CHANGE- THE ONLY CONSTANT

Change is the only constant. It is bitter to begin with in most of the cases but its overture soon blends into lives. Change hits everyone at every stage of life and is inevitable. My paternal grandfather got uprooted during partition from Rawalpindi. His job as the Branch In-Charge of erstwhile Lloyd's Bank (then Grindlays Bank and today's Standard Chartard Bank) took him to Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Murree Hills. The bank would shift its branch operations depending upon the "change of weather" between Rawalpindi and Murree Hills. At Partition, he was offered a change to Dacca to manage the branch operations. The fissures of partition and leaving back the hard earned assets took the wind out of his change management capability. He was 48 years of age , but, not ready for a change. The magnitude of shifting over to Dacca (back to new country) took its toll and he resigned his job. The Partition Claim Commission offered him a 500 Sq Yards plot at Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. A broken spirit brought him to Delhi and the mere sight of the then forested Vasant Vihar did not lift his spirit. He changed over from Vasant Vihar to a 450 Sq Yards plot at Rohtak where his brethren lived. The change was happening too fast and not settling down. The job was gone, the lands had been left behind and the future looked forlorn. Back at Rohtak, his savings got wiped off in constructing a decent house for his family. The change was the only constant till he lived as it had unsettled his plans. Probably their generation never expected the divide at the stroke of midnight!!

 

His untimely demise catapulted my father's life into an early job with the Grindlays Bank as the bank honored its trusted branch in-charge's family. Change hit my father hard and he landed into a job running as an under-graduate leaving his passion Music which he shared with his counterpart competitor Jagjit Singh in the erstwhile Punjab University. Shuttling between bank at New Delhi and Rohtak, he completed his graduation through the Evening College. Change kept him moving and soon his life moved on. The family stabilized but to capture the lost pre-Independence stature- there was a long way to go. My father had two wonderful friends. For the sake of simplicity, I would call these two grand Punjabi gentlemen as RS and GL. They were younger to my father by a decade but the bonhomie of daily commutership on Rohtak-Delhi-Rohtak train, passion for music and badminton brought them firmly together.  The times and tides started changing in early 80s. Delhi started expanding and Rohini started to emerge as the largest colony at Delhi. Traveling from Rohtak to Delhi, one day, the Roadways Bus suddenly turned left and we encountered the Ring Road for the first time. The sheer magnitude of the Road was a sight in itself and passengers excitedly spoke about Rohini and Delhi's expansion. Vasant Vihar had by then moved on to be Delhi's hot spot.

         

My father's venerable friends also were excited at the changes engulfing the Country. GL uncle bought a Maruti Omni and we would excitedly wait for Sunday evenings to visit Tilyar Lake- the picnic spot near Rohtak. RS uncle and his father saw the change coming in fast and soon they converted their cloth business at an Old Delhi market into a electrical switchgear factory. The change hit them hard and in the face but they plunged into it. GL uncle also moved on and started an independent garment production unit. Both uncles migrated to Delhi along with families. They impressed hard upon my father to move on to Delhi but my father was contended with his circumstances and change hit him slowly but surely. My father continued his tryst at Rohtak and was contented with his changes which kept him engaged surely enough. I moved on to NDA and my father moved on to the next world. The Change hit all of us hard enough and we were in whirlpools of its quagmire.

        

Now, yet another change is engulfing the Nation. We are moving on finally. The date with destiny is set and the change has to be embraced. Someone has to rise above the change and meet its challenge head on. In each one of us lies a change agent and he/she has to act at the right time to face the change. The future beckons only to those who face the avalanche called-Change. Change needs to be welcomed and embraced with a smile. A change agent needs support from the other members of his/her family. The umbilical chord has to be cut to let the change agent swim ahead and gain a foothold at the new destination. The agent would help others to reach ashore before another change moves in to explore the uncharted territory. Its a relay race and someone must take the baton to embrace the new change and lead from thereon. It is my time  for my share of changes and the baton is firmly in my hand. The bandwagon is moving and the change agents will keep their running shoes on to scale the distances. I have tied my laces up and I am running to meet the challenge of the Change bandwagon. Love thy Change as God Loves Those Who Love Changes............