Chander's Memory Lane: April 2014

Post Retirement Life - A Recap of the past 90 days

I do not know whether this period is a long one or short. But sure of it, a quarter of a year is over from the dawn of New Year 2014. Still I remember the last day of my service, wishing everyone of my colleagues ‘ A Very Happy New Year ‘ and bid a long lasting goodbye to all , without a plan of future, to be true. This is because , it was already 42 years since the start of my career at the age of 19 , and more keenly interested to fulfill the missed obligations in social and spiritual life. There is a time for everything and it has come to me to start a fresh retired life. I read a book titled “ THE JOY OF NOT WORKING “by Ernie J. Zelinski , just before my official retirement in December 2010, but I cannot go by that because of my continuous consultancy job till December 2013.

In fact my ex.Boss liked the tile, when he heard about that book through me , and expressed his liking to read, as he is an ardent reader. I gave him a copy , just for him , got through my daughter, living on the other side of the globe.

So the year 2014 started for me to chart out visits to temples not visited at all or visited long time back. Happily started with a visit to our family deity , Sri Veera Raghava Swamy temple at Thiruvallur. My wife also took a retirement from her teaching job to physically challenged kids at Guild Of Service, to take care of me. Both of my married children are away in upcountry for career growth and better living . It is good that they have a future plan.

The month of January 2014, almost every alternate day , there was some engagement and February , having lesser days, gone fast with many visits to missed out family and friends and by attending some festivals. March marched fast and soon the quarter of this year is over!

I should mention here that many of my ex.colleagues talked to me frequently in January and steadily few calls in February and least calls in March. Few of them visited my place and shared their feelings on missing me. In this busy world talking is less and chatting through social media is more.

On the contrary, I started getting calls from my old colleagues of previous companies and it is getting strong day by day. I was wondering , WHY and HOW and for WHAT , it is happening like this, to me. Does it mean ‘ world is small ‘ or due to ‘ the cycle of life ‘ . But no hard feelings on anyone who do not keep in touch with me . I am matured enough in understanding the facts of life and the fast life of people around us.

The social media network helped me much during the last 90 days to get in touch with all friends, wishing their birthdays ( thanks for it’s timely reminders ) , putting ‘like’ to any interesting posting of them and also critically comment, if I do not like some.

My son-in-law , devotee of Lord Krishna , explained me well on , the feeling of missing family members and friends , close to us , by quoting from Bagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavata Puranam.

This is another indication that destiny teaches us that despite all our endeavors to be close with family and friends, in Kali yuga, it has been predicted in Srimad Bhagavata puranam that family members although family cannot live close to one another. This is the nature of Kali yuga. This is material nature.

So material nature which is acting through Krishna is teaching us to not depend on family for support but actually repose our yearning and love for the individual who will never disappoint us at any time and shastra/sadhus says that individual is Paramatma Krishna. I hope as you get old you also will realize this more and more. As the body and mind will fail, our near and dear ones although may be right next to us will not appease our ailing heart. Only Krishna can appease at that moment. That is the reason in our Indian culture, once upon a time (not anymore though) that serving God and living close to God was inherent part of our daily life. Today it is just a sentimental ritual with no deeper purpose and hence people discriminate, quarrel and fight in the name of God.

So while you are far away from your children, you can also take this as an opportunity to understand that Krishna is teaching you and showing you how all of earthly relationships are temporary and that only HE (Krishna) will be there forever and so our purpose therefore is to spend time trying to know that elusive Krishna while we are still hail and healthy.

Regarding retired life, it is always better to keep busy by certain activities and balance your spiritual aspirations more with your daily life.

It is a self realization for me. I do not know about others acceptance on this fact and not necessarily need to be accepted by all , but I do accept it and look forward to balance spiritual and personal life.

Books are a medium to transport us to another world. To anyone else, they may look like pages full of dull print, but to me, they open a door to a wondrous world of magic, mystery, wild imagination, legendary icons and ordinary heroes, adventure, love... all created through a fantastic interplay of words.

I love reading books of my interest. A big list of categories to my taste includes , Ancient Egypt, World War I & II , Poems , All about Pyramids, Krishna Consciousness , Other Reigions , Management , Fiction of selective authors , Classics , Self Improvement , Books on Gandhiji and the list goes on in my collections of my personal Library!

They are my best companions and now I could spend more time in reading and writing. As the Time Machine keeps clicking , I wish to spend it usefully. Music carries my to another world , when it is dark and silent. I too love music and my love towards that was blogged already in my post.