One Word – Remarkable

Some twenty years back, perhaps around the year 2000, i had deposited a cheque at the Bank where i had my Savings Bank Account here in Neyveli, a place in south india, 200 kilometres away from chennai. It was a cheque issued by the Post Office. Normally, it would take 4-5 working days for the amount to be credited in the Account. But even after 10 days, the amount was not deposited in my account. I enquired at the bank and they told me that perhaps the post office cheque was held up at Chidambaram Post Office, which is situated 40 kilometres away from neyveli. Two days later, i personally visited the Chidambaram Head Post Office and enquired. They told me the cheque was cleared some days back. I came back to Neyveli and immediately after getting down from the bus, went straight to the bank. But the bank staff told me they had not received the cheque yet and he passed a snide remark that i was probably wrong in recollecting the date of deposit of the cheque at the bank. I went into a helpless rage. I was angry and i did not know what to do. I wrote a lengthy complaint to the Bank headquarters located at Chennai in a fit of anger and a few days later, an official of the bank contacted me. He was very kind and asked me to come the next day and collect my amount the next day. He asked me why i had to dash off a letter to chennai instead of complaining here itself. I said i was hurt by the attitude of the Bank staff and that is why i had made out a complaint. Later i realised that i had written directly to chennai on an impulse without even approaching the manager here in Neyveli. Was hot-headed, i think, now.
Similarly, once, when a tailor did not deliver my dress on time, i remember i shouted at him and created a scene there. But it was some festival time and the poor tailor was having too much work on his hands. Was again, hot-headed, i feel, now.
I remember those occasions when i just went wild with rage. But being a soft spoken person, except on these few occasions as i recounted above, i used to keep this rage bottled inside me, usually.
I think it caused me a lot of stress.
Yesterday, on one day, three incidents took place.
1. I went to office. The internet connection was not working. My printer was working fine, but i had run out of paper. My boss called me and told me he sent some document to me through whatsapp and asked me to get a printout of it. Normally, i would have been overcome by a helpless rage, bottled inside me, but yesterday, i told him the situation calmly with a smiling face. My boss understood the situation and said “Come sit and till the internet resumes, let us have coffee” and we had a relaxed 20 minutes. No stress.
2. I had started a whatsapp group of my college friends and i had a tiff with one of my friends over forwarding posts. He had this liking for forwarding posts and i used to be of the view that the group was not meant for such forwarded posts but for some literary postings. Yesterday he forwarded some 25 messages and i was infuriated. I wrote a very long, harsh, scathing note to post to him. I am sure that posting would have ended our friendship. Then i sat back, took a long breath, smiled and deleted the entire thing. Instead i wrote, “Hi, you rock, man. But why dont you limit the forwards? Best wishes.” and he promptly replied, apologizing for so many forwards. Again situation defused. And stress released.
Not the end of it. When it rains, it pours.
3. I had given my Car for service at Vishnu Cars, Cuddalore, near Neyveli. They usually send a driver, he takes the car and then after the service is over, he returns the car by evening. The driver had taken the car in the morning. And he returned the car by evening 6.30. The car looked bright and shining and i was pleased, till i saw that there was a dent on the right side. The car had no dents when i gave it for servicing in the morning. Rage swelled up inside me as the driver was also disconcerted seeing this dent. He acknowledged that it was not there in the morning and it must have happened at the service station. I rang up the Manager on an impulse, to shout at him, but when he spoke, i told him calmly what happened. He was apologetic and asked me to send back the vehicle to the service station and that he would set right the dent, wash the car again thoroughly again and return it tomorrow, all free of cost. I very calmly thanked him and sent the vehicle back. Normally my BP would have shot up to record levels during each of these occasions, but i was so calm and composed that i was surprised myself. It was REMARKABLE, really.
So what could be the reason? Two months back, i was frantically searching for some ideas on YouTube and the Internet to control BP. There were a million videos on this subject and i had selected a few. And put together a small routine. This was a simple one. Getting up at 5.00am, doing some meditation, some breathing exercises followed by some stretching exercises. For around 40 minutes to an hour. And of course, going around the little garden we have. Well, am astonished at the results. Mind has learnt to keep things calm now.
I really felt i should have started all this long back, but as they say, better late than never!!!
And its nice to be composed and calm and relaxed and smiling……….