The mantra of immortality

Just yesterday I was driving in the midst of a mad rush near PaharGanj in Delhi and was almost unnerved by all the furious honking going on around me. My wife was sitting beside me and had been observing the Celsius of my attitude going up. She calmly switched on the AC in the car and waited.

I had noticed this and just then I had this brainwave… I looked outside at the other drivers who appeared so hassled and were honking and waved my hands. Yes, I waved my hands as celebrities do… and even said aloud: ‘Thank you, for making me feel like a celebrity!’

Specky, my wife, looked at me and seeing her puzzled expression, I said, ‘Well, instead of getting irritated with all this unwanted aggression all around, isn’t it better to think of yourself as a celebrity and imagine that all this honking is of fans who are just excited and delirious?’

We smiled.

That was the end of irritation for the day… and we suddenly began noticing smiles and all the good things that life has to offer.

Later in the day when I was back in my Study, I gave the incident a serious thought… and realised that ‘thank you’ were two magic words that ended all strife and stress and made life suddenly so liveable!

I then arranged my thoughts on the emotion of thanking, in a sequence:

I thank and I am pleased.
I thank and I please someone else too.
I thank and I make a friend forever.
I thank and make many friends in the real world.
I thank and make many friends all over the world in the virtual world too.
I thank and become a part of the memory of so many people.
I thank and become immortal even in this life!

I told Specky, ‘Thanking is such a progressive emotion.’

She nodded her head and went back to whatever she was doing on the net on her PC. After a while she called me over and said, ‘Look what I found. The twitter universe has this campaign also on what you are talking about.’

Thanks_Axis Bank_even one tweet can be magical!

The concept of Progress_Together

Well, I did agree with what that bank was talking about. Yes, a mere ‘thank you’ can actually lead to so much happiness and joy all around. And anyway, a thanks can only make things progressive for us all. I asked Specky, ‘Does it make any sense to thank someone who is no longer in contact with me? I mean, I really want to thank my English teacher who taught me all my hyperboles and anagrams when I was in school! But I don’t even know where she is.’

She said, ‘Why don’t you just send a tweet. I am sure a true emotion will travel in its byte-avatar and live forever searching for her.’

Now that was a rather abstract thought, but one that appeared quite appealing. Yes, positive emotions do have a tendency to not just reach out to a specified person, but also to form a sort of mathematical progression of sorts. I said aloud, ‘What is life if not full of additions and progressions?’

‘Ha!’ said my wife, ‘if you mean growth, even your beard grows a bit every day. But then, a mere thanks can actually make people progress together!’

‘Badti ka naam dadhi,’ I muttered, and then said aloud, ‘Well, it can also be badti ka naam zindagi!’

‘That’s true.’

Now this just meant that we need to acknowledge someone else’s contribution in our life and thank him or her for that… this simple act will possibly do more wonders than the biggest PR exercise ever taken! Let me illustrate this with an example… I had got a book from a writer who insisted that I read it. I did just that and found it quite well written and so wrote a review on it. Not just this, I also called up this writer and thanked her for giving my life a few more interesting thoughts to mull upon. Now we are friends for ever!

I thought about this rather inconsequential incident which had just converted a mere writer into a friend and thought: ‘Yes, now I can interact with her more often and get to learn more.’ When I shared this thought with her, I was surprised to find her thinking in a similar way. The advantage is thus both ways!

I told myself that this network of people who make a difference to each other’s life is quite vital. I hope this spreads fast, given the advantage of an active social media these days! This could really be a genuine mantra of immortality!!

For those who are interested in the concept of Progress_Together, you can click and reach out!

Arvind Passey
27 February 2013