A Life Lived to the Brim!

               Not just longevity -- but a life lived to the brim !

She has lived everything – from the revolution of 1942 to India becoming independent nation in 1947, from the great earthquake of 1950 to the Chinese aggression of 1962, from the emergency proclamation of 1975 to India coming on board the internet as a public domain in 1995, from India becoming a full-fledged nuclear state in 1998 to the great pandemic forcing her to wear the mask as a new normal in 2020 – she has seen and lived it all. My mother. As of just passed 16^th August during the state’s lockdown period she has completed all of her 94 - living in each decade and most of all, adapting to each of the changing times on her own, without requiring much of change management (from a management perspective). 

Life is not about how we can stretch it to a fag end, rather how it should be lived. That ‘living’ itself gives the secret elusive idea to us – as to how to endure each twist and turn along the path and make the journey long enough while living in it with full consciousness and contentment – up till the moment one has to say goodbye.

Since my days of innocence I have been like an avid observer of how she was able to cope up with pressure situations and almost singularly finding out solutions that would allow herself and the family to survive and move on -- that too without compromising on her pride nor prejudice with a steel like strong mind, unbent. A rare quality as it appears to me whenever I look back on her journey of last decades of my conscious mind. Today, as was always, I feel her strong determination to reach her goals for herself and for her progeny. With the family scattered far and wide, from West of Europe to South of Africa and around India – the way she gets concerned for every member of the fraternity on daily basis is something the other younger generations cannot think of doing in this age of ‘socially’ distancing from each other. Even today she would not go to sleep -- a routine clockwork at that like all her other errands, without making a call to each of her six children every day! Isn’t that amazing just to think? Managing time to its optimum utilization is something any manager could learn from this living case scenario, not to mention about the importance of keeping-in-touch factor in a brand’s life with its patrons and stakeholders.

In an age when due to factors relating mostly to the devils of urbanization and extreme industrialization, people of today are into all kinds mental degradation with Alzheimer being the most common contender among the aged. Every time I hear my mother of nine decades, narrating stories from the long gone past with photographic memory to the last details on ‘each episode’ with names of people and places along with precise dates of events that took place -- is nothing short of a world wonder according to me. In fact we term her each episode as ‘long playing record’ – ironically I would perhaps need to define to our generation Z about a ‘record disc’, which itself has become obsolete decades ago! Whenever I call her at nights being away from native land, the way she shares information from the country’s political arena to the latest happening around the Assamese literary circle in a precise manner, does full justice to the family name I had given her as North East Newsletter long time ago. This might ring a bell among our customer care & information dissemination professionals! Not to forget the way she listens to the postman, the beggar boy or the local Masjid Imam -- their stories of dismay with full attention shared over a cup of tea, recording every dot in precise detail for further action in her capacity. This should be enough to a human resource professional in understanding the boons of the listening art.   

If anyone inquires today about her secret to longevity, nay a fully conscious life of resolve, I would proclaim that it is nothing but her determination to stick to certain basics and actions taken in clockwork precision. I need not search google or call up a life coach or go and ask a guru  for lessons on the art of living. It’s all evident right in front of me with all that I needed to know – how to attain not just a long life but how to live it to the brim! Just wondering whether I could draw a parallel with the life of a vibrant corporate. Then I ask myself, why not?

If a corporate is all about a living entity with a defined vision to be reached through ethical means utilizing all its resources at hand – my mother Jahanara Hazarika albeit is a living embodiment of such a life!