‘Mashaal’ Shows The Way

“What were you doing in Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini?” Lulu, my parrot, asked.

“I was watching you go for the morning walk with friends” Nina, my myna, said. “Everyone was looking so cheerful and chirpy chirpy!”

“Ha ha! Chirpy, Chirpy!! People behave like birds when they are happy” I said. “We were running ‘Mashaal’ which is a leadership training program for doctors and healthcare professionals.”

“I once saw them conduct Mashaal at Satoli in Uttarakhand” Lulu said, “They always choose good locations”

“Yes,” I said, “We do it at a different location every year. Mashaal should be available for doctors and healthcare professionals at different locations. They find it difficult, if not impossible, to be away from hospitals for more than four days.”

“How many have you trained so far?” Nina asked.

“More than 500, believe it or not!”

“Wow! That’s great work.”

“Thanks Nina, and we do something new in every Mashaal event. Mashaal is like a river for us. Just as you can’t enter the same river twice, you can’t have the same Mashaal twice.”

“What was new in Mashaal this year?”

“We discussed the life story of Dr N, permit me not to mention his full name here, we did it to understand leadership”

“I think that’s a better way to understand leadership, better than discussing theory. Nothing is better than reading biographies to study leadership.”

“You said it, Lulu. It was interesting to see how leaders give meaning to their life.”

“They give meaning or they find meaning?”

“Osho says, ‘life has no pre-packaged purpose or inherent meaning. Instead, it is an empty canvas and a pure opportunity. You must actively create your own meaning through love, creativity, and conscious choices, rather than passively searching for a hidden destiny.’”

“That’s insightful. ‘Create your own meaning through love, creativity, and conscious choices!’ Compassion, creativity and conscious choices – three Cs – easy to remember.”

“Dr N was working in villages in Himalayas when he noticed that an infant, a girl child, was left at the garbage can. He picked her up and brought her home.”

“What an act of courage! He became her father in an instant”

“So true, Nina. In a split-second life of three changed – of Dr N and his wife, as well as that of the little girl.”

“My mind is still so excited to hear this real story. I mean, what makes people take such radical decisions, decisions that change lives of three persons instantly?”

“Hmmmm …. Personal values at work! Mr. Albie Sachs , the highly respected South African Judge discussed how does he make judgments which uphold human values in his book.”

“And the answer?”

“‘How do life experiences affect the legal decision making?’ he asked himself and answered it – ‘In unexpected ways!’”

“Life experiences affect our critical decision making. That requires thinking about those experiences, ‘ruminating’ over it. Not sleep-walking thru life.”

“Well lived life experiences create sensitivities to our strengths and weaknesses. It helps us see patterns of behaviour which are positive and negative. Heightened self-awareness I am referring to.”

“And this is not the privilege only of the educated. Kabir as an infant was left on the banks of Ganga and Neeru, the weaver picked him up.”

“Identical is the story of Narayan Surve , the great Marathi poet. He was left at the garbage can and a poor childless textile worker took him home.”

“Wow!! Courageous decision making is not the bastion of the educated or the rich, anyone with a good heart and head can do it.”

“But the mind is made ready for courageous decision making by the lived experiences. Imagine how many hours of practice goes behind hitting the last ball sixer.”

“Aristotle says that courage is the golden mean between cowardice and foolhardiness.”

“You talk of value-based behaviour in Mashaal, the leadership training for healthcare professionals,” Lulu said, “You must also get them to see how their experiences have shaped their choices.”

“We require a mentor for such work. Just as you can’t sit in a chair and lift it up, you require someone who can help you move to a higher level of awareness.”

“Preparation for the instant decision to pick up the abandoned child requires long hours of training one’s mind. And it comes only through daily reflection and self-awareness”

“Meditation and mentors are inevitable catalysts to raise our levels of authenticity and self-awareness” Nina said, “and also if you wish to give your life a meaning.”

“It is time to meet Dr N” Lulu, my parrot said, “there will be more to lean from him.” Nina, my myna and I smiled to convey ‘yesssss!’.

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.

“तुम्ही जो वारसा मागे ठेवून जाता, तो म्हणजे दगडी स्मारकांवर कोरलेले शब्द नव्हे; तर तो वारसा म्हणजे इतरांनी आयुष्य विणताना विणले गेलेले तुमचे धागे होत.” सर्व मजकूर कॉपीराइट-संरक्षित आहे.