Doubt & Admire ~ This week

SALT ~ This week ~Doubt

I share a very wonderful camaraderie with all my cousins. (Touch-wood!!!) Despite the age gaps and geographical distances we have always managed to keep in touch and stay connected. Recently when we all met, we were sharing some of our childhood memories. One of my cousins displayed her most prizest possession – A letter from tooth fairy sent to her when she was 7 years old. I was pleasantly surprised to see that letter as that letter has a secret story behind it.

Some 8 years ago all of us were spending summer holidays at my granny’s place when my cousin lost her tooth and she started crying hysterically. Despite all efforts her crying simply refused to stop and I could not see her crying so much. So I cooked up a plan. I narrated the tooth fairy’s story to her. I told her how the fairy will come and night to take away her tooth along with the pain and leave a gift for her. Surprisingly she bought that story and stopped crying. The day went about peacefully and I thanked God as it seemed she had forgotten all about it. 

Just when we were about to sleep in the night, she ran into the kitchen and came back with her tooth. ‘Oh shucks!’ I thought, ‘She still remembers it. ‘I innocently asked her, ‘What happened? Why have you got that?’ She smiled triumphantly and said,’ You forgot? Remember that tooth fairy. I will keep it under my pillow so that she comes tonight.’ Saying this she went to her bed, tucked the tooth safely under her pillow and plopped down on the bed to sleep.

‘Good night Dee… sweet dreams..’ she wished me sweetly and went to sleep. I cannot describe how bad I was feeling for having lied to such a darling. Immediately I thought of another idea. I stayed awake till late that night and made her a letter. Full of fairies, glitters, cartoons and in the end I wrote to her, her gift was a surprise which she could buy from her favourite toy shop. 

I tiptoed near her bed, carefully removed that tooth from under the pillow and threw it outside the window. And then I placed this letter there and left as quietly as I had entered. She was so ecstatic on reading it the next day and did not even doubt the sanctity for a moment. I was happy because she was happy.

Today she is a confident young lady of 16 years and when I saw this I was tempted to ask her,’ How can you say this is true? You remember na how Rohan (name changed -my other cousin) just broke his tooth in a football match last week..he did not get any visit from the tooth fairy?’

She smiled and said’ Dee for that you need to believe and not doubt. This is the problem with all elders. They want to doubt everything around them and not believe. Remember what Albert Einstein said you can live as if nothing is a miracle; and you can live as if everything is a miracle. Maybe Rohan does not believe in tooth fairies then how do you expect her to visit him. I did, and she visited me. For me tooth fairy exists and she visited me. Whether to believe it or not is your choice!  ’ I smiled as I agreed with all that she said. I truly believe and don’t doubt anything that happens around Me. 

Just think our relationships, our jobs, friends and family everything would be so beautiful without all those doubts. We always seem to doubt some of the most obvious and beautiful things of life like love, care, success, joy etc. You always ask your loved one ‘Do you really love me?’ Do you anytime ask your enemy if he/she really hates you? You doubt your success but are so sure about your failure. It’s high time we changed this approach. We all need to believe and cease doubting in everything that we do. I am sure that will lead us to leading happier lives.

Lesson Learnt : I want to share with you all a wonderful article I had read some 10-12 years ago in a newspaper by Wendy Paris. This cutting is a part of my scrap book which is very aptly titled ‘My Little Book of Happiness’ because flipping through its pages leaves Me feeling happy. This article is the reason why Cinderella till date remains my favourite fairy tale and denotes hope for Me. Hope you enjoy reading it!

Please double click on the image to enlarge and read it.

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PEPPER ~ This week ~ Admire

Every year in the month of April just like all other companies my company also declares the promotion list for the year. It is time when some people are super excited and some really upset. There are extreme reactions in the coming weeks with some employees quitting jobs, while some going on long unplanned leaves to get even with their bosses. 

One of my colleagues called me one day to share some gossip.’ You know that Lekha, she got promoted and even got a huge bonus. I knew she would get it. She is always ready to wag her tail the moment she sees her boss. I heard last week she sent a beautiful saree to boss as a birthday gift along with a box of chocolates and bouquet of her favourite orchids. So much for a promotion I tell you…’

I just nodded a feeble’ Hmmmm…’ which irritated her and asked me’ What hmmm? We also slog so much the entire year, work hard, adhere to deadlines and what do we get in return; some stupid rating and a long lecture on improvement on conference call.’ I replied,’ Ya.. you are right.’ So she threw the ball in my court,’ What do you think we should do?’ 

I said ‘Let’s do everything that Lekha did. I am sure boss will love a belated birthday gift also.’ She got angry ‘Are you out of your mind? I am not going to do anything like that.’  I replied, ‘I know. We cannot. Hence we don’t. Admire for all that she has done. Right or wrong is a different battle altogether. She did something which we could not, so she got something which we did not. It is as simple as that. Let’s leave it at that as there is nothing that we can do about it.’ Needless to say I won the battle here.

I learnt this from the CEO of our company. He had once narrated to us an incident. In his previous job, he and another guy were arch rivals giving each other cut throat competition. One day that other guy beat this person in a contest by a huge number. Instead of crying hoarse about it, he invited that person for coffee. Though everyone was baffled with this act of his, he had a very simple logic for this, ‘He did something different than me and won. I need to know what he did and can I do it or not. I need to admire him for having thought something different, even if he is my enemy. You cannot deny he was smart in this move.’ One of the zillion reasons why I love my job!! I am sure you would all agree its feels wonderful to work under a leader who thinks like this.

Lesson Learnt :  We have something to learn from everyone around us - which includes our family, friends , loved ones and enemies also. When somebody does something really different, admire him/her for that and then decide whether is a TO-DO or TO DO-NOT-DO.

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P.S: Writing these Salt & Pepper series has helped Me look deeper into myself and week after week I seem to find something new. If you have any interesting Salt and Pepper moments you would want to share, please feel free to use the picture above and post them on your blog. Do leave your links here in the comments to read.

This post has been linked to Andy's BLOG-HOP.