The Beginning

Thanks won’t be enough for the wishes from my near and dear ones on this lockdown birthday of 2021. Happy Lohri, Happy Pongal and Happy Makarsankranti! Kite flying at Amadavad, Gujarat should go on wisely and please be compassionate about birds in the sky when you fly your kites. A big shout out! I am already overwhelmed and will thank each one of you personally if I haven’t done it yet. So please keep patience. I promise you will get a reply from me.

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.” Swami Vivekananda

Well, I keep on telling my daughter to write about me, when I would not be with her and if she would remember me or seek my guidance on anything anytime. But I never thought and planned about today’s posts to do it by myself earlier. I know it’s late but not too late, I believe. Here, I start now, so happy reading!!!

The summary of 53 years of my life stays at the two answers to the questions that I come across many times throughout my professional career.

Question # 1 Why and how do you become a librarian?

My answer – It was my father’s dream for me to work in the library of any higher education institution. My father worked in the higher education sector in India his whole life. He is the idol of my professional career. The library is my most favourite place since my childhood. So I decided to become a librarian by choice and not by chance.

Question # 2 How do you deal with difficult people?

My answer – If I can deal with my husband, I can deal with anyone in the world. (I know, you would laugh loudly while reading this and so did the interview panel as well but I told them without a smile on my face) Well, it’s the truth of my life rather than a joke.

These two short and sweet(?) answers have made me a happy human being in my life today, I believe.

My backbone – My daughter

One day, Mahendra told me that Manisha, you are the luckiest person in the world that you don’t have a Mother-in-Law, Sisters-in-Law, etc. to fight and argue with you. You have no worries about their bad (or good, this is what I was thinking while listening to him) influence and existence in your life. My daughter replied to him without a second thought – Dad, you are not less than any of them. I was truly gutted and surprised to hear her quick answer/response as I could not even think to comment/respond at the age of 45+ but my daughter did at the age of 15+. And I just felt that day, Oh, my daughter has grown up now that can speak for myself as well.

My extreme challenge – Any guess?

Yes, “To follow my mother’s teachings” – The life of principles and values that my mother lived herself her whole life, I have found them the most challenging to implement during these many years of my life. I was not able to follow them 100% at times but I have tried my level best to implement them all in my life as much as possible (if not 100%) at least. Today, I can say that I am very glad to follow them by all means and as much as possible within my circumstances. Nonetheless, the key to overcome from this challenge is always supported by the three golden words from my father “Never underestimate yourself”. One of the most favourite teachings, of my mother, is about respect. She used to tell me that “Respect” is the only thing in this world that you need to give it first to get it. This advice has helped me a lot to convert my anguish into the art of working and living with calm in my professional life. Well, I did ignore this advice many times in my personal life but I have improved a lot while working from home in the last more than 10 months, I bet.

When I read this write-up together with Mahendra, he suggested that my mother’s teachings should be my backbone. I agreed with him for a while to be honest, however, as my aim is to help future generations, I will continue with my original definition of the backbone without a doubt.

The aim of sharing this is, that it took me years to be confident about myself, holding myself well during the most difficult times of my life. I do acknowledge that it won’t be possible for me to be what I am and who I am without the best support from my families and friends, colleagues and competitors, Shahs, Sanghavis and the list go on…!

On this lockdown birthday, I am determined to put some serious efforts to promote ethical values, education, women empowerment, emotional as well as mental well-being and so on in the coming time. Considering this, I am glad to announce the launching of “KusuManu” through my profile today on my birthday. I am dedicating this page to my parents in their loving memories. I wish to digitize each of their teachings with my learning in the coming time so that society can be benefitted positively through working mothers, working women, homemakers and so on. I am certain that it can be helpful to manage the lives around us well in many ways.

I am confident that my daughter, Foram, my niece, Rahi (my sister’s daughter), and my nephew, Jainam (my sister’s son) will inherit this heritage of principles and values to pass on to the future generations through https://www.kusumanu.org

My Bhai (brother) and Bhabhimaa (Sister-In-Law) don’t have their daughter, however, the divine presence of Manushi Dishant with Agastya and Priyanka Rahil has been the true source of inspiration to rest our minds at peace at “Ratnakar”.

Last but not the least, sharing a few golden memories of this lockdown of 2020 and 2021.

Celebrated Rahi and Pinky Atthai (8 days fasting with boiled water during restricted hours of a day) with 3 sessions of Sanji Music with families and relatives across the globe.

Priyanka and Rahil’s Sangeet Sandhya with a YouTube video – https://youtu.be/Lyi2LfNOaCU – with songs, dances, messages, secret messages and much more, Composed and Directed by none other than Rahi Shah.

Foram’s 21st birthday and “Priyahil” wedding – instead of celebrating in India in person, we watched Priyanka and Rahil’s wedding on the 50-inch screens, sitting comfortably on the couch in my drawing room with home-baked Zebra cake – Vanilla and Red Velvet flavour.

Completed 29 years of my professional career and still counting. Phew!

Two hot meals a day for the last 10+ months – Well, I have no memories of having two hot meals a day during weekdays since 1991 and eating with family members that I will cherish lifelong.

Just started to learn how to create a .Net console application (NDK 5.0 SDK) using Visual Studio Code with C# extension.

Thanks a ton to my daughter, Foram, for the great help with proofreading.

Love,

Manisha

Daughter of Kusumben Mahendrakumar Ratilal Shah

Mother of Foram Mahendrakumar Popatlal Sanghavi

P.S. – It’s not that, the role of “Sister”, “Sister-in-law” and “Wife” is not important that I have played so far in my life, however, when a woman can be a good daughter and a good mother, the rest of the roles would fall in the “good” category automatically, I believe. Shahs (Bhai, Bhabhi and Pinky) and Sanghavis can confirm this further too. Right?

Shhhh….Mahendra doesn’t have a separate account yet, so no way to get the real review of a “Wife” role, a long way to go, haha…! But we share this account wholeheartedly, without a doubt!

Last but not least, in the role of “Mother-in-Law”, I am not there yet. But I have seen my mother how transformed herself from a Mother-in-Law to Mother-in-Love to welcome Bhabhi and Ketanbhai Shah to the family. So my next write-up is entitled “Gharcholu: a saree from “Mother-in-Love” to welcome “Daughter-in-Love”. Stay tuned!