Page 17 - #letter to son

#SangamNiti DAYBREAK
While the Heart said this was the end of the road, the Mind reasoned it
was just the beginning.

The Heart was forceful and said I must give up. The Mind asked it to
relax, hold on. Just a bit. This was only a temporary moment in life. If I
ran away to the forest, ran away from reality, would my problems vanish
like a wisp of smoke? Will I not also have to face problems in the forest?
Yes, you might, the Heart murmured. Emboldened, the Mind pointed
that situations and events would change, but problems and challenges
would remain. Hence, I should face the world, face the hubbub. And
only then would I be able to face myself.

In the battle of the Mind versus the Heart, the Mind won. And sleep
came down like the curtains after a theatrical performance.

As I walk into my childhood and my growing-up years, I think of
the countless hands that have lifted me. I think of the best teacher I
ever had, an inspiring gentleman, who emphasised on the importance
of knowing that you knew nothing while you were preparing for a
debate, and drawing confidence from the fact that you could handle
everything in the company of your contestants on stage. I now know
he was actually coaching us on the importance of preparedness in life. I
think of my earliest mentors, my guru at a home décor manufacturing
company, who was a case study in meticulousness and persistence. As I
now come to realise, he instilled in me the outsized sense of possibility
and positivity blended with a diminished capacity for pessimism and
negativity. That strain has been living in me ever since.

I recall of my articleship days at a renowned Chartered Accountancy
firm and think I was fortunate to be working alongside some of the best
accounting and financial minds in the country. One of the senior partners
at the company drove into me the importance of fronting situations and
getting things done even when they were at their gloomiest. I was lucky
to have some of the finest people in my life who taught me much by
practicing what they preached. And not by preaching what they never
practiced.

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