The Unexpected

Cricket is the air and “Holi” colours haven’t been gone completely. There are still traces of the colours on our hands, faces and scalp suggesting that we have had a wonderful Holi celebration. I am sure you all had a great time too. If you are a nature lover, I am sure you would be enjoying the flowers in full bloom welcoming the Spring.

However the topic I chose to write today is something which falls under the “IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT” category. It is “What to do if a crisis happens?” I send it today so that we plan and prepare ourselves should such a crisis ever happen in our lives. The best time to plan is when we think there’s no need for a plan.

Crisis never comes with an appointment…..I am sure that a lot of you reading this would agree to this but would vary on different aspects of this line. I quote this with reference to the tragic tsunami which shook the coast of Japan almost a fortnight back. Though the city has been built on a tectonic plate, this kind of nature’s fury wasn’t expected to be. Had this been some other city, the casualty list would have been many times higher. The video footages of the Tsunami are very disturbing and have an eerie resemblance to a lot of the Hollywood disaster movies. To add to the woes and suffering, there has been confirmed news of the leakage of the nuclear plants. May god give strength to the kin of the effected people. Life surely would never be the same for those people.

Sometimes, no amount of preparation can help us tide the unexpected. However, the least we can do is to be prepared for the worst.

On the office front, we are often flooded with emails on what to do in event of fire, earthquake, business disruption (BCM) etc. Most of the times, we ignore these mails simply by telling ourselves that this would never happen to us or we know what we need to do in those circumstances. That’s what causes the major damage. Ignorance of safety standards causes the maximum damage to human life. It is imperative that we go through these “not-for-me” mails and know what do in special unseen circumstances.

I give you some of the basic scenarios and ask for your reaction under these situations.

- Someone gets injured in a road accident

- There’s a fire in the building

- Person has a Heart Attack

- There’s an earthquake

I am sure you would have an idea of the things to do and more importantly not to do under these situations. Still I would want you to take out 5-10 crucial minutes to visit some of the suggested links for a better understanding.

Incase of Earthquake

Incase of Fire

Incase of Heart Attack

This list is surely not exhaustive but I am sure they give us a sense of what to do. It’s the first few minutes which are most critical in these situations. Also would be great if we stored the emergency numbers on our handsets.

I leave you with this small thought. Do you know why we wear seat belts when we drive? It is not because it is not because it saves our life in event of an accident but because there is a challan for Rs 100/-. I am sure our lives are much precious than those hundred rupees..!!!  Accidents don’t always happen for your fault. 50% of the times it’s the person on the other side who’s at fault. Yet, the damage would be ours as well. So drive safe and always remember to wear your seat belts while driving.

Last but not the least, share this with your friends…you never know who might need this vital information.

P.S – I just wish and pray that no one of us ever needs to use this information ever in our lives. But I still thought it was important to share this vital information. Life is priceless....!!

From a distance

We are living a fast paced life. This has been very true for me, considering that my daughter just completed her 2 years of Montessori and is all set to move on to 1st Standard in the new academic session. It seems like yesterday only that she went to school for the first time and wouldn’t want to go inside. Two years later, we were invited to school for her first ‘on-stage’ cultural show performance. I surely had a few anxious moments before she actually came on stage to perform her “Chiddiya(Sparrow)” dance. It was surely a chirpy performance by all the kids of her class.

This blog is about how life takes its beautiful course while you watch your child grow up from an infant to a toddler to a young kid almost magically…from a distance. I am sure this feeling is echoed by a coach who can only watch his player fight out his battle while all he can do is watch. Ofcourse, we always share the feedback once the match is over so as to prepare him for the next big fight.

While this is more from a parent’s point of view, the applicability is not restricted to young kids as these principles hold true at any stage in life.

Before the start of the show, the Principal Mrs Goswami gave a short message to the parents. I have tried to pen down some of the things which I really liked.

Handling Pressure – The child has to learn to handle stress in their own ways and we, as parents should encourage our child to participate in all activities. We should be protective about our kid but need to ensure that the child understands that its okay even if they don’t win sometimes. We build a lot of pressure around us by setting our expectations but fail to provide the support system which the child requires to be able to give his best. There are instances where children go to the extent of committing suicides because they are unable to cope up with the pressures. Childhood is the time from which we need to support our child mentally to become strong and take things in his/her stride.

I am reminded of a wonderful story about the cocoon and the butterfly which I had read some time back. It is about a man that found a cocoon, and got it home to watch it turn into a butterfly. As the butterfly inside matured, it struggled to come out of its cocoon, but couldn't quite get free out of it. After a lot of patience, the man became tired of waiting and decided to help the butterfly. He removed the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly was pleased, but it had a swollen body and small, wrinkled wings. As a result, the butterfly never succeeded in flying and spent its entire life crawling around. What the man didn't understand was that the struggle required for the butterfly to break out of its cocoon actually forced fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom. It is the struggle that causes the butterfly to develop its ability to fly. Moral of the story – Our own struggle gets the best out of us!

 

As I look around me, pressure is there on everyone. I guess, it does bring out the best in us only if it is up to a certain limit. What’s my mantra? “Take realistic stretched targets and leave no stone unturned to ensure that you achieve it”….I know its easier said than done. But trust me; our results will surely be more encouraging this way.

Do click on this link to read my earlier blog on this related topic “Pressure” as well.

Do drop in your comments as well on my blog and share it with your near and dear ones, incase you liked it.

P.S - Next time you find yourself in trouble and no one's coming to help you, remember that God wants to you come out of it yourself while he is watching you....from a distance!