In Conversation with Life

Can you imagine life without STORIES? Picture yourself – it’s bedtime, you are six-year-old, you have your parents or grandparents around you, telling you – Go to Sleep. That’s it – Sleep. For me, bedtime was the best time during childhood. Most of my fond memories are about me falling asleep while listening to various stories. I think there, at that nascent age, subconsciously I fell in love with STORIES. But it took me years to realise, that every story is layered, and the beauty lies in carefully unraveling the same – allowing yourself to absorb and learn.

Over the last few years, in addition to STORIES, I began to enjoy travelling. And I have come to believe that travelling equates to healing.  It is surreal to take a complete break from an everyday routine; and travel places for “days”. Yeah – in a fast-paced world we are living in – it can only be “days” and not “weeks”. Remember a word called EMI; so “days” it is.  The world is a beautiful place, only if we have the patience and time to explore it completely.

If you are staying in Mumbai or if you ever happen to travel to Mumbai – don’t forget to travel to Kamala Mills, Lower Parel. You will see a roadside tea stall there, run by a family and spearheaded by their younger son Sagar Satvase. To see Sagar, (must be in his early thirties) standing at his tea stall throughout the day is an ‘experience’. Spend some 15 minutes there – the way he goes about making Chai (tea), the pace at which he works, radio playing in the background, songs conveying his spirit, personal touch / connect with hundreds of his customers from adjacent corporate offices; this guy just doesn’t get tired. Watching him go about his business may just give you a sense of purpose or an inspiration to be like him in your job. Not too far away, at same locality, you have a group of women collectively putting 2 or 3 stalls offering delicious homemade food. Have lunch there, and you will be amused with the customer service and hospitality. These are not learned professionals, but they greet you with a genuine grin, which is extremely contagious. And if you are their regular customer – they would remember your name, they would remember your food habits and to top it all – they would also remember your favourite food.  Nothing deters these people. Bad weather, personal problems, bad day at work, health issues – absolutely nothing deters them. There, amongst the true-blue people centric businessmen and businesswomen you will figure out a framework on “How to win business, clients and employees”.

On my recent trip, I spent time strolling across the streets of Kokan, western coastline of India. Over the years, Kokan has attracted a lot of tourist thanks to it’s tropical beaches and forts. I saw so many changes there. With tourists, came opportunities to scale up. Still a beautifully laid-back lifestyle, I could observe many local entrepreneurs coming up with Homestays, food stalls, shops & adventure activities. It was fascinating to see them create an experience for tourists. There are so many intelligent locals, who have created a Homestay that offers a luxury of urban India with the perfect blend of rural ethnic mix.  On one such lazy afternoon, while walking across the breezy lane, it dawned upon me that people we see around are nothing but STORIES about to unfold.  Stories of hardships, of hope, of tragedy, of failures, of success & stories of LIFE. Look around, and you will realise that all these elements of humour, suspense, mystery, action, romance, guilt & anger…all these elements that make for classic tales are first realised in reality; and that is how they make it to the storyboard. That is why, perhaps, they say that “stories are nothing but a reflection of society”

And it got me thinking. How would the world be without stories? Without knowing where have we come from? No story – means no history. No feeling of pride & belonging. No inspiration from success, no learnings from failures. Scary, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it, then be fair or wiser to add STORIES to the “Basic needs of human beings”. What we would be without stories? May be breathing, but not LIVING. May be walking, but not GROWING.

It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? The moment I had these thoughts, I felt innately indebted to the story tellers across the globe. We owe it to all of them. Be it our parents or grandparents who narrated stories to us, or be it the writers, poets, content creators, historians who contributed so much to our lives. We owe our learnings, values, wisdom to all these story tellers who entertained and enlightened us in equal measures.

History has it, LEGENDS are those whose work lives on for years past their prime, cutting through the boundaries of the world, spanning many generations. To our good fortune, we are truly blessed and are spoilt for choices – when it comes to literature, content, books, plays & cinema.

Over the next few blogs I would touch upon books, authors & travel stories that moved me beyond imagination. Without structuring it too much, I will let it flow organically, allowing the magic to happen and will hope that the process brings out some untapped emotions and learnings for me, while it triggers a beautiful conversation for you with your own self.

On a concluding note, sharing an enriching interaction with an old woman during my trip to Audumbar, Sangli. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. She had a small roadside stall offering sugar cane juice. There were few other tea & sugar cane stalls around. While most other stalls were crowded, there was no one at her stall. We felt that we can be of some help to her, by buying sugar cane juice from her. With that sole purpose we ordered juice. They charge INR 10 for large glass and around INR 6 for a small or half glass. We ordered for 3. After enjoying the sugar cane juice, just as we were paying for it, my friend stumbled at the stall resulting in breaking 3 glasses to pieces. We were embarrassed to the core and offered to pay for the glasses as well. She looked at us with a smile and said “what kind of a seller I am if I can’t own the business risks and provision for occasional accidental losses. Let it be, its nothing. And do come back if you ever travel through this road”. Such Generosity. I left that stall with a smile and a learning – that doing good has everything to do with INTENT and Willingness. It doesn’t matter if you are making big or starving. Now, imagine such conversation in office board room, where the P&L takes a hit because of some foolish mistakes. Would it pan out exactly how it did with the old lady. I see a smile on your face. There I realise – we can achieve much when we are forgiving; because a selfless act ensures happy beings. And Nothings works better than the “happy workforce”, leading to “happy customers”. As for us, YES – that sugar cane stall has become a MUST during our trip to Audumbar, Sangli.

Stay Tuned!

Cheers,

Nilesh Mhatre

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