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Stories and life lessons in this book are a contribution of the respective authors who are hoping to make a difference in the reader’s perspective to enable a more balanced lifestyle that is open to new ideas and learn that secret lesson hidden in each experience.
If interested in submitting a story/life lesson to be featured in this book, please click “Project” link on the main page.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE WITH THE FORMATTING AND UPDATES.
Love, Crush and more
Written on 12/29/2016
Abhi DhiYogi
As a thirteen year old kid: I liked a girl, I asked her for a date, she said no,
I persisted for 6 months, she said yes, she moved away or found someone else
after a year and broke my heart, I was sad for a few months, then I saw the
love of my life, I asked her for a date, she said no, I persisted…..the story
continues and finally has a happy ending.
Fast forward 40 years : I have a career now: I find opportunities, send business
proposals, the client says NO, then I persist for 6 months, Client says yes and gives
me a chance, After a year Client moves to another vendor, I am tense for 3 days,
Then I find another opportunity, I apply, Client says no …the story continues.
It’s the same lifecycle for most of the events or situation in my life.
What I learnt as a kid still holds true.
So, in trying to figure out the logic to my madness, following is my
conclusion: The one lesson, that helps me as an adult to pursue what
I believe in or come to terms with any loss or let go and move on,
is what I learnt as a kid when I fell in love..
Today, when my kid comes and tells me he likes something or someone,
I encourage him to pursue his belief, maybe fail, maybe succeed,
maybe have a heart break, maybe move one or maybe find the love of
his life. In the end, I know, no matter what the result, the experience
Hey there,as promised, here is the latest “conversation with Zara.
Me: I will drop you off at Ammama’s and Ajja’s place for a few days.
Zara: I don’t want to go. I want to wake up late and Ammama will wake me up at 6 AM!
Me: Nonsense! She never does.
Zara: she does! And insists that we watch birds. I get the crow and sparrow. But Dodos? Really?
Me: Eh?
Zara: she insists there are dodos in her backyard. Dodos are extinct! I can’t pretend anymore!
cheers,
suman
FYI:
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo’s closest genetic relative was the also extinct Rodrigues solitaire, the two forming the subfamily Raphinae of the family of pigeons and doves.
The school story
Written on 07/23/2017
By Delfina
Hola soy delfina y yo no se porque pasan cosas muy feas en los colegios mas religiosos de mi pais.La verdad qu e desde quinto de primaria que me vienen haciendo cosas que ya no me las aguanto mas y ahora ya en primero de secundaria vine dos veces llorando y le pedi a mi mama de que mecambiara a otro colegio y al fin lo cumpli gracias…
In English
Hi I’m Delphi. I do not know because very ugly things happen in the most religious schools of my country. The truth is that since fifth grade I have been doing things that I can not stand them anymore and now I’m already in high school, I came two Sometimes crying and I asked my mom to move to another school and at last I fulfilled it thanks …
Dhi:
Teaching and learning is an art; never an enforcement.
Quantum concepts from a 6 year old
Written on 12/29/2016
Sid D
“I wish the “golf marco” comes out today evening daddy. See, he has 1000 marco’s in him -one playing football,the other one cycling and another studying. So it depends on who he chooses. “The world will not end with Tsunamis and volcano. It will be people will not marry. Then they wont have kids. So people will become less and less.That is how it will end.””I feel sorry for my heart cause it has to work all day and all night. No rest at all.”
Today morning my 6 year old and I were putting on the golf green casually talking about school and the cartoons that he had watched. He caught me off guard by asking me “ Dad, where is the future” .
I thought for a minute, and then replied with my programmed answer – “it is tomorrow or days to come”. To which he replied “ Oh, I thought it was all in your head” . I don’t know how to explain it – but he pretty much explained to me Einstein’s theory of relativity and time travel.
It is amazing what fresh perspective brings to one’s understanding.
Dhi:
Philosophy and Science merge somewhere.
