During this lockdown, there were a few instances that taught me some lessons and reminded incidents. In past those incidents did mean little, however, during the lockdown, there were some learnings that emerged. This small incident happened recently which reminded me of two lessons. Lesson one, it is better to be calm when dealing with people or situations. Once again, my recent experience reinforced this lesson. Lesson two, of Hindi class during school. There is a Doha by a saint Rahim, which uses water giving a wonderful message. The message is “water is most important, without water, there is no pearl (shine in pearl), person (respect of person) or lime (use-ability of lime)”. The author uses “water” in different contexts (in Shlesh alankar – Pun decking).

रहिमन पानी राखिये बिन पानी सब सून

पानी गए न ऊबरे मोती मानुष चून

I have written a lot of blogs on water, be it on economics, meditation, rainwater harvesting, current affairs, or others. You can read the different flavors can be read here.

No water

Last week, we woke up to know that there is no water in our wing of the building. Recently we read the news that due to lockdown water usage in Mumbai reduced. It was a surprise how it is possible that we don’t have water?

drop-meets-ocean

I was not upset, probably because there are more pressures of work these days than water crisis. Probably, I was unmoved because I did not have to rush to the office. Or probably I reasoned out in my mind better – I quickly accepted the situation. “Ok there is no water, now what?” Actually it was case number three. I went down, spoke with security, and came to know that there is a new fellow on duty. He was unaware of switching on the water pump. Result? this whole trouble.

It was a revelation – once again – to me when I was talking to him. We take things so much for granted that when we do not have it, only at that time we notice them exist. We never care for who made it possible for that thing to reach us. Water in this instance. It is stored somewhere. We receive water when an unknown BMC employee timely switching on and off of the switches. It is one of the largest supply systems in the world. It traverses the distribution line put in place by god knows who and when. We never think about these people who were the foundation for making our water tank full every morning or for that matter who made our water tank in the first place. Forget about being mindful of the security guard of our building who switches on the button daily. We take the availability of water for granted these days especially in the cities like Mumbai that we don’t realize those who make it possible actually exist!

Lessons

These are some important things that come to my mind with the incident

  • Be grateful

Every individual makes some contribution to our life, we should be thankful to them for this. Yes, if today this security person is not there someone else will be, but his being there today made you feel safe at home. So for that at least – be thankful.

  • Be compassionate / considerate

There are possible reasons for mistakes so try to look at correcting situations and not criticizing people. You may not know what a person must be going through. Or it is possible that he is new to the system and genuinely unaware of his all responsibilities. A leader must inform his team members about the end results or the basic responsibilities.

  • Own your mindfulness

If someone loses mind the overall surroundings become tensed. If I am not mindful, it may cause harm not only to me but also to the people around me. Also, if I am mindful I can better handle the situation isn’t it? If you lose your calm the situations are going to get worst.

These lessons are useful irrespective of personal or professional life. One has to be grateful plus considerate to people, and mindful of self, isn’t it? These factors help a person retain (water) respect – पानी गए न ऊबरे मोती मानुष चून! According to Rahim – No water is no respect too.


KRD Pravin

Here I am supposed to write about myself. Professionally, I am quite serious and a workaholic; personally I am an individual who enjoys what he does and takes life as it comes. I am passionate about my work and actions and empathetically careful, attached and committed to them. All this makes me a fierce competitive professional and yet a compassionate soul, the Yin and the Yang together. Balancing is the art to be practiced using the middle path. From - http://business2buddha.com/about/

1 Comment

Uncertainties and acceptance - Business to the Buddha · October 4, 2020 at 5:44 pm

[…] has been more than a week, we wake up to the no-water in the overhead tank of our wing of our residential complex. Initially, it was annoying. Daily, I […]

Leave a Comment