Ruminations of a meandering mind

As I write this, I ponder if this space deserves mention of something that happened twenty-six years back on the ninth day in the month of June. But then, I think again and realize that who else but me will get away with touching upon this point :-). Well, so what is that something that I yearn to mention? Nothing really spectacular except that exactly twenty-six years back in a small town called Palghat in Kerala, I came into existence, or to use a more clichéd term, I was “BORN”.

So what is the spark or the driving force that makes me post this? Well, it was because of a phone call from a friend that I received yesterday morning. This friend has an uncanny knack of asking questions one least expects in moments like these. So along with the usual birthday wishes that accompany every such call, he asks me a question that makes me reflect and write this. The question was something like “What have you learnt from your life so far?”

The answer: I can think of umpteen “learnings” and the fact there are this many lessons learnt in life makes me realize that one never stops learning. Everyday, every moment that you live does teach you something. It’s really up to each of us whether to imbibe something from it or to ignore it completely. I also feel that age has nothing to do with your aptitude for learning. With age, I guess you grow more sagacious or you want to show others your sagacity and this impedes upon your learning prowess. A quote I read sometime back accurately sums up the point I am trying to make.

”Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”