Courage & Lucky

Last night i was at home. Hoping for a peaceful dinner. The veranda had been set for my kids' dinner. 11 bowls of meat khichdi. That's when i heard our neighbour's dog wailing. Peering over the compound wall, i saw that the dog, Lucky, was tied to a bench in the bungalow veranda.

FYI, Lucky was adopted by them but he comes to play in our house whenever he finds a gate open. He's like our 12th kid. Just visiting... We vaccinated him and gave him a collar... screamed at the bungalow caretakers whenever they left him alone and crying in their bungalow. That's why he's called Lucky. He doesn;t have too much of it anyway at home.

Yesterday was another such day for Lucky. No food since morning. Tied to a bench with a rough metal chain. Crying through the evening. So i took a ladder, scaled the 10ft wall... dropped onto the other side. Took food for him. He lapped up a bowl of milk & rice, then a bowl of khichdi and then a bowl of dahi. He lay there satisfied. I went off happier than Lucky. Couldn't untie him but i am sure (i hope) he went off to sleep after that... hopefully the caretakers are back today.

While i was in the middle of climbing over the wall and jumping across to their bungalow, a thought struck me. I love mybrands and our campaigns... but why didn't i ever have the courage to scale walls for them? Imagine what what would have happened if a police patrol car or somebody else had caught me scaling that wall... or loitering around their garden at 10pm... while nobody was at home. I could be in lock up. I would have had to do a lot of explaining. But i was mad enough not to give it a thought and just jumped over.

What if i could do that for my brands that i care for? Have i ever scaled a wall? Have i ever done something so impulsively? It feels good. What if i never thought of the outcome so much? Just went for it... Life might have been far simpler for me. Maybe i would have had better success with my dreams of building brands.

Yes. We need to be lucky. But with courage we can do better. Just plain, selfless courage.
With that, no wall is high enough.