SELF DISCIPLINE / SELF REGULATION....

Self discipline, self regulation, planning, meticulousness, etc..are the traits my father thought are very important to a person and I used to be very poor in. My father always stresses that in the long run these traits not only allow you to be prepared and successful in most of the challenges in life, but more importantly saves a lot of money and time. But my viewpoint was otherwise in the sense that I thought that it was too strict a regime.

But an event in my neighbour’s flat a couple of days back was an eye-opener. At about 4 p.m on Wednesday, I got a call from my wife that some smoke was rising from window of the 2nd floor flat of our building. The flat was inhabited by a couple and their college going children and nobody was in the flat at that time. I immediately informed the couple in their respective offices.

I rushed home as a fire in one flat is a potential risk for all others. By the time I reached my other neighbours had broken open the door and the fire was doused. And the culprit for the fire was an iron box left in the bed with the switch on, by one of their children. The bed was smouldering for more than a couple of hours and the heat and smoke generated almost destroyed every piece of furniture in the bedroom and left the whole flat blackened. There was no insurance and the estimated damage was more than a hundred thousand rupees. The more unfortunate thing was that the flooring was so badly damaged that water starting seeping from the ceiling of the flat below theirs.

A small act of negligence lead to such a great mental and financial torture. At that point I learnt the value and importance of the traits my father always speaks about, not only for our well-being but for the well-being of the society as a whole in which we live, as a single mistake on our part can spell irreparable disaster to so many people around us. And God forbid, anything like that happens, our conscience will never forgive us for life.