The Decision towards Self-Reliance

By Somali K Chakrabarti

In my last post The Power of Storytelling, I had mentioned about the advertisement ‘Will of Steel’ that inspires us to break gender stereotypes.

Here’s an equally moving advertisement from HDFC Life Insurance that shows a dad giving his daughter an opportunity to be self-reliant.

This touching ad shows a father helping his child put on her anklets (ghungroos) on her artificial titanium foot after he takes her to join a dancing school. The child keeps on insisting that her father ties up her anklets each time she dances. Slowly he convinces her to tie it on her own.

With a smile of satisfaction, the father watches his daughter adjust anklets on her titanium foot, by herself, and perform in a dance ceremony with a group of other children.

A fine example of inspirational storytelling!

I remember how an advice by my grandmother had helped me to grow into a better and a more self-reliant person.

Those happy days!

A young girl, just having completed my graduation, I cherished the dreams of studying in one of the best colleges abroad. I had meticulously worked upon getting a good GMAT score and my hard work seemed to have paid off as I received the offer letter from one of the best colleges.

I had shared this news with all my friends and had gleefully lapped up their congratulations and compliments. With assurance of my family’s support (financial) for my education, I enthusiastically started filling up the admission form.

How eagerly I was looking forward to the day when I would attend the University of my choice, and get to see the world on my own!

As I filled up the form, I saw my mom, dad and grandmother huddled and engaged in some serious discussion. I didn’t pay much attention to it as I was lost in my dream of joining the elite university. I was only too happy to be bothered by anything.

 

The happiness was short-lived!

Just as I completed the form and handed it to over to my father, I noticed that the smile was missing from his face.

‘Something wrong?’ I asked.

My father told me that his close friend was to be operated upon for a rare blood disorder. The operation being very expensive and beyond his means, his family needed support. My father felt it was his duty to help his friend, but with his limited means, he would have to make a choice between sponsoring my education and helping his friend.

My family was in dilemma!

I took a few minutes to assimilate what I had heard. My grandmother wanted to know what I thought.

I could hear the noise of thousands of glasses shattering in my mind and see the fragments of my scattered dreams strewn all over.

‘Such opportunity was hard to come by and now, as fate would have it, I would have to let go off it.’ Í cribbed.

‘You are young, you can afford to wait. God may give you another chance, you could also try for a scholarship to  fund your own education; but if you avail this opportunity now, and someone is deprived of the treatment, your will live with regret throughout.’ she said.

 

With this thought, they left the decision to me.

Yes, my granny was right! God did give me another chance & this time I could finance myself.

I am happy that my grandmother had advised me to make the right decision. 🙂

 

[This post is a part of Indi happy Hours activity by Indiblogger in connection with HDFC Standard Life Insurance http://www.hdfclife.com/ #MyFamilyMyPride]

 

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