Gratitude Post -April, 2023

“Joy is the simplest form of Gratitude” Karl Barth

The four months has gone, rolled into eternity, never to come back again –; it’s time for me to count my blessings.  The more thankful I am the greater is my happiness. Here goes my gratitude list for the month of April:

This month began with a surprise visit of a friend from Vizag; I was happy and it was a pleasant meeting, we had breakfast together and chatted for half day in my house, talking about so many things in life, thankful to have friends who are thoughtful and care.

This month  I am happy to attend the Easter night church service - the experience was beautiful as we lighted the candles and renewed our faith along with the community. The church was full of people, decorated and the service was meaningful. I am grateful to be part of a community that is vibrant and active.

At my work place this month there were lot of students walking in for counseling and still others who had come earlier were also visiting. I am grateful that  every person who visits the centre teach me and I am able to relate grow along with them as they  deal with the issues concerning their lives.

I am grateful that I could push myself to complete the editing of my thesis; taking all the suggestions from the guide, giving the final touches and re looking at the whole content and improvising and sending it for plagiarism check and once again looking at the document. I am glad that I could complete the whole process and submit it- that took a lot of my time putting everything in order, writing acknowledgements, gratitude note for every person who has been with me throughout  this whole process.

I am grateful that this month our centre helped another university to initiate a psychological counseling centre. It gives me joy to see that psychological counseling is gaining importance and institutions are creating these safe  space for students.

I am happy to be of service in assisting my Director Dr Beena and it was happy moment as the  centre was inaugurated at JNTU Hyderabad.(Jawaharlal Nehru Technological  University) the name of the centre is SANTULAN which means balance, the centre was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor of the university, and we had set the whole process of  helping them function.  

Osmania University celebrated the Foundation day in this month, and it was a great moment for the campus to have Cdr Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian Astronaut to reach the space as the guests for the celebrations. I am glad as the Department of Astronomy are friends with our centre and the students had beautifully exhibited their learning.

I was invited to this department and it was pleasure to not just meet the students and faculty, but it was beautiful to listen to them. There was Astronomy Education through Power point presentation about the whole solar system, sun and the distance of the sun from the earth and lot more interesting facts. I was amazed to see the planets and was filled with awe at the world we live in and how everything is so well placed in the universe.  I am grateful for the experience and also could see the different types of telescope in display.

This month I am grateful for visiting my school friends – one of my classmate retired from work and invited all of us for lunch and it was  party time – we enjoyed the lunch which was Bengali  food something different from the usual lunch. I enjoyed the food the company of our school mates and we talked about our lives, and some of the experiences got us emotional, we hugged one another. We played a couple of games and had fun- it was a pleasant Sunday for me and I am grateful for the experience.

I am happy to be connected with my degree classmates  and  since few of them are in the city, is always fun to stay in touch through video calls/conference calls and also sometimes take chance to go out with them and take a short breaks enjoying some tea and snacks. I am glad to receive small little gifts from them, as one of my friends took a holiday and visited jaipur and picked up a sling bag and there was another friend who sent me perfume – these are small little things that bring joy to me, and makes me happy.

This month was David’s birthday– and he celebrated ahead of time, inviting the choir for lunch and simultaneously also practicing songs for the Hindi mass on his birthday. We have a local chapel wherein every year on 30^th April – infant Jesus feast is celebrated and one of the days they have Hindi mass and David gets invited to take care as there are not many people who can respond in Hindi. David and Dorothy were busy preparing for the mass, choosing the readings, practicing the readings, responses and songs too. 

I am grateful for all the services he renders to the church; as well as the community, he was busy with the clinic and his friends cut cakes at different times. At home Dorothy baked a chocolate cake with less sugar and she prayed and cut one at home. I am grateful for them for all the support I get to continue my education and pursue whatever I want too.

I am blessed for having submitted my thesis, without the family support it will be a challenging task. I also enrolled in a course on Philosophy and it’s interesting to learn the different types of philosophies – Western, Indian and then we have Logic, social and political philosophy too for learning. I am grateful that there are so many who are interested in this subject and I had the opportunity to meet students who are in my age group J as most of the students in the class are above 40 onwards and very few in their 30’s. the class  is a blend of young and the older ones studying philosophy together J

 

I am grateful to be alive and for every person I met in this month. I believe its not an accident but I was meant to cross path with all them beginning from, home, counseling centre, ywca, coffee joints, at residence of some of my friends.  I can see there is so much of blessing bestowed on me by the almighty and I want to be eternally grateful.

I am also grateful for all my whats app groups and friends – who motivate, inspire and stay connected. There are also others at my work place, service providers who are regularly supplying our basic needs, but all those who help us keep the drainage clean, those who come every morning despite of rains to collect garbage and every service provider we are dependent on.

I am happy, blessed and grateful; and I pray that everyone reading this post too may also start counting their blessings and be happy and thankful.

May you be blessed!