Joyous Season, memorable holidays and an amazing Year 2020!

In the month of September this year, during the early hours on a Friday, at a busy Coimbatore – Salem highway, the chauffer who was driving us from Kochi to Bangalore collapsed, losing complete control of his vehicle.  Being in a “self-driving car” non-powered by any Artificial Intelligence was first of its kind experience for me and hopefully, one off its kind too. For almost a minute the car traced zigzag on the highway, occasionally hitting the road divider and eventually crashing on to it. Like every other event in my life, I owe it to God that I’m alive to strike a conversation with you on yet another festive season.

That one minute, which seemed an eternity had me staring at a blurred line that separated life and death. Post the event, for several days at stretch I couldn’t help but reflect on the aforesaid incident from various angles, only to realise that being alive is one’s greatest fortune and if that’s amid goodness of other fellow beings, it’s indeed a generous bonus. With no second thought, let me say, human relations are what matters to me the most, perhaps more than ever before.

When our driver regained his consciousness almost immediately after the incident, he recounted how he gently took his foot off the accelerator when his vision went blurry, bringing the speed of his car down substantially. Off the top of my head, I fail to find a Year before Twenty Nineteen that brought me enormous material gains. But had the driver unconsciously put his foot down on the gas pedal, the outcome on that eventful Friday in September 2019 would have been entirely different, and all my material achievements some meaningless affairs. I’m all the more convinced that the most valuable wealth that I’m in possession of is one-hop access to kind hearted individuals like you, instrumental in shaping my blissful destiny. Thank you!

We are a few days shy of another brand New Year, but I wouldn’t spend a minute drafting resolutions that I hardly follow through, instead would gratefully remind myself of the richness of your company; also celebrate the fact that I continue to exist to live life.

When I turned off the phone alarm at 4:00 in the morning, the screen displayed the day and date as Friday, 13 September. I stay away from all sorts of superstitions, still my mind suggested something terrible was to happen, and so it did! Since then I’ve learned it’s a far better option to make positive suggestions to the subjective mind and expect only favourable events to unfold and so it will. The New Year 2020 sounds so cool; let’s all put together some positive mental images of life events that’ll bring glory, peace, harmony and joy in everyone’s life in the coming year.

As always, with immense gratitude, here’s wishing you & your loved ones a joyous season, memorable holidays and an amazing Year 2020!

–R Rajesh