If

 The word 'if' is magical. It lends itself to many unknown continuations, many possible endings. 

It's the beginning of imagination, in a way. And we all imagine the world, beginning with if..

If only, my last name was Ambani, or Biyani. I had a student, whose last name was Bihani, by the way..a narrow miss. Right now, Mallya is not a cool name to have, though it was, once.. in spite of the performance of his IPL team.

While growing up, we thought all Anglo-Indian names were cool. No idea why..now, a Nadkarni or Kulkarni looks cool to me. If only we had more sense then,..

If man had been vegetarian, would the Corona crisis have struck? Maybe not, but the plague could still have..rats spread it, I think..and rats and cockroaches are almost indestructible. So there's no escaping pandemics.. and wars are always a good substitute.

In my 60 years on the planet, there were many times I thought of the word if and sentences that started with that word, but now, I am beginning to believe that I really did not need the Ifs. I am quite happy with the way life turned out so far, and the lovely times I have had- even in the current lockdown, because of socialising virtually.

Suicides are Just not Worth It

I recently learnt of a very tragic case, in which an entrepreneur committed suicide, after killing his wife before doing so. Most likely, a case of depression brought on by a business failure. Farmers whose crops fail, and students who don't "do well" are regularly found killing themselves in India.

Whatever the reason, I think suicide is not an answer. It may seem like there is no solution to our immediate problems, but braving it out is possible. Even a person in a German concentration camp survived unimaginable horrors, and wrote about it- Man's Search for Meaning was the book.

Maybe we need to be more social. I think as a society, we must learn to listen, and talk. Share our problems at least with people around us, if not professional counselors. At least with people in the immediate circle, we must be as open as possible, and ask for help/give such help, before it is too late. Life is valuable. It is simply not worth committing suicide for any reason!

Coffee Room Banter

That's just a term-the beverage could be tea, which it is more often in my case. But it's not the beverage, it's the banter that is the focus here. We underestimate the power of socialisation, methinks. It needs effort. You can always have tea in isolation-doesn't taste the same. You can watch inane stuff on TV and comment about it, joke about it, or have a serious discussion about the world's problems and solve most of them in the course of one morning -or afternoon. I have done it many times over!!

The tea break relaxes you like nothing else, when you are busy working on something or thinking- we in academics need to do a lot of the second, and it can be hard work, though some think it's vella-giri ( an Indian term for fooling around, wasting time).

Therefore, I recommend a tea break as a restorative, if you are doing something serious, once in a couple of hours. Of course, after a break-up, it's even more important- just kidding!