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LEARNING FROM LIFE – CONCLUSION

 

1989 was the watershed year of my life; though the three enterprises of which I was one of the founding members were all doing well, from my perspective it was a disaster year; several things like my father’s death, wife suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, couple of raids by Sales Tax and Excise officials at the factory and peaking of my asthmatic disturbances happened one after another or sometimes simultaneously in a matter of a few months. This made me to introspect seriously and the outcome was the 4F Framework. The gist of the framework is

Follow fundamentals that are essential for life

  • Have faith in yourself 
  • Protect family that represents values and culture 
  • Manage finances effectively.
Dr. Paul Nurse[1], a Nobel laureate in his book ‘What is Life’[2] explains the five core elements that form basis of all living beings –

1. Cell 
2. Gene 
3. Evolution by natural selection 
4. Life as Chemistry and 
5. Life as Information. 

Though Paul has explained life from the biological perspective using the above core elements, I have interpreted the above core elements from the perspective of my evolution over seventy four years.

While the Cell represents the simplest form of life, understanding purpose of life makes it more meaningful and satisfying. While Gene represents the hereditary characteristics, understanding the values – personal, family and social that one pursues while aligning with the environment, which to a large extent depends on the family, is important. We evolve based on the choices that we make in life – academic / profession / hobby / life partner. But the choices that we make may not be natural, but generally depend on the advice that we receive, interests, capabilities, resources available and also the situation. While Chemistry will mean the bonding that we develop with people and matter, information that we gather helps us to develop our discretion.

Through the thirty five blogs that I had shared over the last sixteen months (September 2023-January 2025), I have only attempted to highlight my learning on various abstract topics through my association with many people and have categorised them through the prism of 4S framework that I had explained in one of my blogs. Though I have associated with many more in my life than the twenty seven persons that I had covered in my blogs, it is more of an expression of my gratitude to these people who have indirectly taught me some of the aspects that I have highlighted in the respective blogs.

These blogs were planned in a linear manner with reference to time – from seed to sustainability. Under seed category I had covered five persons, one from my immediate family and four from extended family to highlight the fact that they had sown the seed for me to understand over time, concepts of responsibility, spirituality, detachment, duty consciousness and fulfilment. Under the soil category I have covered five more persons – three from my extended family and two of my classmates, who made me understand affection, etiquettes, fearlessness, inclusivity and simplicity. In the seasons category I had covered eight persons, two each under the four areas – employment, entrepreneurship, academic research and social work spread over nearly forty years. Finally in the sustainability category I have covered nine persons – six from my association through business, research and social work while three from my own family to learn about patience, resilience and happiness. 

The following verse will summarise life in a nut shell:

If you are not popular, you want fame. 

If you are famous, you want privacy!

If you are poor, you need money. 

If you are rich, you realise that there is lack of happiness. 

If you are intelligent, life becomes stressful as you can’t ignore anything. 

If you are ignorant, you make mistakes and feel awkward. 

If you are single, you want relationship. 

If you are married, you want some space and freedom. 

If you are not powerful, you think people dominate you. 

If you are in power, you realise that you have to handle responsibilities and 

It’s hard to identify who is loyal and who is pretending.

Life is never perfect. 

Every solution brings a new problem. 

Acceptance is the only solution! 

[1] Paul Nurse was awarded Nobel Prize in 2001 for Physiology and Medicine along with two others for his discovery of protein that controls division of cells in the cell cycle. 

[2] Published by David Fickling Books Ltd. Oxford, United Kingdom, September 2020

January 31, 2025 | Ravi 97 
 

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