Last weekend, I came to mom's house for Diwali. Weird but now somehow it's become "Mom's house". Home is someplace else. Anyways, whatever this home in Gurgaon is, this visit has done something to me - or maybe it has undone some damage. It has given me this strange sense of peace, I have been able to gather my thoughts once more, I have de-cluttered my mind and its significantly more free than even before I moved away after marriage. Somehow, coming home as a visitor, has taken me back to a place of peace.
Somewhere, I had got lost in the varied opinions, the new culture, the new perspectives and my new life. I became confused about what matters to me, what should matter and what I want to matter. I no longer knew who I wanted to be, and I could no longer recognize the person that I had become.
This visit has been a gentle reminder of who I really am. Someone held my hand and slowly reminded me of the importance of basic values, of work ethics, of the value of things that last way beyond the high of a large cheque signed in your name. The belief that integrity, strength of charecter and being honest to yourself and your work is what will ensure that at the age of 60, when the corporate career is probably nearing and end or has ended, when you start to look back at your life an evaluate what you have achieved - you can still hold your head high, you can still make one phone call and reach for help, you are still the person people look to for guidance and you get will get that assurance that you have - and always will- command a certain respect that is priceless.
So I have promised myself that I will be the person I know I was brought up to be. I will live by the values that define who I am. I will not let the fact that I live in a materialistic world cloud my judgement of what is appropriate, acceptable and expected. I will be grateful for the fact that I am in a position to not let the principal of maximum material benefit guide my life. I will no longer try to fit into a world where I feel like I am weird because of the values I have.
Life is not easy. But if you keep your rules and priorities in line with basic humane principles, somehow, taking decision and making life choices, really ceases to be optional.
Hum of the day:
I have been given a legacy of values - which makes simultaneously humble and proud. It is now my duty to live a life so that I can pass on the same.
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