“If milk is wasted, it becomes yogurt.
Yogurt is more valuable than milk.
If it gets any worse, it becomes cheese.
Cheese is more valuable than yogurt and milk.
And if grape juice turns sour, it turns into wine, which is even more expensive than grape juice.
You're not bad because you made mistakes. Mistakes are experiences that make you more valuable as a person.
Christopher Columbus made a navigation error that led him to discover America.
Alexander Fleming's mistake led him to invent penicillin.
Another batchmate and friend ends his life.. While life had dealt really cruel blows to Shiladitya in a short period, it’s extremely shocking and saddening to hear about his suicide, especially remembering his jovial nature..
It also brings to mind a question if we are too lonely? Are we so trapped in our own self-image and the ‘superhero’ image created by the inspiration-mongering Social Media crowd, and wannabe content creators who want to latch on to every move of a Civil Servant that he/she fears to be seen vulnerable, rather be seen as another human being?
We, as IAS / IPS / IFS / IRS & other officers are just like everyone else.. We are sons and daughters, son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters just like everyone else.. We have the same issues, same struggles, same joys and same vulnerabilities.
We may succeed in life and we may fail in life, professionally and personally. We will fall in love and we may fail in love. We may have a great married life, and we may have issues in marriage.. We will live with our loved ones, and we will surely lose our loved ones one day.. It’s just like everyone else. We aren’t any different, and despite the ‘followers’ would love to think otherwise, especially during our field days, we aren’t special. And our lives aren’t picture perfect!
It’s time we shed this garb of invincibility. It’s time we embrace our fears, our sorrows, our embarrassments, our frailties and our vulnerabilities.. It’s time we look beyond the walls created around us, either by us ourselves or by the society. Let’s be that friend who can casually cuss a friend and be a recipient of cusses. Let’s be someone who can be scolded by an elder, undeterred by what position we occupy. It’s time we be what we were before we cracked this exam, for that was the real us.
After all, it’s just another exam, and it’s just another job. It was a beginning, not an end, and we are much more than the few letters behind our names. Let’s embrace that..
May you find your peace, Agomonee and Shiladitya.. You will be missed.
(Copied from my batchmate Chinmay Gotmare’s wall)