It's been quite some time since I wrote something off hand which was not a poem or a story or a letter. Ever since I began this blog I had vouched that I would try new things so I could write about them or maybe I could write about things that I want to try. Most importantly I wanted to create an interface between readers and myself. Not everyday is an inspiration, so got around to thinking about inspiration and I found myself remembering this friend called Nancy.
Nancy is a friend of mine who is so incredibly full of energy and things to discuss with. But most importantly she is a person who goes out there in the world and makes a difference without being afraid of failing. I think that is inspiring. She went to a observation home for children and taught them employment related life skills. She went to a winter school and enrolled herself to learn for as long as 12 at night. she visited NGOs and schools in remote corners of the northeast and Maharashtra. she went to a farm in Ahmedabad. She makes all these amazing friends who do even more amazing things like cycling across the country, being the first woman to travel and speak about psychology across states and so on. all young people with the spark of wanting to make a change in themselves or around them doing what they love to do. Nanciness is all about linking people and admiring their strengths, learning from them and letting them be on their path with good will in your heart. I was so inspired by this state of being that I gave it her name
Another friend of mine is Tanushree who recently started working in a school. She returned after completing her course on social and cultural psychology from London which meant that she had to pack up and shift to another country for her education. She did amazingly well, fell in love, made a difference and came back to struggle it out to work on what she likes best - education. her passion, determination and single-pointedness has always inspired me professionally. as an individual she is warm, confident, unafraid to be assertive, curious and playful at the same time. she is one of the few intelligent and young persons who does not take themselves so seriously and has a fantastic sarcastic humor which does not include conceit or grandiosity. So Tonnu-baba is the archetype of a ever playful child and a youthful spirit to learn in all of us.
Both these individuals represent two sides of me which I think need to be developed even more - curiosity and openness to try something new and optimism which translates into perseverance of seeing or learning something from each experience and person. While talking to these young women, I realized how important these discussions are and as Tanushree once put it, what an important role it is to be a receptacle.
A receptacle is someone who absorbs and is able to emotionally as well as intellectually hold the fragile and raw idea which a transmitter emits. We need a receptacle because the ideas that we come up with are new, not fully formed, not flawless and may be a victim of fleeting memory.
So this post is to remind myself and to tell my readers, to not be tamed by the wild waters of time, find inspiration and a receptacle for yourself. Try and be a receptacle for your friend because once a person finds one, then the ideas start rolling out as easy as mice behind cheese...
Good day!
