Helping Others Is Blessings in Disguise

From my days of growing up as a little kid, one of my fondest memories is entire family members gathered together and listening to tales of Indian mythology that my mother or father would narrate. The tales of Gods & demons, heroes & villain, sacrifice & rewards, good & evil, hell & heaven. Sometimes, even they shared the stories from their experience of life.

In summer time, we were sleeping in rooftop after dinner with the family. We prepared the bed after sprinkling the water to make  rooftop cool and conditioned to have nice sleep.

I remember while bed time my father would tell us a story to all siblings. Here is story of heaven & hell that one holyman asked lord. What is difference between heaven and hell? Lord took the holyman to one room, in the room, some people are sitting in round dining table. In the middle of table there was a big pot of stew and a big spoon bigger than their hand wrapped around their hands but no one can eat. Everyone was hungry and dull. So this is called heaven.

Lord took holyman to other room, where some people are sitting around table and found to be big spoon wrapped in their hands same as in other room. Difference here was the people were quite happy and progressive. Reason was evident that in second room although people were not able eat for themselves but they started helping each other by feeding others in front of them even they were unable to do so for themselves.

At the end of the story my father gave emphasis on learning from the story. Those who help others are always growing and prospering. So our life is full of many instances that we help each other. Even in a time we help without anticipating any return from others. Sometimes good deeds repaid back to us as blessings in disguise.

Recently, I met an accident while driving by my car. I was going to my office and for  one moment a two wheeler just ahead of me slowed down the speed because another two wheeler crossed him from left just before him. At that moment I could not control my speed and also hit the two wheeler. Although it was minor accident. Something miracle happened to me. All were safe. Pillion rider had some pain and I took him to hospital to get him checked and found to be alright. I was relieved. One thing I observed that a liquid came out from my car. I didn't had much attention and drove to hospital in anticipation to get relieved from this issue. After some time I found that engine meter was turning to high. I smelled something wrong and I took my car to service centre although I had driven down to 5 to 6 kms. Service centre personnel asked me that they will check the car and get back to me. Although I told him that since this is old not much repairing is required since I was planning to sell it of.After some day they informed that there was another fault of engine and the engine looks seize and they have to overhaul the engine. Estimated cost would be around 90,000/-. Even a time of repairing would take around another 10 days. So  I was little disturbed with cost of repairing and time it takes. I put it on hold for some days because I was planning  either to sell the car or get it repair or even thinking of buying new car.

Myself and my sons go for art and music class. My younger son was saying to manager that my father met a car accident.
By listening so everyone was surprised and asked me how it  happened. So I narrated the incident and so immediately he asked me state of the car and  he highly recommended me to do the repairing from local garage. I immediately took the car from service centre and took it to local garage. Owner of garage looks to be decent man. He told me that he will check thoroughly and update. In between I checked the status and given a quote of 11000/- only. I was surprised to see the difference and sametime I was happy as well that my car is getting ready at much lower cost.

I think this has happened because I could able to do better for others that has repaid back to me. I think every deeds or thoughts have power to impact us unconsciously. So let's help selflessly and see the wonders within ourselves.

60 Seconds Movement

Last year I joined Toastmasters Club to improve my communication skills. It is a wonderful platform not just for improving communication skills but also for thinking & leadership skills. Meeting with members, having a positive attitude of encouraging and helping others is bonus after being a part of the club.

In this club I met one of the members, Puneet Surana who is passionate in speaking and he is a part of the club for a quite sometime. Recently he has thrown up the idea of creating a group of people in WhatsApp for improving communication skills to group memebers. He created the group called '60 seconds movement'. Idea of this movement is to record your 1 minute speech on topic given by him and upload it in group everyday. All the members are not just encouraged to speak but also evaluated by others. I am also a member of the group.

Initially response to speaking offline was not good but he encouraged a lot to group members. I also pull of my socks and tried myself to speak for almost everyday. This is almost for a month and I observed the changes.  Going forward, I must appreciate and thank Puneet for his wonderful effort and initiative.

So I would like to highlight the benefits of participating in this movement.

1. When topic is given, our mind starts thinking on finding relevant stories or anecdotes from different walk of lifes, sharing experiences, connecting dots. So mind gets busy towards positivity everyday. While listening the speech of others also increases no. of ideas & style of speaking & vocabulary. So everyday we can occupy our mind with 5-10 nos of speeches to learn & improve.

2. Recording on WhatsApp and uploading it to group, I can listen what I spoke about. I can have immediately reflection on  self evaluation. What are areas I can improve upon, it may be grammar, content, flow, pauses, vocal variety. The scope of improvement is always in next speech.

3.  In this forum, members are freely evaluating the speech of the others. I am also trying myself to observe the speech attentively and find the best part of the speech and also take out areas of improvement. This exercise helps me to improve on observation and evaluation skills as well.

4. Evaluation by others is the best part of this movement. Many a times, we feel what I am speaking or doing the best. More than that no one has time for others to give instant feedback. Having a genuine feedback by evaluator creates a lot difference in improvements. Just emphasis the point. In my speech, I usually make mistakes in grammar. Although I am trying for it to improve. But one of the members, Naveen Indala suggested me that I should try it again  by writing the speech with correct grammar then speak. I followed the same and I find that my mind is more cautious while speaking now and gradually I am trying to overcome the mistakes.

I think such evaluation is nowhere is done except at Toastmasters club and at this forum in particular. Yes evaluation happens at time of performance appraisal in the organisation but evaluation are much delayed and even it may have some element of subjectivity.

5. This forum is very much safe and secure place to improve communication skill. Everyone is on the group to learn and improve. So even if you have shyness while speaking that may go away gradually and build the confidence in ourselves. Even you fail, there is a someone not to judge you but pat on back for coming forward to speak. It is like at every corner someone is there to hold your hands to pull out to support and push you further at next level.

So life is the name of continuous improvement and this movement is trying to make this happen. So I am hoping to see the immense change in each members of the group in meeting it's objective. I am sure this 60 seconds movement may make us 60 times change in ourselves.