravin K. Sabnis