Lessons of growing up !!!

Hi Everyone!

I am back home at last !!! after 54 days of travelling ..wonder how our cricketers manage been on the roads for so many days in the year. And the last few days has been " lazyly busy"....lazy because I did not have to cook dinner and could have ghar ka khana.. and busy because I am back with a frenzy in getting our house ready- need to move into our new house soon. More to come about our new house and my interior designer, Amit,..that should be a separate blog posting!!!

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been surprised how many times I went down memory lane- thinking about my childhood days and my parents. And then I read a blog posting of one of my friends (http://www.unnmukhtgagan.blogspot.com/) about her mom, and it stirred more thoughts...and made me get up in the middle of the night and log on.....

My parents were AWESOME!!! , (I am sure that all parents are ), and as I look back, I think that each day was a special day in my life. My mom was a school teacher, she taught for around 25 years of her life, and my dad was a businessman, for whom family was a priority over his business, and together they taught me the greatest lessons of my life-

1. "Keep smiling" my dad used to tell me. Smile will help you go the extra mile with people and relationships.
2. My mother used to tell me - "Son, the only thing that you can do well everyday is learn something new". So here I am still trying to learn something new everyday.
3. My father used to tell me " Your money is her money, her money is her money and then only there will be harmony "- a successful mantra for a successful marriage :).
4. My parents taught me that there is no problem in this world that does not have a solution. "Keep trying and you will find a solution to your problems. Dont give up".
5. "Do to others what you want others to do to you, respect people the way you want them to respect you and try not to hurt people as you go along your journey of life"- was one of the biggest lessons of my life.

Surprisingly both of them passed away on the 15th - my mom on the 15th of March'91 and my dad on 15th of Jan'04. I was with my mom, when she passed away, holding her hand..thinking that she held me in her arms when I came into this world and here I was holding her hand while she leaves the world,without me been able to do anything !! My dad passed away while I was desparately trying to drive through the heavy Delhi traffic trying to get to him before God reached him, and as always God won!! Both of them suffered a lot during their last few days but they were always smiling and in reasonably good spirits.

I cherish all the good times that I had with them and their fond memories and the lessons make each day much more brighter and exciting to live. I know they are watching me from somewhere and saying "keep smiling son" :) .

Its great to back in Delhi and.... its all FUN ...fun to be back home, fun to see my wife smile at my silly jokes, fun to speak in my own version of grammatically wrong hindi, fun to be back with a couple of more inches around my waist and fun to be driving on the left side of the road and honking to my heart's content...its all real FUN...

Keep having fun...

Ramen