It’s Never Too Late

My mother has been entrepreneurial right from birth. Ok, that was an exaggeration. But she has always been initiative driven. Not one to sit idle for long, she is always looking to do something meaningful.

In the late 1960s, a few years before marriage, she was only one among many sisters who actually took up a job after graduation. Later on, once she had settled down in her married life and kids were in school, she took up an entrepreneur course and set up her own stitching unit and a shop for hosiery products. Later, in her late 60s, she volunteered to accompany dad to school where he was a Registrar, to teach (read spend some fun time with) the primary school kids.

Now at 77, especially after dad’s demise last June, she was looking for ways to stay engaged. A toy piano, bought 20 years back from Japan, was the trigger. She was able to find a tutor locally who was willing to come home and teach. Within two weeks of learning, a friend volunteered and setup her beautiful Yamaha keyboard at home for mom to practice better.

Just when she was getting her hands used to the keys and the ragas, Anusha, my 16 year old daughter, herself a piano student, hinted to mummy on a challenge. 29th Jan, her 17th birthday was just two weeks away. Never one to back off from a challenge, mummy took it up seriously and delivered an online performance that left Anusha pleasantly surprised and elated. 

Realising that this was something exceptional, super-proud of mummy for what she achieved, I shared the story and uploaded the video on LinkedIn. While I expected there to be a positive response, I was totally blown away. A simple act of perseverance, patience and practice by my mother was hailed as an act of inspiration and learning by thousands. I have never got as many views for all my posts cumulatively in my life, as I got for this one post!

Some of the comments were very touching and many people were genuinely motivated to encourage their own parents to learn from this example. Many others, much younger, were embarrassed about their own habit of procrastinating such crucial steps to learning.

The current rules on os.me do not allow me to upload video, so here is the YT link to the same 

Encouraged by mom, I also shed my own inhibitions to learning a musical instrument and I also played the happy birthday song for my daughter, making it a double surprise for her!

I hope this will inspire many on os.me to pick up an activity and try to excel in the same.