“Zero Ego” lesson learnt from real life rather than a self help book or a spiritual Guru; thanks to Mr. Vinod Shah (Uncle of my sister’s daughter in law): He lives in Ottawa (Canada) and has been a wonderful host every time we have visited his place. We, too, in turn have had a couple opportunities to reciprocate the hospitality. At his last visit, being overly organized, he had given us a heads up well in advance, sending reminders closer to the day of visit about the precise time he would be at our place. Unfortunately (or should I say not being very organized) we were 15 minutely late from our grocery shopping; fearing he might have already left no one having answered the door, but still hoping he might be late and show up anytime. An hour passed and I started to panic, more because I was dreading to face him in the future being in the wrong box rather than having missed an opportunity of hosting him. Paradoxically, resentment started to build up that he should have stuck it out for 15 minutes until we reached home or should have called on my cell to inquire and gave me a chance to explain, so on so forth, all the time aware we were to blame for the situation. I even started formulating my defensive arguments in anticipation of the scenario when he would complain about the incident. While I was busy doing all these,there was a loud bang on the door and to our utter surprise it was him who said as he hugged me “Thank God you guys are home as I was so keen to see you all and hand deliver this house warming gift that I resisted the temptation of heading back to Ottawa to bit the Sunday night traffic when no one answered the door.” Turned out he was at our doorstep sharp at his committed time, waited for a bit for us to get home and returned after an hour and a half just killing time in a neighborhood coffee shop, blaming his own self that he didn’t have my cell no saved in his travel diary. I was so dumbfounded and guilt-stricken which he could sense from my body language. Now it was my turn to be brutally honest and share all my feelings with him which he just laughed and shrugged off saying the idea of feeling offended never even crossed his mind and that he knew from his past experiences how much we love him having at our place. This actually happened in last summer but Diwali Greetings received from him yesterday reminded me of the incident as he is the ONLY one who has been sending us a PHYSICAL Diwali card for last many years regardless of WHETHER I ACKNOWLEDGE, MUCH LESS RECIPROCATE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:07:37 +0000