Microstory # 164
When our House bell rings like always my younger daughter will jump off and show up at the door expecting her friends. But this time It was our next-door neighbor at the door. So she called me immediately. He wanted a printout of the self-declaration form for his emergency trip to his hometown for the evening flight and I noticed that he had a very soft tone. I gave my wife’s mail ID and asked him to send it out immediately. In a matter of minutes, my wife gave me the printout and I headed towards his door. Expectedly it was open. I asked if everything was ok. He said ” No” and “Yes”. No, because his father was in the hospital and he got a frantic call from his brother to be there and he had booked the next available flight. What sent shivers down the spine was his “Yes”. He went on to tell me that his Dad was there for all the major events and in fact recently for his granddaughter’s marriage which was arranged in a tearing hurry a couple of weeks back. He added that I cannot ask God for more as he had given me enough. I understood at that point how he was in that state of balance.
Microstory # 165 – Feedback
I was listening to one of my friends the other day. He narrated a story. GB Shaw was invited by one of his friends for a musical night. In that musical event, she was taking part and she was one of the lead singers. The performance was terrible. When she asked him how her performance was in the segment, GB Shaw’s response was, “Good is not the word”.
I laughed at the humor but I also thought of so many instances where I held myself back while giving feedback. Over the years I have moved to give and take crisp feedback and have also received radical candor. I reframe to take feedback with a spirit of progress and also gratitude that the person is dedicating time and energy for our improvement. What I figured out from wiki was that GB Shaw always said, “My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.
Microstory # 166 – Parent Thesis
It was the night I had my jab. I slept off by 11 and somehow got up by 3.45 AM. I tried to sleep forcefully but couldn’t make it till 5 AM when my Phone alarm programmed by my younger daughter rang and it was nice to get up. I saw for the first time in months, my younger daughter had also got up and she was in the kitchen taking out all the washed utensils from the dishwasher. I initially did not pay much heed but after brushing my teeth and as I was about to make my coffee, she said something which made my day. She said, “I know this is the first thing you do when you get up”. I appreciated her and was wondering what made her do it that morning. I was wondering, Is she being cognizant about the jab and wanted to help me? I was not even sure whether we told her that we went for the vaccination. I do agree with this notion that “we think children are not listening but they are always watching” but was not sure…
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