So similar yet so different from each other

We are so similar yet so different from each other.

1. I have been a back-bencher and have always mocked at toppers, while my wife has been a topper throughtout her life.
2. My wife is an MBA silver medalist while I’ve never ever received a plastic medal even.
3. I am a blogger while my wife is a vlogger and runs her own YouTube channel.
4. My wife makes awesome paintings and I am awful at doing art but love adoring artists.
5. I am an Engineer turned Project Management Professional working on projects of national importance while my multi talented wife is currently self employed and is working for her own being her own boss.
6. My wife has awesome oratory skills while I’m more of a writer.
7. I am terrible at remembering directions but my wife is mindblowing in this regard.
8. My wife knows multiple languages including even foreign languages like French while I am happy with my okayish Hindi and English .
9. I love to cook but do so occasionally while my wife doesn’t enjoy cooking as such but cooks incredibly well for me.
10. My wife loves to drive a car and I am more comfortable riding a bike.
11. I am a Mechanical Engineer while she is a BioTechnologist+ MBA
12. My wife has bagged hundreds of awards and certificates for her academics as well as Creative side. However, for decades, the only certificate I was having was for donation to Helpage India.:)
13. I am her biggest fan and motivator, she is my lucky charm. Someone has rightly said that Truth is stranger that fiction. Our love story proves that.
14. My wife has done dissection of dead bodies as part of her academics while I’ve been the most unromantic guy before meeting her.
15. We both love photography…My wife loves to pose and I love to click her pictures all the time.

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Best Gifts from my Parents

Having a little brother and/or sister

When I was 4, my Mom was expecting a baby. She asked me, " What do you want, a brother or a sister?" I replied, " Mumma, I am the youngest, I want a brother to play with". And, my wish was granted.

When I was 6, my Mom asked me again. " Do you want a brother or sister". Mom, I want a sister. (I have heard Mom telling Dad that she wanted a daughter. She prayed alot for that. So, I knew what I wanted.)

On reflecting, I cannot find any greater gifts from my parents. The best gifts I have got is in the form of my dashing brother and cute sister.

My Life is beautiful because of them. As a kid, we used to fight alot, I would tease my siblings and they would pull my hairs. But, now things have changed. We die for each other.

We three are in 3 different states in East, West and South making a triangle with all the sides more than 1000 km. :) We have leave at different times and the deadly combo when we all were together last time was more than an year ago.

It was a fun filled vacation. Earlier it was our way of life to stay together, now it's a luxury. :(

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My Father was a daughter for Grandma

I remember one incident of childhood when my father was reading out a story for my younger brother from his Hindi Textbook. The story was about a boy Rohit whose parents were not treating his Grandma well and the little boy was sad for the sufferings of his grandma.

After finishing the story, Dad asked my brother, “What do you feel about this behavior of Rohit’s parents?”

As my brother’s name is also Rohit, so he started to smile. Mom and I were also smiling in the background as Dad was unaffected by this co-relation and thus he asked my brother why was he smiling.

Suddenly, my dad told, I have always taken care of my parents so this story is not about our family. 

We all started laughing and then Mom told something which I had never heard before. She told that Grandma used to call my Dad as beti (daughter).  It was something refreshing to know as normally people call their daughter as beta (son) affectionately but calling a son as beti (daughter) is a rare thing and I think it was so nice of Grandma to do that :) 

Someone once asked Grandma that you don't have daughters, but you always place so much importance on them. It must have felt bad. She replied, “Who told you that I don't have daughter, my youngest son is my daughter”.

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The Old people and their mysterious life

I will answer this question with a heart-touching short story.  Now, it is for others to decide if they admit it or not.

Once upon a time, there was a boy, who was very studious and intelligent. Despite being from a modest family of a sleepy town, he studied well to get scholarship and complete his education. When he was 23, he got job at a well reputed organization. At the age of 25, he was married to a beautiful girl. Over next 5 years, he was blessed with 3 children. His life was the one that could make anybody envious.  He had accomplished so many things at such a tender age.  There were more than 20 books to his name and was well respected in the society. 

He had everything that a common man dreams of like a lavish house, a beautiful wife, loving kids, prestige in society, and a job which gave him an identity anybody would die to have.  Before he turned 55 years of age, all his children were married off. He was lucky to have kids who were also well educated, smart and talented. He always had a sense of pride for the life he could afford. He had all rights to do so. 

On turning 60, he retired without any liability. By this time, he was blessed with many grandchildren.  Still many people believed that he was the luckiest person they know. He had a stringent diet and nobody knew if he had ever fallen ill. When he turned 80, he only grew older physically, his body had wrinkles, but neither his hands trembled nor his voice was bleak. He grew older gracefully. He had a commanding voice of his youth, a beaming confidence and had the same emotional toughness that had been his trademark. He was revered as an emotionally strong man; after all he saw the demise of his son and hadn't shed a tear, at least in public, 

Life started to change in his last few years after he turned ninety.  People started to experience a change in his behavior. The “who cares” attitude started to wear out and he started to cherish every visitor. He was very lonely but at least he was lucky to have the company of his loving wife. It was strange but cute to know that even after around 60 years of togetherness, they both still argued over trivial things. Couples will never change!! May be it was their pass time activity as they had the impeccable understanding and almost every time one of them would say, “Ok, I take back my words” to close an argument. 

