I have TWO intentions of writing this post:

1) To help you heal your relationship with your spouse/ your parents/ your children/ your boss.. anyone who matters to you.. anyone you love.

2) To make my fish Chiku immortal (an assignment a client of mine gave me yesterday!)
I got Chiku (breedname Cichlids) into my tank in Feb 2019. Twice a day I used to feed him and watch him swim in the 40 litre fish tank. I used to even play with him. He was very bold, he used to nibble at my fingers. Having had more than 30 fish in the past I could make out that Chiku was a very happy fish.

Then on 20th March 2020, Chiku suddenly stopped eating food. He did not look unwell so other than adding some rock salt to the water I didn’t do anything. Two days later, on 22nd March 2020, exactly a day before my 50th birthday, my loving pet Chiku died.
I am used to fish dying, but this time it was different. How I wish I could talk to Chiku, I told myself. How I wish I could have asked him how he felt about his health, then maybe I could have done something about it.

Chiku is gone and I have made peace with it but Chiku taught me a lesson in his final days. In his silence I almost heard him say, “Sirji, communication is a privilege I don’t have, but you do. And what do you do with that privilege?
Do you use it well?
Do you communicate as often as you can to spread love, good cheer and happiness?
And when people communicate to you, (especially when you don’t like what they say), do you embrace their words or do you get upset?”

You know, I am happy I am living in a world where we can express ourselves and understand what others are expressing. I am happy we are NOT living in world full of Chikus who just cannot communicate. That would be a chaotic world.

From 23rd March, my birthday, Chiku has been figuring in almost every coaching engagement of mine.
I tell clients, “Don’t be a Chiku. Express yourself fully. Don’t hold back. Don’t worry about people judging you. And when people express themselves, remind yourself what a blessed species you are. Let people express themselves. Don’t stop them, stifle them. Don’t say, he shouldn’t have said this and she shouldn’t have said that.”

It’s been 5 months now. Thanks to Chiku, I am now more communicative, more expressive with my family, my relatives and my friends. And I hardly get upset when people say this or that to me or about me or when people call me names. (In my mind I reply “I love you too! “.. and I MEAN IT.)

In his final moments, as he lay floating sideways on the water, eyes wide open, I almost heard Chiku tell me, “My time is up friend. Yours is not. You are not trapped alone in a tank with nobody. You have hundreds of people who think about you and miss you. Communicate with them. You have one life. Use it well.”

P.S. Video was shot in 2019. Fond memories of a wonderful pet. And thank you for reading this long post. I could have made a video but my wife Seema predicted that if I made a video I would have cried.. hence the text post. (I still cried but then that’s what it means to really BE ALIVE!)