Assessment
A classroom in a kinder garden school. Miss Neha the young class teacher gives back each toddler their note book saying a kind word to all. The innocent angels eagerly open their copies and look for the stars they have got. When the mothers come to take the kids home the little ones who are clasping their note books cling to their Moms and say mama, mama, see I have got a star”. The babies have got the first assessment in their life.
From now on life will be full of assessments. In school, play, work, indeed in every field of life. The image of ourselves will be based on the assessments we get. Our self esteem, confidence indeed our happiness will all be based on assessments. Assessment of us made by others. If others are happy with us we will.
Situations come in life where you have to make an assessment and make a decision. Your decision can have a deep impact on your life. In 1998 I was posted as the Deputy General Officer of the Maharashtra and Gujarat Area,( M & G ) Mumbai. The Adarsh scam of Colaba took place at that time.
There was a scramble for allotment of flats in this prime area of Mumbai selling at a throw away price. The top brass of the army and influential government officials made a bee line for allotment of flats. M&G Area was the controlling authority and I was the number two man in the organization.
I alone felt it was unethical for the M&G Area to get involved in building a housing complex on disputed land and allot flats to the who is who of the services and bureaucratic civil administration. After assessing the situation I took the decision that the honourable thing to do was ask for a posting out.
There was just over a year for me to retire and a move at this point of time would severely affect my domestic life. Besides the huge financial loss of not taking a flat in Colaba the prime location of Mumbai and the regret for the rest of my life that I was a loser who could not grab opportunities.
There was much to loose and everyone felt I was making a grave mistake. Three years later when the flats were almost ready for allotment the Adarsh scam was unearthed and made headlines in the newspapers.
My boss the General Officer Commanding, the sub area commander and eleven other members of the Headquarters were jailed and a CBI case initiated.
To stand tall and upright you have to have the ability to assess situations and take decisions. On many occasions you will have to stand all by yourself. Rabindra Nath Tagore’s famous song “ akla chalo re “ brings this out loud and clear. If others do not follow your call then go ahead all by yourself.
You have only one life and are responsible for your own actions. All the assessments made about you by others throughout your life do not have any meaning. What counts is your assessment of yourself. Assess yourself, assess situations, act, live and enjoy the way you want to and think right.
The one thing sought after most in the world is happiness. When my grandson was small I used to see the small every day things which gave him happiness.
As we go through the stages of life our happiness more and more depends on what we consider as success. Success and happiness get related in our minds. Isn’t it indeed weird that the applause and compliments of others forms the basis of our happiness.
In the sunset years of my life, the worldly possessions, bank balance, positions held, seem a distant past. They don’t hold the same joy and happiness. Opinions,compliments and assessment by others have lost their meaning. Complexion of the word success has taken a different shade. Relations with my spouse,my near and dear ones, company of friends, the chatter of children, twitter of birds at dawn add towards my happiness. Life has taken a complete turn, from the stars in copy books now seeing the stars in the sky,from possession of worldly goods to the peace and quiet of sitting with my family now form my happiness. The word ASSESSMENT once so important to me now does not exist in my vocabulary. It has been replaced by RELATIONSHIPS.
Happiness as I see it now.
By Brig PK Chakravarti, VSM, (Retd)
Speaks and writes on life and attitude.