Start and End go hand in hand
Written on 02/17/2017
abhi dhiyogi
From a zen book..Once upon a time a mom conceived twin brothers . As time went by , the twins started growing – from a few cells to actual organs and then beings . The day came when they recognized each other as brothers. They would eat, play and sleep all day and night. One brother said to the other “Hello brother. This is the best life we have – eat , play and sleep everyday. Promise me you will never leave me and go”. The other brother promised he will never leave.
Then that day after 9 months came when the mom started giving birth and one of the twin brothers started to come into the a new world for them . As the contractions increased and the pushes increased , the brother screamed ” hold onto me . I am dying. I am going .Hold me tight brother”.
And the other brother tried as much as possible but he could not hold on. And as one brother came into this world, for those 2 minutes , one brother saw he was born into a new world and the other cried thinking of how he had lost a brother.
And he started getting pushed …
Dhi:
The cycle of start and end.
Stickers can kill ideas
Written on 12/29/2016
Abhi DhiYogi
My boys get stickers in school for every little thing they do. They put covers on their book..here is a sticker, they show up on time..here is a sticker, you didn’t talk in class..here is a another. So i ask my kid to put the garbage bin out for pick up… He did do it And he wanted a toy,just cause he did it. the main problem I saw- he never picked u…p the news papers that he saw on the drive way while pushn the garbage to the curb. When asked why he didn’t pick up the newspapers. He said I had not asked him to pick up the newspapers. This happened last year in summer. In the last 8 months..the boys have learnt the concept of responsibility, no reward for every task, and thinking out of the box..thanks to their dad..oh and the mom..will write more on what we did..
As I was talking to one of my associates about my challenges with respect to my kids thinking out of the box, taking responsibility etc, he said “ you been on our production floors where machine operators have medal count based on how much they have produced. And at the end of the week they cash those in. Its a great way to incentivise mechanical production. Looks like the stickers are the same as medals”. A break through – stickers worked when there was a mechanical work to be completed. But what was the reward for thinking outside the box and trying something new?.
I had read Edison failed 5000 times before he invented the light bulb – but he didn’t get a noble prize for each time he tried. So what was he thinking. What drove him to keep on trying. i concluded Edison had -No fear- of failure and passion for what he was doing. So I started thinking – which are the situations that would create a fear of failure and how were my kids handling it. The answer -ZERO, nada.none – they did not have a single situation where they were exposed to failure.
“Heres a sticker for a good job” but if you didnt – then whats the worse – no sticker.
“ Here is a medal because you were part of the team”. But who cares if we lost the season.
I realized that they were feeling good about everything that they did, no matter how bad it was – “everything you touch is gold sunny”.
We were all giving them a small task or a condition and we were rewarding them instantaneously. But there was no situation or dialogue on a periodic basis to give them the concept of “failure”, to drive them to work harder or to strive for excellence.
So when the football team came in last – i didn’t see my son go practice some more hours at school nor in our back yard simply because he did not know what it meant to fail. He thought coming in last is fine cause they all got a medal. Thus the need to try and get better at the game was irrelavent.
Dhi:
Rewards are given to acknowledge results. But if give rewards for no reason, then the impact on the recipient is negative.
Birthday Present Story: What do I like?
Written on 12/29/2016
Abhi DhiYogi
As a parent I started looking at situations that we were creating to cultivate an understanding of what they like and not like.
For e.g. on their B ‘day, they got 20 presents. All the presents were opened and they played with them for a few days. Then they were put in the toy bin. Done. They wanted new toys now.
Last summer, for the 12 year old, I asked him what he wanted to get for his B ‘day- two months in advance. Every week it kept changing. His B ‘day came..all his friends showed up..he had a great time. Then came the time of opening presents. I asked him “Which are the two presents that you like the most out of the 20 you got”. He picked his top two after 30 mins of evaluation. He got to keep the two. The rest I took. “Dad, where you taking my presents”. I said “These presents I will either donate or return to the store.
But in turn you get to tell me what you really want and I will buy it for you – no matter what it costs. I had asked you to let me know what you really wanted for your B ‘day two months ago- and that is still open”. Finally after two weeks he came up to me and said he wanted to get a specific Lego toy. He asked “can we go now to get it now ”. I told him we will go next weekend. The next weekend he came to me and asked if we could go to the store to get his toy. I said “Next weekend son. We are traveling this week”. Over 2 months passed by. And he would ask for the Lego toy every weekend. That’s when I got him the toy.
