Life: On Inspiration!

         They say,you are as good as the environment in which you were brought up.If you think about it,you will realize that it actually makes sense.After all,if you have grown up in a highly cocooned environment,there is also a chance of your thoughts and decision making abilities becoming limited and dependant on
others.I think most of the kids in the present generation suffer from this problem.There are restrictions on anything and everything they do during their childhood and by the time they are teenagers,they are a highly confused lot.Well,in this regard,I think I have been extremely lucky.During my formative years,none of my family members have over burdened me with curfews/restrictions/their expectations.Infact,they have given me their full support in pursuing my dreams and taking my own decisions.The result-I ended up becoming a somewhat confident and self-reliant person in my life as an
adult! This post is going to be a tribute to my brother,the one person
who has helped me in becoming what I am today!

      My brother,after graduating from National Defence Academy is working with the Indian Navy.He is the one who has taught me the importance of being independent and self-reliant in life.

      Well,it's easier to preach and difficult to practice.But in his case,it's the other way round.He has never advised me to do anything in life.Still,I learnt a lot from him.Right from washing his own clothes to each of the crucial decisions in his life,everything he felt were good for him,he has done in his life and by God's grace,turned out to be good ones too,in the long run.Infact,he has been my inspiration,my guiding light.

       This happened when I was just about seven years old.I had written a short story for a popular children's magazine and was all set to send it to it's publishers for putting it in their next issue.Naturally,before sending it to them,I wanted to make sure that my work was error free and worthy of publication.My brother being an acclaimed 'writer' by then (he used to contribute to a popular vernacular magazine at that point of time),I was quite sure that he would edit it and make it error free.So,quite confidently, I approached him and put forward my demand.But to my surprise,he didn't utter a word and instead of accepting my manuscript and commencing the 'editing',he gave me a couple of papers and asked me to go through it.The seven year old,immature boy I was,got really angry and threw a tantrum.For my seven year old mind,my brother's behaviour was nothing but manifestation of blatant irresponsibility.Still,I decided to go through what he had given me.I went through some of them and figured out that it was something like general guidelines on the basics of grammar and writing for beginners.Since there was noone to help me with the 'editing',I did whatever correction I could do after 'referring' those papers and sent the manuscript to the magazine-editor-in-chief.Expectedly,the article got rejected and it was my brother who bore the brunt of it.He was at the receiving end of abuses from a seven year old boy,but still,didn't utter a word.

           Days passed and it was time for the next month's article submission for the same magazine.This time, after completion of the manuscript, I didn't approach my brother and instead did the editing all by myself from whatever 'knowledge' I could gain through the papers which my brother

had given me.This time,my 'story' was accepted by the magazine and only after that I realized that by giving me the papers for self-reference for editing,my brother was making me more self-reliant in my 'creative endevaour'!I picked up whatever basics of writing I know,through those papers which my brother gave me then! Thank you brother, for your guidance! You are truly inspiring!

Written for indiblogger and HDFC life

-nikhimenon