My parents-in-law celebrated their 35th anniversary last week. It was a very special moment for our whole family. More than a celebration, it was a lesson for the young couples to follow their footsteps and lead a happy life.
They had recently visited Pune for a 1-week vacation to stay with us. This 1 week was full of learning for me.
When you have elders at home, it’s that extra moral support you get just by their presence. Their experiences are like teachings for us that help us lead our life in a better way.
I remember one such evening I spent with my mother-in-law and father-in-law sitting in our balcony having a cup of tea and listening to stories of their life, their struggles, their achievements, their experiences, all about their life. At the end of the talk, which I never wanted to end, I felt like yes I want to be like them.
To my surprise and a bit of disbelief, let me share with you, that in their 35 years of married life, they have never fought!! I think it’s more to do with that ‘’give-up” and “have patience”attitude the earlier generation had that helped them to be in sink with each other. I think this is a big achievement in itself. Isn’t it true that our relations are much bigger than our egos?
When my in-laws got married, my father-in-law’s salary was around Rs. 350 a month and even in that, they used to save 10-20 rupees. I had my eyes wide open when I heard this. In today’s world, when most of us have a five digit salary, we have no clue where the salary flows. Atleast I admit that I am poor at managing finance.
Not just savings, in that same salary, they had some school kids come home every Thursday for lunch. In villages we have this system to feed outstation kids that come from poor background once in a week as charity. I felt small hearing this. Though I do charity once in a while, this is something that raised respect for them to a much higher level.
Earlier generation was “people oriented”. May be that is the reason they don’t prefer cities with “closed doors” culture.They valued people more than money. And so, they never faced problems like feeling lonely, depressed or lost like our generation. For us, we prefer speaking on facebook, mobile or sms instead of meeting face to face. Think when was it last time you met a friend or a close relative?
For every small thing they purchased, be it a telephone, a pair of new clothes or shoes, they planned for months and saved and then bought. They never opted for loans 😛 And so, they had value for every small thing they owned. For us, we think it and we get it and so we don’t value our belongings so much.
The best thing I liked was the satisfaction they had throughout their life in managing everything with limited resources.
They are not just one example, there are plenty of them around us. My parents are one of them. Think about your parents, what all we can learn from them?
In this modern lifestyle that we have, we lack the important aspects of life – patience, satisfaction, adjustments, and sacrifices. They have all got covered with ego, self-importance, competition, jealousy and what now.
I believe our earlier generation is a deep ocean of experiences and more than books or anything else, we should learn life lessons from them. I feel lucky to be a part of such an amazing family!!
It’s really high time to sit and analyse where we are heading and where we way we should take to achieve real happiness of life.
The bottom line is Old is truly Gold!
A Silent Self Wave.. 