As parents we want to provide all the things that our kids want or ask. My 2c – provide it, but wait a little bit. First see if they really want it. Do they pursue it? Do they come and ask you for a few weeks at least. Then go and get it.
My son still plays with the toy after 8 months of having it. He has a story to tell his friends about how he got it after bugging his dad. Most importantly, I hope it has given him a glimpse of pursuing something that he liked.
Dhi:
What do I really like?
What do I really like
Written on 12/29/2016
Abhi DhiYogi
After his B’day present experience, the summer holidays started. The kids were going to have their cousin come stay with us. Man were they excited. So they thought they try a fast one on me “ Dad can we join the pool club by our house ”. Thanks to the stickers and the club fees , I thought for a change.
“How about this guys” I said “ The bike trail through the forest preserve to the beach is open. How about we ride everyday to the beach versus go to the boring pool. I promise I will be home by 4pm but you got to make sure to remind me to take you to the pool”. And it started. 5 mile bike ride everyday. Plus a few laps in the pool. Beach volleyball. And suddenly I was fit as a horse.
The kids loved it too- the biking through the forest, crossing the main roads and swimming in the beach – it’s a man-made beach/pool where the quarry had originally started 100 years back.They learned history plus they made new friends. I was surprised that the kids stayed put- made me take them every other day at least, had the stamina to do the biking plus swimming and most importantly pursuing what they liked – even if it meant dragging their dad off the couch. So come to think of it, my kids pursued something that they wanted and more so were now learning to be PRO-ACTIVE.I was pleasantly surprised.Sometimes it takes a life time for an individual to know what ONE likes or wants.
So the focus as a parent is to provide an environment where kids make the choices and we teach them how to pursue those choices.
Dhi:
Pursuit of what one likes is a pratice.
First job
Written on 12/29/2016
Abhi DhiYogi
“I got the job dad. I got it” yelled my boy as he came running through the front door. He was going to cut the grass for my neighbor who was going on a 3 week vacation. I said “Congrats dude. When do you start?”. “Coming Saturday Dad”. “Please make sure you know where your customer has the gardening equipment so that you have the tools for your job”. I was greeted with a “yeh yeh yeh”.
So on Saturday evening, my boy went to kick start his first job – lawn mowing for my neighbor. He returned within 10 mins to say “ Dad , can I borrow the lawn mower” . I asked “ thought you knew where the tools were kept”. The kid replied “ well he said everything was in the shed, but I checked now and there is nothing.” “ Did you check the garage son” .On which he checked it in 10 mins and came back empty handed. “ Well you can use our lawn mower. But you have to get gas(petrol) for it”. He got the can for the gas and said “let’s go dad”. “Where are we going?”. He said “ to the gas station” . “No bud. You are going walking and getting it” I replied . So the grumpy kid started walking to the gas station which was a mile away. I shouted at the top of my voice “ You may want to get a receipt to show your customer”.
He came back after 2 hours , fuming – He had to figure out which gas station to go to(there were two close by), he had to get help to pump the gas cause he had never done it before, he remembered to get the receipt only when he was half way home so he had to go back- In total he was shouting and screaming about how his dad did not care and he had wasted over 3 hours. I got him a cold soda and we sat in the front porch feeling the evening breeze on our faces. “Boy, do you know this happens to me every day at work. Where we don’t find the right tools, people or information when we need it. The customer says I am not paying for any extra effort. And most importantly we have lost TIME”. “So what do you do Dad”. “ Well we get the job done- Top notch. Then we give the customer documentation like receipts and time cards that state the extra effort and losses. And we negotiate. But most importantly, we do everything in our capacity to keep the customer”. Within 3 weeks, my boy had that lawn looking the best that I had ever seen. He had planned on how he would go about completing the job and the extras he would do. Plus he put together a receipt and details for the neighbor-including the 3 hours that he had taken for getting the gas. When he approached the neighbor who had returned from his vacation after 3 weeks, I was impressed with how he explained everything that he had accomplished, the extra gardening work plus the gas fiasco. He got his submitted amount plus a tip. Good neighbor.
