Completing half a century is always a big thing. Whether it is cricket or life – such achievements are not for the faint hearted. For we need to remember that on the field, the batsman tackles the bowlers and the match stress while in life it’s pretty much the same. The ‘bowlers’ in life’s match are the members of humanity who happen to make everything of your life, their life’s mission. And the ‘match stress’ is the relationships, the work, the egos, the permutations, the combinations, the verbal eloquence, the pride, the emotion – everything.
Thus, this October as my birthday creeped in on me, I took to analysing my life backwards.
I use the computer & laptop all too often now. Most of my work for my new book is getting done through this wonderfully unobtrusive thing called the email. As I looked at my keyboard absently, trying to think of some inspiration to help me write my latest Blog, I forgot that there was an open document on my system and my distractedly touching of the keys on my keyboard, led to a vast portion of my typed chapter getting deleted. I freaked out but thank goodness for the ‘undo’ button and in an instance my work got restored. And I quickly clicked on the ‘save’ icon to keep it safe.
I wish we had such incredibly useful features in our lives too. Though through a cultivated sense of calculated dexterities and abilities, I have introduced the following features in my life:
Delete button – to remove toxic people and situations from my life’s journey
Shift + Delete – deletes all noxious individuals & circumstances from my life’s journey, permanently with zero memory of the same.
Press Alt + F4 (Function key F4) – helps me to shut myself out completely when I need time to think and gets me rejuvenated to restart afresh with bulked up mental strength.
Ctrl + S – helps me to save all those lovely memories from my present with family and some very dear, dear friends for reference for rainy days; needless to add that this is what keeps me on the ‘actively alive’ list!
Ctrl + X – helps me cut off obnoxious sections of my life’s voyage while retaining the rest of the agreeable part; can be/maybe worthwhile to bring back into my system if the rest of me agrees.
Ctrl + B – lets me highlight in bold those instances from which I have learnt lessons, I never wanted to.
Ctrl + U – helps me to underline those adorable and fetchingly splendid moments which assist me in keeping my faith alive in honesty, integrity and ethics in all spheres of existence as it touches me.
F1 – always obtained help whenever needed and in doubt, always worked for me as I found I was never alone in my most trying times.
With all of this I wish I had the power to do the following:
Ctrl + Z – Undo a million things, a zillion spoken words, another trillion not spoken, umpteen actions done, another countless not done, moments which I could have lived differently, moments which I could spent with someone & didn’t – my list is endless and the regret eternal.
Windows key + I – to change the behaviours of countless members of the human race to make them more empathetic, more considerate, gentle and more sympathetic to the emotions and situations of the others.
Windows key + L – lock all unauthorised access to unprofessionalism in my profession of teaching.
My Hotkeys, Shortcuts & Special Keys and buttons are all initiated into action through nurtured techniques of self-preservation & protection to keep my sanity and stability intact! I buy my peace of mind through these judgements in rationality & wisdom which I have acquired after many a fall, many a heartbreak and loads of self-evaluation.
My wish list is small but evocatively, expressive. I wish, I really wish!
Half a century and still counting! Well done, I patted myself for its no mean thing to have survived the onslaught of the naysayers, the politicos, the pessimists, the dogmas, the unprincipled workplaces, the shoddy people treatment, the hail, rain and storm of life and emerged a decently well-brought-up individual for whom every person’s uttered word & wish is the unbreachable line of trust!
Have I made a new software? Will there be any takers? Am I a start-up? Have a become successful? Do I network? Will I become the emotionally richest person in the world? Am I already?
Only time will tell!
(An years ago bulletin board which I helped some very dear teacher friends put together and what a talented lot they were! The best part that we have all stayed in touch till today!)
I realized rather late in the day that people had careers charted out for themselves: 10 years to Coordinator; 15 years to something else; 35 years to yet another……I was busy counting my fruitful years with children and the number of children who remember me still.
Rather it dawned after quite a bit of professional weathering by the waves of unacceptable work practices and the winds of weird work attitudes as I stoically stood firm in my profession!
When no one wanted to consign my work as trailblazing, I decided to blaze the trail myself by writing a book about Iconic Educationists in my city, entirely at my own expense!
It turned out to be more than satisfying: I learnt the difference between a writer and an author!!
(Thank you some very dear friends)
Which is why I soldier on!
Wickedlyours 