Page 61 - #letter to son

AFTERNOON MUSINGS
Dear son,

You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.

This line from the iconic film,The Bucket List, is so true. And this almost
always transports me back to the time when I was being interviewed
by the ceramics company’s Group CFO for a posting. The interview
transformed into an engrossing discussion when he raised a sales tax
issue that the Group was facing. He was seeking real-time solutions.
Coincidentally, I was pursuing the subject and we discussed possible
resolutions that could help solve the challenge. It was as if we were
talking like colleagues. I remember I was hired instantly with the
designation of Finance Controller for the ceramics company.

In that interview, like countless other times before in my various
engagements with people, something passed between him and me. A
transference that was akin to camaraderie and fellowship, a sort of a
connection. And in my life I’ve thrived on this sense of connection.

If my father was the professor of entrepreneurship, my elder brother, a
banker, was a master of time management. He often said that though
all of us have a fixed number of hours, some achieve much more than
others because they are conscious of their use of time. He was also very
practical in the fashion that he often told me that though most faced
challenges in their growing-up years, the ones who wrote success for
themselves did’t let their circumstances get in the way of their progress.
I was about 12-years-old then and was living in his house in Soraun,
Allahabad, because was pursuing higher education in the city. My
brother was a man who wore many hats. He worked in a high position
in a public sector bank, was an eloquent emcee for local events, was a
pracharak and an active social worker. Plus, because he held a bank job,
there was a constant stream of people at home who came looking for
some advice or another.

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