I have always wanted to write. About incidents and events in my life. But there was one small hitch however! I never thought any event in my life has been so funny, or inspiring or just so dramatic for me to pen it down creatively. So I thought today to myself, “let me not go looking for stellar memories and moments in my life because that is just an excuse to postpone writing.”
So I decided to write short events once a week about a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, a stranger, whoever. Someone who in their own way has shown me some light, given my some hope, some inspiration to move on with life on a positive note. I just want to write and which better platform than my own blog to start with! I call this my Sprightly Sunday Inspiration segment (I spent exactly 0.1 seconds coining that segment name!)
Moving on to my story now!

Father
Every time he told me “you don’t know what you would get if you just ask,” I would just scoff at him. Every time he told me “you don’t know your worth until you express your desire to find out,” I would mumble that I would try next time. Or pretend I didn’t hear that. Or tell him it’s easy for him to say without being in my situation.

Be it a doubt at school which I didn’t ask. Be it a drop back home request to a friend which I never asked. Be it authorities and responsibilities at work which I felt I’m entitled to which I didn’t ask. Be it anything. I just accepted. I wouldn’t say it never passed my head that I probably should speak up and stand for what’s mine. But hey! That involves work right? So I let that be and I let me be and the situation be and moved on.

My dad on the other hand always asked. He did not necessarily get what he asked for every time but the fact that he tried, remains. Coming from a large family which barely made ends meet has that impact on people I guess. Unless you wail for it you won’t be fed. (There is literally a proverb like that in my language. :))

I never noticed that he truly led by example when it came to this quality all these years. Tales about him fighting with his dad to go to a bigger town to do his higher studies in a big city because an Indian Institute of Technology was clearly better that an engineering college in his village fell on my deaf ears. Tales about him constantly tying to better himself through feedback and self-analysis went unnoticed. Even small things like tales about him getting better deals at bargain shops than us and ending up making great friends with the shopkeepers were brushed off as good luck. Last week however something happened which brought all this to perspective. So, my dad is a external consultant to a small valve making firm. A major valve exhibition happens at Dusseldorf, Germany every year and that’s like the spring-break hangout zone for all these valve engineers. So, one marketing dude from this valve making firm had been chosen by the MD to visit this exhibition. On knowing this, my dad, who loves such exhibitions merely because of the number of people and the technology he gets to meet, threw a long shot and sent a detailed e-mail to the MD of this firm. He listed down how his company has had such an upswing ever since he joined them and how he has been dedicating most of his time for this particular company and because of all this how he was equally eligible to visit this exhibition. After sending this mail he totally forgot about it because it definitely was a hundred-to-one type of shot he had taken. A couple of days later this MD calls my dad and says “what are you doing answering calls? Aren’t you busying yourself over the packing?”

How cool is that? So turns out, the MD realized how important it was that my dad goes and meets the prospective clients and customers and brings his technical knowledge to the table at this exhibition.

Had my dad not asked, the MD might or might not have realized what a good option it will be to send my dad. But would that realization happened on time? I doubt that!

So ask before it becomes late my friend. You’d rather have tried and failed than to have not tried at all and not known which way luck would have swayed.