Age doesn’t matter. Seriously it
doesn’t. What matters is what do you want to do in Life!
 |
| John Pontin |
We met an enterprising, energetic,
committed and alive 78-year-old last
evening. He’s John Pontin, a British millionaire, who ran a design and build
company that has been engaged in socially enlightened property development for
over half a century now. But what keeps John awake at nights, and awakened, is
his monomaniacal focus and commitment to leave our planet a better place. His
work is currently focused around a charity he helped launch a few years ago
called The Converging World with a seed fund of 2 million British Pounds. One
of its objects is to fund and build renewable sources of energy, such as wind
turbines, in India. In 2008 The Converging World project installed two large
turbines in Tamil Nadu. Since then, and a few smaller turbines later, several million
units of electricity have been delivered to the Tamil Nadu State grid. Ask John
why is he doing what he’s doing and he says, with a twinkle in his eye, “I am
driven by this hunger, this sense of urgency, to make a change. To do
something. I can’t wait. What has to be done, has to be done.”
Talking to John his like getting yourself a
shot of inspiration. He looks 78. But he’s got the energy of an 18-year-old. “I
know I am not getting any younger biologically. But I couldn’t have felt
younger or better. I am living the best years of my Life. I am creative, naïve
and am getting cheeky. Maybe that’s what’s making me do stuff or get stuff done
faster which normally takes a long, long time getting done,” he explains.
John and his team at The Converging World
are no doubt doing great service. That they will make significant contributions
in the years to come is for sure – that alone is not something that will be
counted as John’s legacy. What John is teaching us all is this: Age is a mere number. Be useful. Make every
day of your Life memorable and make it count!
I wish all of us snap out of our comfort zones
and complaining-sprees. I wish we stopped existing and merely earning a living.
I wish we borrowed a leaf from John’s book, rolled up our sleeves and went down
to work on making a difference. John reminds us that our time here is ticking
away. And that the best gift we can give our children is a better world that’s
greener, beautiful and bountiful. Even if we don’t want to be a conservationist
or sustainability champion like John, we may just want to be useful to the
human race instead of putting up our feet and gloating over how successful our material
lives and careers have been. Hearing John speak
last evening, I was certain about one more thing – there is no better time to
get started on living and serving than now.
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