I hope that the experience taught my son the importance of time, planning and managing expectations. Only Time will tell.
Tavan Appa Hukkeri | 1936 – 2017
______
Mind is like a slate. As it gets filled up with age, you got to learn to
clean the slate and rewrite a new.
______
Life is simple as you make it out to be.
______
The greedy one will always feel like beggar. While the one who is
content will always feel like a millionaire.
For The New Parents To Be
Written on 12/13/2017
Abhi DhiYogi
Congratulations on the new arrival to the both of you and the family Vrushyo.
From all that we talked about, thought I re-iterate my top 3:
1. Have a helping hand who wakes up in the night to hand the baby to mom at least the first two weeks.
2 . Any choice to stay close to nature, organic intake and as less pollution (noise also) possible will always be good. Understand the ways and custom of ancestors when it comes to gaining a perspective on how local region, diet and environment play a role in the health of the baby.
3. Shots for the baby – ask the doc what is the latest age by when that shot should be given. Give the necessary/mandatory ones for the local needs and only one shot at a time(preferred). Please do take multiple doctor opinions and do the research on content of the shots. And try to keep the largest gap possible between the shots per the doctor’s recommendation.
Dhi:
Parenting is an eternal experience.
Give it your best shot when you get the opportunity.
Stories and life lessons in this book are a contribution of the respective authors who are hoping to make a difference in the reader’s perspective to enable a more balanced lifestyle that is open to new ideas and learn that secret lesson hidden in each experience.
If interested in submitting a story/life lesson to be featured in this book, please click “Project” link on the main page.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE WITH THE FORMATTING AND UPDATES.
Love, Crush and more
As a thirteen year old kid: I liked a girl, I asked her for a date, she said no,
I persisted for 6 months, she said yes, she moved away or found someone else
after a year and broke my heart, I was sad for a few months, then I saw the
love of my life, I asked her for a date, she said no, I persisted…..the story
continues and finally has a happy ending.
Fast forward 40 years : I have a career now: I find opportunities, send business
proposals, the client says NO, then I persist for 6 months, Client says yes and gives
me a chance, After a year Client moves to another vendor, I am tense for 3 days,
Then I find another opportunity, I apply, Client says no …the story continues.
It’s the same lifecycle for most of the events or situation in my life.
What I learnt as a kid still holds true.
So, in trying to figure out the logic to my madness, following is my
conclusion: The one lesson, that helps me as an adult to pursue what
I believe in or come to terms with any loss or let go and move on,
is what I learnt as a kid when I fell in love..
Today, when my kid comes and tells me he likes something or someone,
I encourage him to pursue his belief, maybe fail, maybe succeed,
maybe have a heart break, maybe move one or maybe find the love of
his life. In the end, I know, no matter what the result, the experience
is a LIFE LESSON.
Dhi:
In each experience is a hidden life lesson.
The misconception about grades and learning
Last weekend I ticked off another parent. I blamed it on the alcohol.
“My daughter is going to an Ivy league school” announced the father.
And the first question that popped up from everyone was “How much
does it cost”. With pride he said “I am spending close to fifty thousand
(USD) per year plus you know the other expenses might be around twenty
to thirty thousand. That’s about three hundred thousand (USD) for four years”.
So I asked “What is she going to learn”? “Computers. But you know she is going
to have a degree from one of the best schools in the world” said the father. STICKERS.
As parents we are to blame for instilling the STICKER priority in our kids –
What grades did you get? Did you win the debate? Who came first?
You have to get a degree from this school!
Wow – I was a partner in crime. It just dawned on me.
I was instilling the Sticker priority too.
“Thanks man. You just made me realize something. For three
hundred thousand dollars your daughter is going to have a paper
that says she graduated from this awesome school. And you don’t
really care about what she learns”. He was fuming “Who do you think
you are to judge me….blah blah”.
That day I made a conscious decision to change what I ask of my kids.
