Lessons in Life

From  friendship day to teacher's day, there is a lot that has happened and changed in our lives. One thing is common, we learn every day and from people we least expect..we learn from situations, events and experiences.  All of these happenings around me has taught me lessons in a subtle but meaningful way…and I am thankful to that..

Meeting my school friends, taught me the joy of friendship. It's an irony, I say this after couple of decades -  True friendship was in school. There were no expectations and no requirements. Everybody was friends with everyone.

Learning to NOT live in the past is the best thing your friends can teach you. Friendship day to me - is a reminder to us - for those days, those  moments with friends we are not in touch.

 You don't have to be together all the time, you and your friends. Just create an assuring impression, which says you're always there for them, if and whenever they need you. Also, don't be disheartened if they don't, because sometimes, friends are only meant to create a few memories and not relive them. And I was not talking only about school friends now.

At the end of the day, you're grateful to those friends and family who stuck with you all the while, when in need – in joys and sorrows. We have had some lovely friends around. Every friend teaches you something worthwhile. Starting from the age when you're toddlers, you learn to play in the mud or pull each others' hair from a few friends, with few you learn to ride a bike, with few you learn to share secrets and keep them and with few, you learn to appreciate time. There are some whom you met for a brief time, then went away never to meet again. They are friends too. Friends need not be with you for ever, they are the ones who come in your life and make an impact. They are there with you when you need them, they give you strength, happiness and go away…without any expectations.

 At the age of seven, I had a best friend in the form of our nanny in school. She was the one with rugged old look who would sweep the corridors, dusted the checked windows, cleaned the toilets and also escorted little friends of mine when there had accidents in the classroom. I still remember her as the 'nanny' -  we would all wait for the school building gate to be and rush to our classrooms. We would see her back hurrying to finish mopping the floor as the streaming kids whizzed past her into the classrooms.

I may have been only six then ; curious as I was – I always wondered, if she worked in the school, why was she, not a teacher. One day, I went out on the porch during recess to talk with her. It didn't take long time to see that this old woman had an over sized heart crowded into that tiny body. She told me that she was not a school teacher but a staff and all of what she did was for a living to support her daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

She was not a teacher, but she taught me a life lesson that day :  We should face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity.

It's not only the teachers, it is about their profound messages in teaching that makes me feel ALIVE. :)