How motivated are you?

What are weekends meant for? Its obviously for relaxing, some shopping, socialising, cleaning and the list could go on. What did I do last Saturday? I got motivated. Yes I can say, it was one of the most well spent days of my life. We all gathered at Vikasa soudha early in the morning, we here means the 50 shortlisted candidates for the prestigious fellowship of the Karnataka govt, Jnana fellowship. I do consider myself very lucky for having made it till this stage. It was a day of interviews with the panel members and secretaries from various departments of the government. Naturally, as anything to do with the government process, I thought it would be another day when we would be just asked to sit and while away our time the whole day, I actually did that, but at the end of the day, felt very motivated and satisfied.

What made me feel so? I finished my round of interview quite early in the day, and in spite of finishing, all of us had to wait till everyone finished their turns, for a final address in the end. Another time wasting tactic, I thought. So went back to the hall, where we all were seated and began casual conversations and started discovering more about each other. The people seated in that hall that day formed the most vibrant and unique mix of people from various fields. It did not end at that, as diverse the background, more interesting were the kind of activities that these people were involved with.

To mention a few, I came across a gentleman who worked in one of the leading software companies of the world, but found his calling in the forests and was regularly involved with the animal census and volunteering in the forests,another gentleman, employed with a software company volunteered with the commission,ran a NGO and also was a wildlife photography enthusiast. A professor in a college, fulfilled all her duties as a mother, wife, daughter in law and in addition had the time in the world for research in her field, conducted seminars, loved travelling and had travelled half the globe and to top it designed clothes and also embroidered some, another lady, worked with teachers, ran a play school and was studying with one of the universities abroad for a post graduation degree,. There was one more who made science projects and experiments more interesting for students and ensured that children loved the experiments and did not only learn by rote. I met another interesting person who worked with aeroplanes but ran a trust to help juveniles getting caught on the other side of the law, another one who did a routine job as a manager, but reported for a leading newspaper. Another person that I met worked on a normal job but held a lot of interest in plants, organic cultivation, bonsais etc. The list is endless, as I could not get to know everyone. Each one of them gave such singular views about life and what one could make of it.


All of us are time constrained and there is no denying that, but these exemplary individuals taught me something that day, there is always something more you can do and it is up to you,to stretch yourself beyond the routine and give something more and believe me there is happiness in that. As long as you remain happy doing things that you are satisfied with, it is a life well spent. So go out, learn more and live more.