There are some people who impact on us - for me it is Gayatri Devi, Pataudi, Jackie Kennedy, among some other, who have gone...I use 'is' because I still hold them as models in my mind...models of all that is gracious and elegant, fearless and very courageous, stylish but not vulgar, eminently cultured and yet discreet, and never coarse or crude, different and yet down-to-earth. Some notes in their personalities have struck a resonance - and this has nothing to do with any tangible reason...it is something completely intangible, something that I feel....kind of sympathetic notes?...but there...
I guess now their legacies will sustain those who are seeking for a blueprint to living...
Sharing some thoughts:
First class is not a boarding pass, it's a way of life...
and, a great favorite of mine - Excerpts from a poem by William Channing:
To live content with small means,
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich.
To study hard, think quietly,
Talk gently, act frankly.
To bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions,
hurry never.
Which brings to mind what Pataudi said in an interview. To Karan Thapar's statement that his friends thought that Tiger Pataudi could have achieved more had he been a little less laid back, Pataudi's reply was brilliant. He said that he was probably prepared to accept that he was a little laid back, however - and here's the reply of a formidable cricketer - 'how much more I could have achieved by running around, I am not so sure. I am happy as I am.'
Clearly, clearly something to chew on and internalize...