The Lost Monk - Chapter 1

My grandpa is an early bird; he gets up at sharp at five. He goes for a walk; He simply loves to spent time with nature, looking at the plants, trees, birds, goat’s, sheep’s and all other sort of animal which are found in a village. After a long walk he will sip a cup of tea, and the irony of my village is that we do not get enough milk to prepare a good tea or coffee. We end up having more water and very less milk in our tea/coffee, still it tastes better. Simplicity has its own flavour to savour.

He came to my room and woke me up, and said “Early birds get the best worms”. If you want to learn more then try and get up early.

We started our day at nine as usual I was little lazy to get up early although I was curious to learn from my new found teacher. Our house has veranda, where we sat. He leaned forward and smiled he had so much of love and compassion in his eyes. I felt something very different when I looked at his eyes, he was calm and composed like the saint who just attained the salvation.

Gundu (This is my nick name very less people know of) “Where were we yesterday”.. He questioned...

I paused and said “We were talking about Planning”? And why we should not spend a lot of time in Planning?

The nature as we see and feel is amazing, there might have been days when people worked day in day out to create this wonderful world. The god (as I know) might have been a great visionary and a wonderful designer.  He gave unique colours to each object (But not to the man, because we are lot many and same in many ways.. The wanderers of happiness) the trees, the birds, the animals, the rain, the rivers, all in all make us wonder how beautifully this world would have been synchronised.

If we look back thousands of years back, we had nothing apart from mere creatures of nature, water and forest. Life would have been so wonderful and people learned everything by their own experience. The modern man entered the world with so much selfish thoughts he changed the world order. Today we have a world where we are behind “ Accha Din Ayenge” concept. We want happiness from someone else, what an irony? If you ask me the best days are never going to come back not at-least while I am alive. We have changed so much so we don’t know where we are going, when you don’t know where you are going any road can take you” observed an intellectual.

In search of excellence and the best days, we are forgetting to live today, the present!! Alas...... Our mind and soul has been so preoccupied with matters of tomorrow, scientist, engineers, designers and everyone is behind tomorrow and no one talks about today. As I always tell “One moment at time to live”... And days will fly, months will pass by and years will vanish in a blink of an eye...

“Nothing great ever has been achieved by planning”, remember you will never know how deep the water is until you take plunge in the river.. And he took a deep breath..

By now I was all ears; I never in my dream an illiterate a bonded labour like my grandpa could have so much of knowledge.

I sometimes get very excited, I feel learning makes me even more excited and curious. “Grandpa, what you said makes sense, what would you suggest leaders/ managers/ to us about planning?

Planning is the soul of any business, but business and families must understand that implentation is more important. I will share some of the tips which will help you to become a better planner and great implementers.

In the month of May or June we all plan to sow the seed, there are certain things make a good harvest. And good harvest is made by many who work in the field throughout the year.

First we identify the resource, and involve each one to share their opinions and objections. We never judge when we discuss, we support or question the belief and thoughts. We begin soon, we realise that there is no end for planning; you can debate on everything which is right and wrong. But most importantly if you do not harvest at the right, you better not harvest at all.

• Here are key pointers...
• Identify key stake holders.
• Discuss the issue, plan...
• Change the plan.
• Take everyone in confidence, because if one fails everyone will.
• Implement...
• At every stage take feedback, accept challenges and change the plan.
• Implement...
• Monitor and evaluate whether plan is working according to the desired outcome. Change if required...
•  Implement...

Be flexible nothing is concrete even the rock has to change every day. So change the plan and in every step remember your learning will help you to ensure plan succeeds. Most importantly remember this “Never think of results, sometimes you might end up getting nothing, sometimes you get what you wanted”.

Never criticise in public, always in private. If someone has failed take him along “If you want go fast go alone, if you want to go far take everyone along”.. He stopped......

He spoke almost for fifteen minutes before he could stop, I looked at his face. It looked like one of those faces which you will never forget. When sun rays fell on his face, he was looking young and glowing like the diamond. I do not know how do I express the feelings of that moment? I have no words left...  But all I can say it was godly...........................

I wanted to ask him more questions but I felt it’s time for our breakfast. He walked slowly to his room and called my mom to serve him breakfast. I sat next to him; I was watching the way he eats. He was slow and steady took each bite as if those are his last, even while he was eating I could sense some strong power he had in those eyes.