Something personal...

It was 2007. I was in class 9th and after school, I used to take tuition in a nearby institute. I used to go to the institute on a ranger bicycle. Just like me, a lot of my batch mates also used to come on bicycle. (Activa was a name unheard to us back then!) Our classes were held on the 1st floor, so we used to park our bicycles on the street itself. There was a guy named Akash, who had the responsibility to look after our bicycles while we were in class. To my surprise every time, whenever I used to step outside the building after the classes got over, I used to find my bicycle standing at the most premier position , no matter wherever I parked it initially, making it extremely convenient for me to take it out. I used to feel curiously elated at this. I told this to my mother and she asked me to ask that guy Akash that who does that and why?

The very next day after my classes got over, I asked Akash that who removes my bicycle from the place where I park it and keeps it here. He told me that it was him. Surprised at first, I asked him the reason behind this. He told me that, among the 100s of students who come to this institute every day, it is only you who greets me and that too with a smile. Being a dumb teenager, but not as dumb as an oyster, I could not get the reason and I went back home and narrated this incident to my mother. She told me that this is what we call as the "Power of Appreciation!"

With time, as I grew up as an individual, I could relate and relate well to the incident narrated above. There is no better way than appreciation to exchange joy. A simple smile, or a simple praise for anyone, may mean nothing to the one holding a higher position, but it can mean the world to the subordinate! Why are we so reluctant in appreciating anyone? Do we feel that appreciation can get into the head of our people and they may decrease their contribution at work, willingly or unwillingly? Yes, we may be right, but there is a control to everything. Appreciating someone, not daily, but duly, can create wonders!

Charity begins at home. Appreciating others is important but then appreciating ourselves too has no feeble implication to it. Why not appreciate ourselves for being ahead of the major, major percentage of the people in the world, why not appreciate ourselves for being able to gather the guts to speak up in our lives whenever needed, why not appreciate ourselves for being the reason for someone's smile (or even survival), and why not appreciate ourselves for all that we do!

Not everyone is equally talented, not everyone possesses the skill to create a congenial environment around by use of wit and humor, but then everyone can create an environment of joy all around by one simple act, that is by the act of appreciating.

Remember the fact that appreciation is a beautiful thing. It makes what is excellent in others, belong to us as well!

Let us appreciate!

Let us hope!

Let us live!