By Shishir Joshi
My generation may recollect a once-so-very-common screen saver on their now-nearly extinct desktop. Much before palm tops, flat screen laptops and slim fit Kareenas had begun to corrupt the body and soul. A tiny, cute ball would gravitate towards one end of the screen, gently kiss the edge, and with the impact of that touch would bounce towards another end. The touch would determine the direction the ball would move in. The point at which it would touch the screen would determine the angle the ball would move. So often I think of that screensaver. Game Changer, is what I have named it. For years it was a permanent fixture on my comp screen and, fascinated, I would stare, for hours as the soft-ball image would bob across, almost smiling at me. Often, my colleagues wondered at my ability to go deep thinking, when actually all I was busy doing was watching the screensaver.
It was during one of these endless gazing games that the Eureka moment happened. All along I had been staring at the movement of the ball. One day, I decided to monitor the position of that touch and how that touch changed the course of the ball’s journey. One small tiny feather touch. For the ball, THIS blink-and-you-miss touch was the Game Changer. Our life is no different from that of the soft ball. We celebrate the impact. The direction we are moving in and of course the end result of that direction. A new job, an acquisition, meeting someone new…. Or just something nice happening. Almost invariably, we thank the one above. Thank God we at least thank God. Well, at times, it is not only the one above that we are grateful to. We quickly identify the next in line in that chain, the seeming link responsible for the goodness to have taken place. Rarely do we go beyond that.
How often have we taken the thank-you-I-am-grateful thought to the last key person in the chain? The link furthest away from the impact/result? The one act/touch/or person who may have actually triggered the chain effect?
For instance, my first job as a journalist can be credited to my English professor whom I had bumped into, at a newspaper’s Sunday magazine office where he worked as a consulting editor. Or so I had begun to believe, for a very long time. (Then, I was pursuing my Law and journalism as a career was never even a speck on the horizon).
It was he, who kept pushing me to write. Appreciating and critically analyzing my work. When the first vacancy came up, it was his persistence which won over my laziness. I got that job on merit, but had he not been persuasive enough, I would not have even known about it. To Sir with Love, Thank you.
Thus, by all means, I often credited my being in Journalism to this man. But if the screen saver is my barometer, is it enough to thank only my English prof? At least five years prior to my writing for magazines, I remember my school chuddy-buddy showing off his name as it appeared in letters to the editor column of the local English newspaper in Nagpur with unfailing regularity. Call it competitive shit that I had, or the desire to see my name in print, I asked him how he did it. Much before the term came into existence, thanks to my chuddy buddy, I had not only become a citizen journalist, but, would look for areas of civic improvement and write to the newspaper. Three weeks later, and onwards, I was a regular in the newspaper too. This was five years before I met the English prof.
Now, it has almost become second nature to me. To recollect a pleasant happening, sit back, smile about it and start tracing the people and events, backwards, responsible for the good deed. Finally resting at the last stop…. Then, step two is to pick up the phone, track the person’s number and, tell him /her what an important role they have played in my life. Leaving them puzzled or smiling. Or both. That this exercise has connected me with so many more old friends is the bonus. And there are many wonderful memories, events and people I have met in life. For instance, the person I’m friendliest with is someone who neither shares my age, nor my profession. No, we did not even study in the same school or college unlike some of my other close friends. Yet, we get along like a house on fire. We have passed the test of time (I know him for 25 years as of this day).
Is it destiny? Or should I now put it, is it JUST DESTINY? Will it then, not be unfair to thank all those who were mere dots in the line-up to the circumstances which led us to that first rendezvous? Dots which are now a complete circle! Any one of the dots not being at its place at any given moment, and my life would be so altered. Often, the last dot in the chain may be so completely unrelated to the final result. Yet, its presence at that place and time is all that it took for things to turn the way they did. As I maintain, these dots have played a huge role in my life. There are so many good things, events, people that I have been blessed with. There are many more dots that I am eternally grateful to. A short visit to Shillong, which was till some time back not even on the furthest horizon ….. As I look back, the trip is now a wonderful memory filled with fascinating people who have each been dots in their own way. Where does one begin, where does one end and whom does one thank, is in itself a wonderful exercise.
I am sure your life is full of such game changing events too. Take some time off and reverse-join these dots. You may find very old friends, totally off your otherwise busy radar, who have played a big role in what you are today, and whom you have completely forgotten to thank. Game changers…. that’s what I call these angels from the past who have been responsible for my present.
(Mumbai based Shishir Joshi is Journalist and Mentor and co founder of JM foundation for Excellence in Journalism, Mumbai.He can be reached on shishirj@ journalism.org.in)