A Really Old Lesson

Every time I pass by a pile of garbage covering my nose (and it is quite often in Mumbai) I am reminded of this lesson.

Mahipatrao sir, our secondary school Marathi teacher,  looked like your benign favourite uncle, with a caring and fun nature to match. And then he would make this really deep, insightful and often sarcastic comments that would just show some great understanding of children and human nature. I do not  remember all of them, but I do remember this one from a random Wednesday afternoon class.

This random afternoon class, he walked in, opened his book, wrote the chapter name on the board, turned and said, "Ever noticed this? When there is a bad smell, you can smell it from far away. People walking on a road crinkle their noses (and here he crinkled his nose and used his forefinger and thumb to close his nostrils to emphasize his point) from quite afar when there is a garbage pile around in the area. But when someone wants to show you their new perfume, they have to bring it really close to your nose so you can take in the good smell." And we were sitting there wondering where he was going with it. He then explained, "Human nature is like that when interacting with people; the bad things, gossip, blame, jealousy at success, seeing shortcomings, come to us easily. But the good things like praise,seeing the qualities, laughter or even a simple smile have to brought closer to us." 

At 13, I already had seen enough in this lesson to remember it. And so many years later, I have forgotten the chapter he taught, but I remember this lesson always, the bad smells are easy to come, it's the good smells that we need to focus on. And I appreciate its value every day...