My inspiration...

So I thought I would began this blog about me with something more personal, and dedicate it to someone that has shaped me as a person from since I was little. People that I have known for years, often question how I could possibly be so kind and optimistic about life. It's actually quiet simple. My inspiration was my Grandmother, despite her living half way across the globe, and the only chances of actually seeing her was during that one month summer holiday. Sometimes it could be years till I saw her again. But the phone was my main point of communication, THANK GOD for technology...I still don't get how phones work! Who knows how much I spent on phone cards when I was young, just to be able to speak to my Grandmother.

My Grandmother and Me. My mum always kept my hair short, that I was sometimes mistaken for a boy..haha!

My Grandmother was always happy and I admired it so much. In Bangladesh my family would be considered to be from an upper class background, as my Grandfather was a very big business man in the capital Dhaka, making sugar canes and owning a toy factory. But despite all the money circling around, my Grandmother was never greedy or stuck up, she was grateful for all that she had and never asked for anything.

I remember during one of my summer visits to see her, that when we sat down to eat, she would always offer the best bits of food up to everyone and keep the not so great bits for herself, in addition when everyone was finished and there would be so much food left over my grandmother would call in a few homeless people from the area to have dinner on the very same table we sat on. My grandfather disliked this due to the whole social hierarchy, and his belief that poor people should be treated as poor people. But my grandmother was different. From these acts of kindness I was inspired to not give two shits about someones up bringing or what social class anyone belonged to, and to always be considerate. Treating everyone equally.

My Grandmother was a kind soul. Loving, caring, passionate. A few years ago unfortunately she passed away after a major stroke, which I actually witnessed happening in her bedroom during yet another summer holiday. Few hours following the stroke, I laid on my grandmothers lap, unaware that few hours from then she would never be able to speak another word. The thought of all the flash backs haunt me. But I remember her saying the usual to me such as study hard, make her proud, listen to my parents, never argue and so on. She gave me all life lessons, on after the other, but I remember her telling me that time is the most valuable currency that anyone owns and its what you do with it, such as the simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi she was but she lived by it and taught me.

I was glad that my Grandmother shared her little moments of wisdom with me. Without a clue in the world that one day I would be influenced by her words  for the rest of my life.

So there you go, my inspiration was my Grandmother and the way she viewed life in the most beautiful and simplest of ways. To be kind, considerate, selfless, and good.

                        Happiness is not based on external status, it is an internal state.