This is more like a continuation of the post on real heroes..
To me the world comprises of 3 types of people ..Heroes , Excellent and the rest ...
Heroes comes at the top of the pyramid ...followd by those who are excellent and then comes the rest ..(whom I used to call as JAG (Just another Guy or Gal))
One of my biggest realisations , as I grow up in my life , was understanding the difference between excellence and heroism ...I realised that people whom we often think as heroes are not heroes but are mere excellent people ..
To me Sunitha Krishnan is a hero ..to me Snadeep Unnikrishnan is a hero ...And to me Sachin is not a hero ...
It takes much more to be a hero than to be excellent ... Need proof ? Imagine yourself to be one of the guests who were trapped inside Taj , when the mumbai attacks happend ...You see death right infront of you...And who would be a hero for you if you manage to survive from that face of the death ? Will it be Amitabh or Sharukh or Rithik or Sachin ? Or will it be Sandeep Unnikrishnan ?? The very thought of putting yourself in the shoes of somebody like Sandeep in such situation could send lightning through the nerves ... and you realize what real heroism is ...It takes a lot of love and compassion for others and that incredible courage that arise out of that love to be hero in ones life .
And when it comes to the matters of child/children , a mother would always be a hero ...In that way all mothers are heroes in a limited domain...
Then comes the people who strive for excellence and have attained the same. And if you start to compile a list , it would contain the greats like ARR,Sachin,Lata Mageshkar,RF,Ratan Tata,Naryana Murthy and the numerous others who have made a mark in their respective fields..That list would also contain numerous others who are unheard in the outer world ...
It is the level of excellence that they have brought into their respective fields that attracts us ...
And was wondering what really is excellence .. Is my mom as excellent as Sachin ? Well , if look at the task that she is upto , I could with a lot of conviction say that she is far more perfect in her field than what Sachin might have perfected in Cricket .To me my mom comes on top of all others in that list of excellent people...
I had an encounter with a cleaner in a Govt Hospital who refused to accept a 100 Rupee note that was given to him as a token of gratitude for cleaning up something which was really messy. He was quite angry on that incident . For him it was his duty and he felt it (that he was presented with the money) as an insult . To me that is excellence ..I respect him more than the so called 'famous' people in my list of excellence..
Excellence is about perfecting the journey ....and that journey could be in many forms ...It could be the journey as a son , as a brother ,as a husband,as a father or as a grandfather ... Or it could be the journey as a student, as an employee or boss ..it could be the journey as a sweeper or as a film star ..it could be the journey as a medical rep or as a doctor ...
No matter what the journey is , no matter what the destination is , excellence is about perfecting the journey ....Giving hundred percent to each of your performance ...It doesnt really matter whether the world knows or hails your excellence ...Mohanlal is always Mohanlal ..Prakashraj is always Prakashraj ...They give hundred percent to each of their performances , to each of the scenes they act ...and you remain wonderstruck watching them ...And my mom is a bigger wonder for me ... she has perfected the journey as a mother , as a wife and as an employee and has nearly perfected the journey as a daughter ...
She is my live textbook on excellence ..... (And I think my best post on this blog would be about her , how she makes me wonder struck each moment ...)
The journey has to be loved more than the destination ...And it is the journey that really matters more than the destination .. I wish I could master the art of perfecting the journeys , without too much worriying about the destination ...
What really matters in ones life is the number of nights one can go to sleep exclaiming that it was really a good day ...and if one has so much of such nights , one can really exclaim , lying on your death bed , that it was a good life ..it was a life worth living ...
