It's my birthday today. But that's not what i wanted to share.

For those who don't know me, I live in Canada, but originally from India. Besides a few friends & family cousins, everyone that i call mine are back home in India. I've been receiving calls to wish me from late evening itself as the day began in India already. One of those calls made my day.

My aunt whose in her early 70s has been wishing me every single year since i was born. She isn't great with a smart phone, so i'm assuming she actually remembers this by memory & makes sure to call me every year without fail. We catchup once every few months in between too. I keep sharing my learnings of life & she feels extremely happy knowing that i'm growing both personally & professionally. After i'm done, she shares a few problems of hers & i do my best to remind her that she has total freedom to live how she wants to, that she painstakingly worked hard & earned at this point. But today's call was something different.

After wishing me, she said she started to teach ENGLISH to a lady in her 60s in our neighbourhood. 30 mins everyday. I knew my Aunt was a college topper in her prime & later went onto teach at a primary school. But that was easily 30 years ago. Doing something similar in her 70s was something that brought a smile on my face. She went onto say that she wants to use all her skills to help as many people as she can until she is still on this planet. I just realized i used a lot of "she"s in the previous sentence, but they still made sense, so i left them there. Her story inspired me. It answered a question that was in mind for a few days now. It felt like i got the answer as the real birthday present.

Not be loved, but to love is the greatest feeling.
Not be happy, but to make someone happy is the greatest feeling.
Not being helped, but being able to help someone is the greatest feeling.

With this clarity, i sign off today to a wonderful week & a beautiful year ahead.
Thank you for reading.
Sai Mutyala
the cognitive founder