Naren, and a learning for life on simple humility

When I was young. In my twenties. When I had just moved to be in the village, after resigning my job. To spend my life more usefully, as I put it.

I used to feel many times that in this quiet, off the road village, I was not doing much. At all.

I used to feel very inadequate. So many times.

Maybe youth expected great things to happen. And I was busy with home, our small child, and teaching other small children in the village in the evenings.

And learning from the village. How to light a fire, how to cook on fire, how to mop the floor with cowdung, how to fill the cracks in the mud walls at home.

Naren was our friend, our guide and far more. We based in this village because Uma and Naren were here. They were working on local issues. Land related. Farmers issues related. Local production related.

In a non NGO mode. As we too wanted to.

I used to tell Naren my woes. Of my uselessness.

He would laugh them away, with that unforgettable laugh of him, full of happiness. "You think too much about yourself." And my woes were dismissed.

I would stay very dissatisfied. With that response. It did not help me.

Years passed, decades passed. The restlessness decreased. And one learnt to deal with the pace of life. Accept oneself.

And slowly, without realizing I also stopped thinking of myself.

My commissions, and my omissions. My success, my failures. My strengths and weaknesses.

The 'my' got diluted. Slowly.

And without thinking much, one had simply stepped into the flow of things. And things one realized were happenning ... the way they were meant to happen.

And slowly what Naren said made sense, the need to 'not think much of oneself'. If possible, to not think at all of oneself ... simply go with the flow, in honesty, in simplicity.

But Naren has passed on. Left us too early. When he was 55. Leaving behind his wisdom in so many things.

This also ...