In his last days, he started to open up his heart, you got to know his softer side and you start feeling bad for him. You knew his children are already pre-occupied in their own lives. In fact, his children have also grown older and have become grandparents. So, they find it difficult to come to meet them more often. Also, he would not leave his home and go to stay with his children. No one is wrong; there is mutual love and respect. His children and grandchildren love him but they are cob-webbed in their own life.

He never looked so lonely. Was he hiding his emotions all these years? We thought that he never missed his children and grandchildren. It is unfortunate to see a man with a prosperous family to feel dejected. People knew him as an epitome of strength and courage, now they were sad to see his weaker side; People were not prepared to see the flaws that they hoped the great man didn’t had. But, Life is all about change. 

He was a very good person and at the same time he was very practical and always ahead of his times in his thinking and approach. He often talked about forbidden topics like death in the most casual way. He once said that "I want my wife to die before me…because if I die first then she would be heartbroken. I don't want her to see me dead". Her wife who will be always sitting next to him protested as she didn’t liked talking about stuff like death. She told, "don't talk about these and let us leave these things on God". He would jokingly say that they were not Romeo and Juliet that they would die together. Someone has to go first and the other will come after some time. 

While talking to him, I realized that Old people have a lot of time and you can learn many things from them.  He had plenty of wisdom. It was great to listen to him when he would share about his life experiences.  He passionately shared different chapters of his life. He too had few regrets. He felt that he should have been more benevolent. He also wanted to open a school in the village from where his family had migrated. He cherished his old memories and talking to him was the best thing I have  ever done for him. 

Now he is not in this world but the interactions we had has changed my outlook towards old people. Despite being progressive, he finally failed to cope up with the fast paced world. His life has been mysterious, many never got to know how he felt in his last days.  He was always considered very lucky and he lived long like a king and died like one. But, one thing is sure that although he never revealed but he badly missed his children and grandchildrens during major chunk of his life. I salute the life of unsung heroes  like him who didn't fought in the battle field but fought a battle everyday as they struggled with their emotions gracefully.
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Afterthoughts on the above story

In old age the physical appearance changes, the voice may bleak, the hands may tremble, the skin will have wrinkles and still you will look beautiful with that smile. Every stage is important. Every event or every person we meet is important else we wouldn't have met them.  

Old age is a stage when people revisit their life. They have fond memories of past. All our life we are running a race and find it difficult to slow down. So, it’s a phase when people analyze what they have done over their lifetime. They feel proud for some moment, miss some moment, and weep over some incidents. But, unfortunately only a handful cares. No one is seeing all this as others are running their own race. Probably others would realize when they will get older. 

Please slow down to go and spend some quality time with them. They want to meet people as they must feel bored staying indoor 24 x 7 x 365. They have been like you and wanted to travel, explore, and celebrate life. Now they feel very lonely.  Wouldn’t you make their life more beautiful? They don’t need your money or gifts, they only need you. Do lend your ears to an old person. They will appreciate it and you will learn to be more patient, compassionate and a better human being. 

The modern lifestyle has hampered their emotional well-being. Hope you will acknowledge their plight as most of them are not on Quora to speak their mind. No one should be blamed but we must introspect and do something good for old people. We would get many in the form of our grandparents or parents or neighbors. Hope one day the development and economic model includes the needs of the old people.

 If this topic resonates with you then you can check out  
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No Place for Parents: An Open Letter to all those who find their parents as a burden
This video made me terribly miss my Grandfather 

Original Source: My blog Life is Beautiful, Photo Credits- Emotionalfulls

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The most memorable birthday I had

Photo Copyright @ RohanSinha

Birthdays are always special for all of us. This is one day when we are the center of everyone's attention. This is a day when your loved one will leave no stone unturned to make us feel special and blessed.

For last several years, I am away from my family on my birthdays and on my birthdays; I prefer to have dinner with close friends followed by a good movie rather than an extravagant party to many people. I like to go to temple on my birthday to remind gods that I have faith on them.

I also observe a birthday year apart from calendar year and financial year. On every birthday, I will set certain goals for my birthday year. Birthdays are also a milestone day for introspection and I want to see the progress I have made and the way ahead.

This year, I had a memorable birthday as I was with my family in my native after many years. Many of my close relatives also came to our home for my birthday celebration. I again felt the joy we had as a kid when our birthdays were celebrated with friends, family and neighbours at home. I felt nostalgic by the ambience of my birthday.

I again felt like a child and was really enjoying being pampered. Birthdays are so much fun with family.  It remind of all the wonderful birthdays we have celebrated together.

In the morning on my birthday, we went for shopping and my parents spent heavily on me. I was feeling as if it's not my birthday but my engagement or wedding. I was really touched by the love and affection I got from my parents and close family members who attended my birthday celebration. Read Happy Father’s Day, Dad

My brother was in college at that time due to his exams but my sister was with us on my birthday which was really like topping on the cake. I really love my siblings and all my cousins.

I hope that our love will only multiply with time and we celebrate more birthdays together.

BY- Rohan Sinha

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Going to home......

Today I am going to home and I am very much excited about my trip. . Although I am travelling alone from a very younger age, from long time I haven’t travelled alone. So it’s a nice opportunity to travel alone. When I was in Kota, I used to take the walkman with me. But now i have taken a novel with me to accompany me in my journey.

Note- This is an old post of a time when i was not much into writing. I only had the desire to write. See my latest posts.

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