I walked barefoot in the procession in January..
Our society complex had many activities lined up during Ramotsav and one of them was lighting the diyas at dusk.
3100 diyas had been placed in a beautiful formation – an amazing teamwork.
Two people had to pick up the Divya Jyot and Shri Ram’s murti from the community centre. As a mark of respect, they had to pick it up barefoot and walk till the place the diyas were to be lit.
It was decided to march through all the towers for people to pay their obeisance who may not want to join in the open because of the freezing cold!
Two of us volunteered.
The procession started at 5:25 pm with dozens of people accompanying us.
The first few steps were uncomfortable because of the weather.
The dhol, the bhajans and the energy of the team – the atmosphere was truly electric which kept us going!
It’s a pretty big society complex and it took us almost half an hour to reach Gazibo.
It was heartening to see literally hundreds of residents gathered there and many of them started helping in lighting the diyas.
It took almost an hour to light the diyas and it was well past 7 pm now.
The place looked stunning. Everyone had his/ her share of selfies with the diyas shining in the background.
Both of us were still barefoot.
We walked back to the community centre and finally wore our shoes. It had been nearly 2 hours in the 10 degree cold.
A few of my society friends complimented me on this incredible barefoot effort.
It wasn’t a solo effort on the part of 2 people, but the collective energy of the group.
I was reminded of the movie “Nyad” where after having swum 110 miles as a champion, Nyad said winning is never an individual effort.
It takes teamwork.
* I love to conduct corporate training programs on the aspect of Teamwork. Read more on LinkedIn
