Fused bulb

Many of us have heard of the famous anecdote about the fused bulbs. A fused bulb is a “fused bulb”, it doesn’t matter as to what wattage it was earlier. Meaning what we were earlier and  what was our pecking order in the society, does not matter once you loose that position or status in the society and you are just an other old man!

This made me think, more particularly at an age that I am, about becoming a fused bulb one day and that it is inevitable.

While in my younger days, climbing up the corporate ladder and equating that to the social order was important. Do I now see futility in that exercise? Were all those attempts at conquering the corporate peaks in vain? All those success or a sense of achievements are a mere illusions of the society that I was trapped in?

These were some of those questions that popped into my mind as I was finishing a hectic one month corporate business trip spanning Americas and the Europe and was sitting idly in the aircraft, savouring the hospitality high up in the air with Hindukush mountains giving me company, as I looked out of the window. 

Yes, we were flying high above the mighty Hindukush. A sense of achievement of towering above all those peaks perhaps struck me as such a juvenile thought that I said to myself wont I be a fused bulb one day and it does not matter what wattage I was, what power and authority I wielded or how much light that I have shown, when I was switched on. Should I not be happy that I was a bulb indeed and played my part in lighting up the path of people around me! 

Bulbs that lit my path

There are many a bulb those are perhaps fused bulbs now.  But they lit my path and made me what I am today.

My parents (more so my mother), my school teachers (specially at our National High school Basavanagudi), my bosses at great institutions like MICO (Bosch), my mentors both within the family, my friends circle who continue to be my ethical and moral North Pole. I am ever grateful to each one of them and remember them often. It does not matter to me that they are fused bulbs now. What is important is that they lit my path when I was in need of that light. 

The wattage

In the house, we have different wattage for different purposes. A reading bulb at the study desk, a bulb in a chandelier, a night bulb lighting up the floor dimly to make you see your way in the night. All these are of different wattages and are for different purposes. We do not have a blinding light with a high wattage as our night bulb. All that matters is that bulb served its purpose. It lit my way and prevented me from tripping and falling or colliding against some objects in the night or helped me focus on what I was reading. 

It does not matter of what wattage that it was in the house. What matters is the question - was it adequate? Did it do the job. 

It doesn’t matter to me if I become a fused bulb one day as long as someone, somewhere, someday remembers that I was a bulb that lit their path for a fraction of their life. Or, does that even matter now? I’m not sure. 

Reusing a fused bulb

A fused bulb has perhaps other uses in this age of reuse and recycle!

To round up, I am reminded of a famous quote (which used to be told to me by my friend Suresha) from the late Mr. Ratnakar Shetty of Canara bank…

“Hierarchy is for administration, there is equity in contribution”. 

I am confident that I’ll be a happy fused bulb one day and as Rajaji (Sri. Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari) has said, it will be a state of 

குறை ஒன்றும் இல்லை மறைமூர்த்தி கண்ணா

குறை ஒன்றும் இல்லை கண்ணா

குறை ஒன்றும் இல்லை கோவிந்தா

kurai ondrum illai marai moorthy kaNNa

kurai ondrum illai Kanna 

kurai ondrum illai GOvinda

have no regrets. ….