THE COMPANY THAT WE KEEP








This man just left my office, after enrolling his daughter in eleventh. “She is clear about what she wants to do in life and self-motivated, unlike her elder brother.” he told me while he was here. He added, with a visible pain, “He failed in TY three years ago and, now, loiters around with his useless friends.”


The quality of our lives is the quality of our choices… And, one of the most significant choices, we all make in our lives, is the company we choose to keep…

Our friends, our peers… can make us or break us…

There is no point blaming anyone… It doesn’t help.

If friends influence the quality of our life, then, we all are equally responsible…

For, we have chosen to be friends with each other…

“Be careful about the company you keep,” I keep reminding my newly-inducted students; “if you move around with goal-less guys, you will, surely, become a goal-less guy, too. Similarly, if you move around with highly-motivated guys, their motivation will rub on you, too.”

“Birds of the same feather flock together.”

There is one more: “If you lie down with dogs, you will rise up with fleas.”

I was watching on YouTube an interview with Milkha Singh. He is going to be 84 and he still looks fit as a fiddle!

 “What is the secret, sir?” is the question.



What impressed me the most was the first secret 
 
the legendary ‘Flying-Sikh’ reveals: 
 
“I don’t keep the company of the old people!”



Now, the statement is made by the legend with no offense to the elderly people. He himself is one. “The old people tend to complain and grumble… about their sons and daughters-in-laws… about the ill-treatment or lack of attention,” Milkha Singh tells the interviewer, “ I keep myself away from such things.” He adds, “Whenever I meet them, I tell them this… ‘You people have lived your life to the fullest… Kindly do not interfere in your children’s’ lives’. But, interference is in their blood.”

Yes sir, the company that you keep does matter…

To live long, strong… and highly motivated … 

Or, to live like a vegetable… goal-less and grumpy.


GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Gloria Pinto




Comments

Sheena D'Sa said…
Excellent writing!!!! Sheena
July 17, 2013 at 2:34 PM
Pushpalata said…
Well-said and apt.
-- Pushpa
July 17, 2013 at 3:47 PM
Savita N Kumar said…
so true and the worst thing is that most of the time the influence is so unconscious that person who tries to make you aware of this is not taken rightly . By the time you realize time has just flown away and we start thinking what now.

July 17, 2013 at 4:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or painful that
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How does it matter
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...