A friend, senior to me in age and retired from an active work life, was lamenting on how, not having much to do, he was bored with life.
Listening to him, I was reminded of what my friend Ram once mentioned to me.
Apparently, India’s erstwhile Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi, in what is believed to have been her last interview, was asked by Peter Ustinov, the famous actor, who was interviewing her, ‘how she always seemed fresh and alive?’ She responded by telling Ustinov, she appeared so because ‘she was never bored’.
Little things as well as larger issues always kindled her curiosity.
She is purported to have said that she ‘loves life and all it offers; animals, birds, politics, books and everything interests her’. She therefore, is never bored.
While the quote has stayed with me, its apparent message became significant when my friend spoke of his boredom.
As I slow down and pull away from the frenetic life I have lived so far, I realise that what I need is to continue to find purpose and meaning in whatever I do.
A quote that more recently has made me wake up to this possibility says ‘do not ask the world what it needs from you, ask yourself what you need to feel alive, then go get it, for what the world needs is people who are alive’.
The writer is an organisational and behavioural consultant. He can be contacted at ttsrinath@gmail.com