I remember some characters seen in some movies. Say some retired military official, who enforces strict discipline in his house. Like everybody in the family to be present on the dining table exactly at 8 PM, anybody who is late can’t take dinner with the family!

Such rules framed as per the desires of a person, in this case the head of family, might be useful in some sense but one does not earn real respect by these activities. Enforcing discipline could be an important thing up to a certain extent but what makes us rise us in the eyes of others is how much we understand their feelings and make adjustments to meet their needs, to make them happy.

We live in a big society, which extends from our little family up to the whole world as a big family. A saint living in a hut or an Ashram can live his life according to strict, unbending rules or ‘Niyamas’, but while living in a society, we need to adjust, be flexible according to the needs of others.

I heard about people in West Bengal that there are families known as supporters of Mohun Bagan team and the East Bengal team, being football lovers. Supporters of both the teams celebrate the victory of their favorite team and ridicule the other losing team. It is also heard that the supporters of one team do not even marry their wards in a family supporting the rival team.

This was an example of no flexibility among team supporters in a game. In today’s world there are so many elements making people rivals, not at all accepting the other narrative. One of the biggest such fields is politics. So much so that in that field people are ready to accept dynasty politics in today’s modern world, just for the hate they carry for some person or party.

So there are so many activities and groups which are busy making people rude, spread hate etc. but it simply depends on the individuals, how he or she would behave,  with whatever parties he or she gets aligned or whichever team they support by heart.

Further art and culture are the fields, which make us come near and love people from all over the world. Be them the novels, short stories, poems, paintings etc.

Our Indian culture is the greatest tutor of universal brotherhood. Further the more we are tolerant to the view points of others, the more we love other people, the more we would become flexible. Then we would never say-‘My way or highway!’.

We can have our own considered views and opinions regarding certain things, but if we love others and believe in truly democratic principles, we would always remember that these people can always have different views and we need to be tolerant to their viewpoints and always remain flexible. We would thus love others the way they are and they do not need to change in any way to get our unconditional love.

• This is my submission on the weekly #IndiSpire prompt- Being flexible and not rigid about opinions wins more hearts than anything else. Flexibility makes love happen. #FlexiLove .

Thanks for reading.