Mr Satish Kaushik is a practicing counselling psychologist, a calling that he found later in life …

“Am I living a meaningful life?”

About 12 years back, my daughter wrote a poem in memory of her mother,

“Sleep on, & I will be your dream,

Walk on, & I will be the one your seek,

Remember, & I will be your memory,

Live on, & each moment is me!!”

Today, when I read these lines again, I realised true the words are even after all these years.

My life was very active and quite aggressive before 2009, (the year we lost her mother) involving looking after and being a part of various businesses and organisations. But that year it all stopped and a fear gripped me, ‘what now?’

My daughter, son & I grew closer to each other, sharing our thoughts and trying to analyse what had just happened to us. The pause that came into our life made us see things more meaningfully.

The poem stands framed along with a collage of memories before me, sometimes evoking feelings of loneliness and sadness. But then it dawns on me that how the need for ‘quality in life’, a meaningful existence and community service, were intrinsic to my wife’s beliefs, and she would want us to live by it.

And this is the legacy that we carry forward, trying to do justice to her memory everyday. Over the years we have been fortunate that many good people have joined us and contributed in so many ways, building a caravan that we hope will go on forever…