Friday, November 22, 2013

Obvious

The clock strikes 8 PM. The person who locks the office appears in your door. Time to leave. Next destination is Dept. to finish the rest of the work. 8:45 PM - phone call from home. Start winding up slowly. Walk past the corridor, stop a while at a colleague's door. A quick rerun of the day. Did you hear correctly - what is more important, being a high achiever or being a good human being? 

Do these two have inherent conflict? Vivekananda said, "Unselfishness is more paying only people do not have the patience to practise it." Can we not have both high achiever and a good human being in one? If we are asked to choose between a high achiever and a good human being, the answer should be obvious. But is that so?

Every choice has a cost. If we choose good human being and not the high achiever, we miss out association with those achievements and additional scores that come with it. If we do not choose good human being, we are on a slippery ground. 

Is it a choice for only today or also for tomorrow or day after? One may ask, tomorrow will come only if we are able to survive today. The fact is, whether we survive or not, tomorrow will come. We have to go one day. But tomorrow will continue to come. That is inevitable.

There was a facebook post this evening! Excerpts below in italic. Immediately three persons come into chat. All from outside IIT Kharagpur community. One is childhood senior, one is childhood junior, and the third is an in-law, cousin brother's side. "Is everything fine?" Can it be otherwise? You post a message which is not that obvious and immediately three persons ping you, comfort you. 

Achievement! What is that? 

And here is a person who thought that the issue deserves a post! Only a blind person or a blinded person cannot see what is obvious!!

Be God's child. You need not fear anything! Fear, according to Vivekananda, is the greatest weakness. He said, "Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves." He further said, "“Face the brutes.” That is a lesson for all life—face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them."

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