“Last year was not a good year for me” Lulu, my parrot, said.

Nina, my myna, nodded in agreement. “They cut so many trees, make barren lands out of dense jungles. Living happily has become difficult.”

“You aren’t saying anything, why this silence” Lulu observed.

“Nothing much is happening in my life ever since I retired almost seventeen years ago,” I said. “A long walk in the morning. Good breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Watching news on TV or sports. Some time spent on my laptop. An occasional coffee with friends. That sums up my day.”

“Don’t you look back on the events of the year? Everybody does it.”

“Nothing much to say there. I am no longer working.”

“But you are living. That is why you must look back on the times gone.”

“You are speaking in riddles. Last year was no different than the year earlier.”

“Nah! Do not think about the work done. Think about the roles played, and a different picture will emerge.”

“More riddles ….”

“You enjoy blogging, right? Last year you went to Solapur to understand the life of Beedi workers. In what way did it impact you?”

“Well …. Hmmm …. I saw extreme exploitation of beedi workers who were mostly women. Unbelievable.”

“I understand.”

“One of them proudly told me that her daughter was working in Dubai. The women I spoke to showed burning desire to do good in life.”

“And you met Renuka ”

“Yes. She worked for thirty years as a beedi worker and is now an accomplished poet and TV announcer.”

“What a transformation! My question again – In what way did it impact you?”

“I understood the real meaning of ‘indomitable spirit’ and ‘living life purposefully.’ Uneducated women. And yet with such an evolved outlook to life.”

“They are like lotuses which rise out of mud. Inspiring.”

“Such experiences leave an indelible mark on our psyche.”

“They change us in ways which we figure out only on reflections. We keep changing.”

“The only meaningful review is about how we changed. Our roles. Our relationships. And what caused it.”

“As you speak, I realized that my wife’s illness changed me.”

“How?”

“She was unwell from early January last year. It took seven months for her to get well. During this period, I became ‘mother’ to my wife, which did not come naturally to me. That experience changed me forever.

“Your relationship as husband must have changed.”

“True. I used to teach empathy, and last year I consciously lived it. In some way, I guess I must have changed.”

“Most experiences are like water falling on a stone. After some time, they crack open a stone.”

“You called me a stone?”

“In the same sense Micheal Angelo removed the unwanted part of marble to reveal the hidden David. Experiences are like Micheal Angelo; they chisel away our roughness and shape us.”

“Except that in our case Micheal Angelo is hidden inside us.”

“So true. Osho says that ‘The outside is only the reflection of the inner man.’”

“That is interesting. Year end is a good time to reflect on our various roles; how the events and experiences impact us.”

“We change perceptibly during a year. Introspection reveals it.”

“And your photography – what has it taught you?”

“Much the same what we have been discussing which is best captured in the words of Henri Cartier-Bresson ….”

“Like?”

“I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us.”

Lulu, my parrot and Nina, my myna moved closer to me.

Pic Courtesy Pic GregHill on Unsplash

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All matter copyrighted.