Greetings of the New year! Many thanks for all the good wishes. I hope 2006 turns out to be a fruitful year for each and every one of us.
I attended a wedding reception last evening where I met many old friends. Now the thing with old friends is you never can tell how they will greet you. Some will be thrilled to see you and quickly start to reminisce of the good old days, while others will pass you off with the casual hi-hello-it's been such a long time routine and then slip away to the bar, never to be seen again all evening, save the occasional patronizing glance in your direction.
And to some people knowing what you are doing career-wise is all important. If you are working at a BPO here in India, or happen to be a customer service guy with Dubai Airport Services, you won't get more than a cold hi-hello. But if you've been kissing some white ass in Silicon Valley for the last 5 years, you will get 10 minutes more of talktime.
But why do we do that? Why do we judge people by what they do? .... And these are not just causal acquaintances - these are the very same guys you spent the best years of your life with, in school and college. So what if they didn't reach the heights you reached in your career? They probably didn't make the right choices, or get the right breaks, or simply screwed up somewhere or the other. That in no way should diminish their worth.
Because if it weren't for them you wouldn't have any of those fond memories you cherish so much. Those friends may be worth nothing to you today, but the memories they've left you with are priceless.
As is often the case, when we don't know the value of something, we tend to forget its worth anything at all.
***
I sometimes ask myself this question: What is it that people like about me? I remember playing a little game once with the other guys and girls in our church youth group. We were told to sit in a circle and were each given a sheet of paper on which we had to write our names in bold on the top. Then we had to pass it to the person next to us who had to write on it the one thing he/she liked most about you. And that went on till the sheet with your name at the top came back to you. So what you were left with is a sheet of paper telling you what everyone in the group liked most about you. And reading that was quite a revelation.
I know I still have that sheet of paper somewhere, and I remember how great I felt the last time I looked at it. Someone liked my singing, another liked my sense of humour (yes, yes I know), and there was somebody who wrote that they liked my smile (something I never got before). But I wonder: if that exercise were to be repeated today, would they write those same things about me?
Peace, love and old wine in old bottles.
I attended a wedding reception last evening where I met many old friends. Now the thing with old friends is you never can tell how they will greet you. Some will be thrilled to see you and quickly start to reminisce of the good old days, while others will pass you off with the casual hi-hello-it's been such a long time routine and then slip away to the bar, never to be seen again all evening, save the occasional patronizing glance in your direction.
And to some people knowing what you are doing career-wise is all important. If you are working at a BPO here in India, or happen to be a customer service guy with Dubai Airport Services, you won't get more than a cold hi-hello. But if you've been kissing some white ass in Silicon Valley for the last 5 years, you will get 10 minutes more of talktime.
But why do we do that? Why do we judge people by what they do? .... And these are not just causal acquaintances - these are the very same guys you spent the best years of your life with, in school and college. So what if they didn't reach the heights you reached in your career? They probably didn't make the right choices, or get the right breaks, or simply screwed up somewhere or the other. That in no way should diminish their worth.
Because if it weren't for them you wouldn't have any of those fond memories you cherish so much. Those friends may be worth nothing to you today, but the memories they've left you with are priceless.
As is often the case, when we don't know the value of something, we tend to forget its worth anything at all.
***
I sometimes ask myself this question: What is it that people like about me? I remember playing a little game once with the other guys and girls in our church youth group. We were told to sit in a circle and were each given a sheet of paper on which we had to write our names in bold on the top. Then we had to pass it to the person next to us who had to write on it the one thing he/she liked most about you. And that went on till the sheet with your name at the top came back to you. So what you were left with is a sheet of paper telling you what everyone in the group liked most about you. And reading that was quite a revelation.
I know I still have that sheet of paper somewhere, and I remember how great I felt the last time I looked at it. Someone liked my singing, another liked my sense of humour (yes, yes I know), and there was somebody who wrote that they liked my smile (something I never got before). But I wonder: if that exercise were to be repeated today, would they write those same things about me?
Peace, love and old wine in old bottles.
1 comment:
yes it would. i love your singing, your smile and your sense of humour. and a lot of other things :)
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