The typical questions that I ask my kids now – What did you learn today?
Did you make any new friends? What do you want to do when you grow
up? How do you want change the world?
Some of the answers – explanation of how a heart works to making space ships.
I think it’s a making a difference. We will see.
Dhi:
In every experience is a lesson. The challenge is, you do not get a degree if you learn it.
Dodos Amma : Conversations with Zara
Written on 04/24/2017
Suman Hangal
Hey there,as promised, here is the latest “conversation with Zara.
Me: I will drop you off at Ammama’s and Ajja’s place for a few days.
Zara: I don’t want to go. I want to wake up late and Ammama will wake me up at 6 AM!
Me: Nonsense! She never does.
Zara: she does! And insists that we watch birds. I get the crow and sparrow. But Dodos? Really?
Me: Eh?
Zara: she insists there are dodos in her backyard. Dodos are extinct! I can’t pretend anymore!
cheers,
suman
FYI:
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo’s closest genetic relative was the also extinct Rodrigues solitaire, the two forming the subfamily Raphinae of the family of pigeons and doves.
The school story
Hola soy delfina y yo no se porque pasan cosas muy feas en los colegios mas religiosos de mi pais.La verdad qu e desde quinto de primaria que me vienen haciendo cosas que ya no me las aguanto mas y ahora ya en primero de secundaria vine dos veces llorando y le pedi a mi mama de que mecambiara a otro colegio y al fin lo cumpli gracias…
In English
Hi I’m Delphi. I do not know because very ugly things happen in the most religious schools of my country. The truth is that since fifth grade I have been doing things that I can not stand them anymore and now I’m already in high school, I came two Sometimes crying and I asked my mom to move to another school and at last I fulfilled it thanks …
Dhi:
Teaching and learning is an art; never an enforcement.
Quantum concepts from a 6 year old
“I wish the “golf marco” comes out today evening daddy. See, he has 1000 marco’s in him -one playing football,the other one cycling and another studying. So it depends on who he chooses. “The world will not end with Tsunamis and volcano. It will be people will not marry. Then they wont have kids. So people will become less and less.That is how it will end.””I feel sorry for my heart cause it has to work all day and all night. No rest at all.”
Today morning my 6 year old and I were putting on the golf green casually talking about school and the cartoons that he had watched. He caught me off guard by asking me “ Dad, where is the future” .
I thought for a minute, and then replied with my programmed answer – “it is tomorrow or days to come”. To which he replied “ Oh, I thought it was all in your head” . I don’t know how to explain it – but he pretty much explained to me Einstein’s theory of relativity and time travel.
It is amazing what fresh perspective brings to one’s understanding.
Dhi:
Philosophy and Science merge somewhere.
Start and End go hand in hand
Written on 02/17/2017
abhi dhiyogi
From a zen book..Once upon a time a mom conceived twin brothers . As time went by , the twins started growing – from a few cells to actual organs and then beings . The day came when they recognized each other as brothers. They would eat, play and sleep all day and night. One brother said to the other “Hello brother. This is the best life we have – eat , play and sleep everyday. Promise me you will never leave me and go”. The other brother promised he will never leave.
Then that day after 9 months came when the mom started giving birth and one of the twin brothers started to come into the a new world for them . As the contractions increased and the pushes increased , the brother screamed ” hold onto me . I am dying. I am going .Hold me tight brother”.
And the other brother tried as much as possible but he could not hold on. And as one brother came into this world, for those 2 minutes , one brother saw he was born into a new world and the other cried thinking of how he had lost a brother.
And he started getting pushed …
Dhi:
The cycle of start and end.
Stickers can kill ideas
My boys get stickers in school for every little thing they do. They put covers on their book..here is a sticker, they show up on time..here is a sticker, you didn’t talk in class..here is a another. So i ask my kid to put the garbage bin out for pick up… He did do it And he wanted a toy,just cause he did it. the main problem I saw- he never picked u…p the news papers that he saw on the drive way while pushn the garbage to the curb. When asked why he didn’t pick up the newspapers. He said I had not asked him to pick up the newspapers. This happened last year in summer. In the last 8 months..the boys have learnt the concept of responsibility, no reward for every task, and thinking out of the box..thanks to their dad..oh and the mom..will write more on what we did..
