Rear View Mirrors and The Front Wind Screen!

                        Most of us drive our vehicles. Unless and until you are the one who relies solely on your luck or on the deity whose name you might have written on the rear windshield (rear glass as it is known too), you would be using rear view mirrors (outside and/or inside) a lot. Of course, for the mahouts who charge the roads with bulkier vehicles, there would generally be one or two additional rear view mirrors. Bikers of my vintage also liked both the rear view mirrors on the handlebar (I prefer to have four, including two on the leg guards) even though present day riders tend to have none. Whatever may be the numbers, the fact remains that rear view mirrors, even though very useful/helpful, can not match the utility of a windscreen (car) or that of a visor on the helmet (bike) IF aim of the man on the wheel/in the saddle is to move forward. Here, I would cite a quote :-

"The car you drive has a large windshield, but only a relatively small rearview mirror. The implication is obvious: What happened in your past is not nearly as important as what is in your future. Where you are going is much more important than where you've been. " 

                                                                   ~ Joel Osteen, Become a Better You

               I would take some literal liberty and modify this famous quote by JO. I would say that while past can not be neglected in absolute terms (nor it must be in the first place), too much of looking back does not help either. You will either bang into someone (ie if you look more into a rear-view mirror than across the windshield in front) or reach somewhere you were not planning to go in the first place. So, lessons must be learnt, some important data must be stored (especially when most of us are actually not able to utilise a huge proportion of the grey material that comes packed from top) and then one must look to the fore. 

              So, as I look back for the one last time at the recent events, I see some great lessons for many of us (I would leave the learning part to individuals lest Astha channel starts offering me a prime slot for preaching!). But even though there were some tense moments, there were also some great opportunities to assess true worth of many people. I take this opportunity to thank each one of you (you know it, guys!) who simply decided to stand by what they perceived was right! I am also thankful to one particular joker who exposed himself in the process. My counter-espionage trap was so simple but it did work! That stinking soul would do well to stay away (He knows it too!). So, some useful education on PR did flow through too. But I do not intend to linger on for long nor do I intend looking back too frequently. With my eyes set on the road and with my compass set on a course, as I press the pedal, I would do well to look ahead and reach where I wanna reach. 

                 Baisakhi is a new year of Sikhs (By the way, who am I? A northern Hindu Brahmin (by birth) or a die hard southie (my 22 odd years with troops hailing from that part of the country) or a Sikh (some of the most memorable moments, including a huge turning point, have been spent with troops who wear turbans rather than steel helmets!) I think I am a bit of all these and I would like to be that way. Coming back to the Baisakhi, it marked closing of a chapter while initiating a new one. So, it is the time to hit the road, look ahead and bash on. It is, also, the time to say Happy Baisakhi and move on.

                     Let Good Times Roll, guys!!