Good Bye to Good Old Trusted Companion!

Saying goodbye is never easy in life, be it for a person or a thing which you loved dearly. It's always a sinking feeling but deep down you know nothing lasts forever. There's an expiry date to almost everything in life and no one can escape it.

With this in mind, I have had two such incidents in the last two months which have made me realize once again that we cannot hold on to people or things in life.

I have written excessively on my good old trusted companion- my car on various platforms. Here are the links of two of my blogs :

- https://pratikmantri.blogspot.com/2021/11/15-years-of-good-old-trusted-companion.html 

- https://pratikmantri.blogspot.com/2018/02/my-leave-worries-behind-car.html

It has been a wonderful journey and I have already written on how peaceful it was driving that good old car and so much more but as happens to all of us, the car started showing its age of 17 plus years but was majorly trouble free apart from few niggles here and there. It was unanimously agreed by everyone in the family to upgrade to a better car and I couldn't convince my family to keep it for the sake of nostalgia and positive vibes. If it had been my call, I would personally never sell it; would keep it forever only because I know life is hard and few things which give you happiness should be preserved. There's obviously a pragmatic and more mind-over-heart view that old cars are not worth keeping, given the rising running costs.

Anyways, so that's done now. It will go most probably this month end and a part of me will miss the sound of that amazing and powerful engine (it could pull on steep incline even with 5 on board), comfortable seats, spacious cabin and loads of memories.

Moving on, I have had the pleasure of working with my mentor of last 7 years for last 6 months. He had been posted to the higher office where our office reported to and I got the opportunity to work with him for last 6 months. He had attained superannuation (retirement in common parlance) at the end of September 2023. I knew he was going and kept on counting on days in reverse but post his absence, it struck me how life at office was so different.
My office colleagues and myself included would agree that he was a pillar in our department and trained all of us to become independent with sheer hard work and constant learning. He worked tirelessly for years and made the company stronger by going out of his way to mentor young officers like me.

I am now in his shoes and I hope to replicate what he did! Thank you sir, I will forever be grateful for your support, training and for always listening to my stories. 

Saying Good-Bye is difficult always!