Dearest Darling Friends,
On July 21st, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped off Eagle’s foot pad onto the surface of moon and uttered his famous line “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind “. As he landed on the moon, I landed on Earth. In other words, I was born on that same day, July 21st, 1969. Today, I complete 49 years on this planet.
That same year, Beatles made their last public performance and Boeing 747 made its debut. As the prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir became the first ever woman prime minister in the world.
Music gained center stage with Woodstock attracting over 3.5 lac people. Women in India rarely worked outside the home. No one owned a computer. A long-distance phone call was a big deal. Bottled water was unknown in India. (Today it is an estimated 17k crore market).
There were no billionaires. Income tax rate for an income of over 30,000/- was 55% and for income above 2,50,000/- was 82.5%.
There was only 1 channel of TV and that too only in the cities of Kolkata and Delhi. (National TV was rolled out in 1992). Movies were only seen in movie theaters. Chicken pox was common and Pneumonia would certainly kill you.
Air and water were clean. Milk came in only two varieties – cow and buffalo. An employee probably worked at the same company his entire working life. Passing the exams was a big cause for celebrations and a 60% scorer would be seen as the next Einstein.
1969 saw the first ever transplant of the human eye. Seiko sold the first quartz watch. The first ever ATM machine was installed. UNIX was developed at Bell Labs and Microprocessors are first invented.
In 49 years, the world has changed. I have been a witness. A question in my mind flirts with my intelligence, challenging it. It asks, 49 years from now what will things be like? Faster? How would human relationships be with each other? Closer? How would the relationship with the self be like? Deeper? Profound?
Will the STAR (skills, tools, attitudes and resources) that we have today, make us a star in the future? Will the STAR (skills, tools, attitudes and resources) that we are giving to our children today, be enough for their STARRY future?
The old normal life was slow in change. The new normal life includes a relentless cycle of change. There is never going to be an easy normal any more. But, we can always work to make things better, our future better. We can always work to make our children’s future better.
How? Let us begin by defining the word Overcome – To OVERCOME means to become better as a result of change, struggle or conflict.
Life School and WOW Parenting would love to help you OVERCOME all the obstacles in your life and create a glorious future for you. On my 49th birthday, that is what we whole heartedly promise you. Thanks for being there with us. Thanks for being there for our family and me.
With lots of love and deep gratitude,
naren
Imagine, when we wake up, we are given only what we had thanked for.
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