A Life Well Lived!

This  tale is of  two people closest to my heart, my grandparents. My grandpa is 91 and granny 85 and they have been married for 71 years now!  They got married when she was  just 14 and he was 20. He is a lawyer by profession, and is still in practice whereas my granny hasn’t even seen what a school is like. Today we talk of compatibility, like, dislikes, similar thinking, do you think all this existed between them way back? 

My grandfather had spent most of his early years from schooling to studying law, in hostel. He's not only a good lawyer but also is an inventor and has got several of his inventions patented in his name. My grand-mom, is not educated but has proved to be a good homemaker. They both traveled across several cities before settling down where they are today. While grandpa  was busy with his exams in Lahore, Grandma lived alone in Indore. When he came back he opened up a book store in Indore and did all that he could to feed his family. Years passed by, the family increased from two to 7 in number. This called for more hard-work, more time working, less time with family. They finally moved to Bali where grandpa started practicing as a lawyer. There were times when their was no money in the house, times where their was enough for all to eat a two square meal, times where there were a little savings.

 Grandpa always believed in education. Despite of facing all these extremities he managed to make his kids study, study much more than what the time demanded. All this is almost 50 years back, when girls were not even allowed to be out of the house for even a short while, he sent all 3 of his daughters in a distant city to study , living in hostels and made sure they graduated from colleges, their oldest son graduated as an engineer and the youngest one also secured a graduation degree!

They celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary this year.While I was sitting with them on their anniversary eve, grandpa told me in a heavy shaking voice, his eyes filled," we have seen a lot of ups and downs, extreme ones, in our lives, when we first got married we realized our thinking didn’t match, I could speak even in English and she didn’t even know how to read in Hindi. Everyday after my office hours I used to sit next to her and teach her to read, and in no time she could read all the news paper headings, could keep an account of money at home. Our bond, affection made everything work. Those were the days and then today is the day. We cannot live without each other. We didn't had understanding, but we both together developed it. She tried to understand me, I managed to put some effort too, she stood by me through all no matter what I said, what I did and with time we now share a bond where we cannot and we don’t want to live without each other. Life will throw a lot of situations at you, it's all about how you manage them. Money is important for survival, but yes, only survival, real happiness is always based on how you carry your relationships despite of misunderstandings, issues and other problems. Today, when I look back, I see struggle, failures, and so many more situations but with her being on my side, I made it through all and managed to have a very successful life. And see, today here we are still talking care of each others health and medicines." 

My grandpa developed some hearing problems with age whereas my grandma lost almost both her eye-sights. Still, every morning, he reads out loud newspapers to her and other books too, whereas she attends all his phone calls because he cannot hear properly, and then conveys the message to him. Seeing them like this, I too dream of such a relationship in my life. I try to spend at least a few minutes every day  with them. And each time I am with them they have a new story to share with me.

Lucky are those, including me, who get to spend time with their grandparents. For me, they are truly my inspiration, my role models. I have seen them age, seen their health deteriorating, their wrinkles increase, but their will power unshaken. Obviously there may be  times we get annoyed for their behavior, but trust me, their experiences,their self-less love for each other, for us, their real- life stories, their struggle, their wrinkles teach us so much and are of much more worth than any other precious gem!

This is a short story I came across a few days back:

A son asked his father- Dad, what is a successful life?

Father took him to fly a kite.

Son saw his father flying the kite with all his concentration and asked- dad, the kite is not going higher in the sky because of this thread, lets cut if off, so that the kite flies higher.

His dad cut the thread off. The kite went a little more upwards but then started its journey down again and fell down somewhere in the woods.

His dad made him understand-

When we achieve things in life, we often think there are some things that are restricting us, pulling us back, something that is not letting us achieve more, like,

Our house,

Our parents,

People who love us,

Our principles,

Our teachers,

And we feel like leaving them behind, letting them go.

In reality, they are the thread that help us be where we are and where we want to go further. Without these threads, for once you may achieve what ever you want, but later in life, you will loose your balance and fall like that kite.

Therefore, if you want to achieve big things in life and be stable, never let go of these threads in your life. That's when you have a 'successful life'.