As I was talking to one of my associates about my challenges with respect to my kids thinking out of the box, taking responsibility etc, he said “ you been on our production floors where machine operators have medal count based on how much they have produced. And at the end of the week they cash those in. Its a great way to incentivise mechanical production. Looks like the stickers are the same as medals”. A break through – stickers worked when there was a mechanical work to be completed. But what was the reward for thinking outside the box and trying something new?.
I had read Edison failed 5000 times before he invented the light bulb – but he didn’t get a noble prize for each time he tried. So what was he thinking. What drove him to keep on trying. i concluded Edison had -No fear- of failure and passion for what he was doing. So I started thinking – which are the situations that would create a fear of failure and how were my kids handling it. The answer -ZERO, nada.none – they did not have a single situation where they were exposed to failure.
“Heres a sticker for a good job” but if you didnt – then whats the worse – no sticker.
“ Here is a medal because you were part of the team”. But who cares if we lost the season.
I realized that they were feeling good about everything that they did, no matter how bad it was – “everything you touch is gold sunny”.
We were all giving them a small task or a condition and we were rewarding them instantaneously. But there was no situation or dialogue on a periodic basis to give them the concept of “failure”, to drive them to work harder or to strive for excellence.
So when the football team came in last – i didn’t see my son go practice some more hours at school nor in our back yard simply because he did not know what it meant to fail. He thought coming in last is fine cause they all got a medal. Thus the need to try and get better at the game was irrelavent.
Dhi:
Rewards are given to acknowledge results. But if give rewards for no reason, then the impact on the recipient is negative.
Birthday Present Story: What do I like?
As a parent I started looking at situations that we were creating to cultivate an understanding of what they like and not like.
For e.g. on their B ‘day, they got 20 presents. All the presents were opened and they played with them for a few days. Then they were put in the toy bin. Done. They wanted new toys now.
Last summer, for the 12 year old, I asked him what he wanted to get for his B ‘day- two months in advance. Every week it kept changing. His B ‘day came..all his friends showed up..he had a great time. Then came the time of opening presents. I asked him “Which are the two presents that you like the most out of the 20 you got”. He picked his top two after 30 mins of evaluation. He got to keep the two. The rest I took. “Dad, where you taking my presents”. I said “These presents I will either donate or return to the store.
But in turn you get to tell me what you really want and I will buy it for you – no matter what it costs. I had asked you to let me know what you really wanted for your B ‘day two months ago- and that is still open”. Finally after two weeks he came up to me and said he wanted to get a specific Lego toy. He asked “can we go now to get it now ”. I told him we will go next weekend. The next weekend he came to me and asked if we could go to the store to get his toy. I said “Next weekend son. We are traveling this week”. Over 2 months passed by. And he would ask for the Lego toy every weekend. That’s when I got him the toy.
As parents we want to provide all the things that our kids want or ask. My 2c – provide it, but wait a little bit. First see if they really want it. Do they pursue it? Do they come and ask you for a few weeks at least. Then go and get it.
My son still plays with the toy after 8 months of having it. He has a story to tell his friends about how he got it after bugging his dad. Most importantly, I hope it has given him a glimpse of pursuing something that he liked.
Dhi:
What do I really like?
What do I really like
After his B’day present experience, the summer holidays started. The kids were going to have their cousin come stay with us. Man were they excited. So they thought they try a fast one on me “ Dad can we join the pool club by our house ”. Thanks to the stickers and the club fees , I thought for a change.
“How about this guys” I said “ The bike trail through the forest preserve to the beach is open. How about we ride everyday to the beach versus go to the boring pool. I promise I will be home by 4pm but you got to make sure to remind me to take you to the pool”. And it started. 5 mile bike ride everyday. Plus a few laps in the pool. Beach volleyball. And suddenly I was fit as a horse.
