Create

This will probably end up as a rambling post since there was a recent death in the family that has made me reflective.

In India, "reading books" is considered as a good hobby, something that middle class parents inculcate in their kids.  The association of reading to doing well in school must have something to do with it. At some point in my childhood I read an opinion that reading too many books actually leaves little time to express yourself. 

A few years after my dad had passed away, a cousin had remarked that his fondest memory of my dad was that at the end of every visit home, my dad would hand out ₹10 bills to him and both his siblings.

The memory I had of my dad associated with this cousin was about milk. When a toddler, my cousin had come to our house and didn't like the taste of milk. Now drinking milk regularly is yet another middle class OCD in India. My dad got my cousin engrossed in a story and every time he paused for breath, he would nudge the milk cup in my cousin's hand. The milk was finished before the story was.

Today, I read that Jobs' advice to Benioff was to " be mindful and project the future." Because we know what Jobs and Benioff did, we infer that this is sage advice instead of being dismissive.

My mom's younger sister - my masi - died yesterday. She used to run a modest bicycle rental business. Today, my fondest memory of masi is that she'd set aside a working bicycle of my size whenever I would visit.

In life, create something. It could be watering a plant regularly, or volunteering for Tulsi Gabbard. Take a step that is a little more than expressing an opinion. And someone might someday remember you fondly for what you did.

Don't just think. Create.