The kids loved it too- the biking through the forest, crossing the main roads and swimming in the beach – it’s a man-made beach/pool where the quarry had originally started 100 years back.They learned history plus they made new friends. I was surprised that the kids stayed put- made me take them every other day at least, had the stamina to do the biking plus swimming and most importantly pursuing what they liked – even if it meant dragging their dad off the couch. So come to think of it, my kids pursued something that they wanted and more so were now learning to be PRO-ACTIVE.I was pleasantly surprised.Sometimes it takes a life time for an individual to know what ONE likes or wants.
So the focus as a parent is to provide an environment where kids make the choices and we teach them how to pursue those choices.
Dhi:
Pursuit of what one likes is a pratice.
First job
“I got the job dad. I got it” yelled my boy as he came running through the front door. He was going to cut the grass for my neighbor who was going on a 3 week vacation. I said “Congrats dude. When do you start?”. “Coming Saturday Dad”. “Please make sure you know where your customer has the gardening equipment so that you have the tools for your job”. I was greeted with a “yeh yeh yeh”.
So on Saturday evening, my boy went to kick start his first job – lawn mowing for my neighbor. He returned within 10 mins to say “ Dad , can I borrow the lawn mower” . I asked “ thought you knew where the tools were kept”. The kid replied “ well he said everything was in the shed, but I checked now and there is nothing.” “ Did you check the garage son” .On which he checked it in 10 mins and came back empty handed. “ Well you can use our lawn mower. But you have to get gas(petrol) for it”. He got the can for the gas and said “let’s go dad”. “Where are we going?”. He said “ to the gas station” . “No bud. You are going walking and getting it” I replied . So the grumpy kid started walking to the gas station which was a mile away. I shouted at the top of my voice “ You may want to get a receipt to show your customer”.
He came back after 2 hours , fuming – He had to figure out which gas station to go to(there were two close by), he had to get help to pump the gas cause he had never done it before, he remembered to get the receipt only when he was half way home so he had to go back- In total he was shouting and screaming about how his dad did not care and he had wasted over 3 hours. I got him a cold soda and we sat in the front porch feeling the evening breeze on our faces. “Boy, do you know this happens to me every day at work. Where we don’t find the right tools, people or information when we need it. The customer says I am not paying for any extra effort. And most importantly we have lost TIME”. “So what do you do Dad”. “ Well we get the job done- Top notch. Then we give the customer documentation like receipts and time cards that state the extra effort and losses. And we negotiate. But most importantly, we do everything in our capacity to keep the customer”. Within 3 weeks, my boy had that lawn looking the best that I had ever seen. He had planned on how he would go about completing the job and the extras he would do. Plus he put together a receipt and details for the neighbor-including the 3 hours that he had taken for getting the gas. When he approached the neighbor who had returned from his vacation after 3 weeks, I was impressed with how he explained everything that he had accomplished, the extra gardening work plus the gas fiasco. He got his submitted amount plus a tip. Good neighbor.
I hope that the experience taught my son the importance of time, planning and managing expectations. Only Time will tell.
Tavan Appa Hukkeri | 1936 – 2017
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Mind is like a slate. As it gets filled up with age, you got to learn to
clean the slate and rewrite a new.
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Life is simple as you make it out to be.
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The greedy one will always feel like beggar. While the one who is
content will always feel like a millionaire.
For The New Parents To Be
Congratulations on the new arrival to the both of you and the family Vrushyo.
From all that we talked about, thought I re-iterate my top 3:
1. Have a helping hand who wakes up in the night to hand the baby to mom at least the first two weeks.
2 . Any choice to stay close to nature, organic intake and as less pollution (noise also) possible will always be good. Understand the ways and custom of ancestors when it comes to gaining a perspective on how local region, diet and environment play a role in the health of the baby.
3. Shots for the baby – ask the doc what is the latest age by when that shot should be given. Give the necessary/mandatory ones for the local needs and only one shot at a time(preferred). Please do take multiple doctor opinions and do the research on content of the shots. And try to keep the largest gap possible between the shots per the doctor’s recommendation.
Dhi:
Parenting is an eternal experience.
Give it your best shot when you get the opportunity.
More life lessons coming soon..