Celebrations

 What is a celebration? A moment in time that we think is special in some way- a birthday, an anniversary, a new job, start of a new year, and so on.

Pic- On our way to see Orchha sights, from our Riverside Resort. (Betwa river)

But isn't there something good happening every day? For instance, you ate something nice, a kid smiled at you for no reason, or you did something right. Or, your Boss praised you (OK, that's rare, forget that!).

So why don't we cut a cake or eat a poha or a dhokla- what you eat/cut is immaterial here) every day?

Because we feel that we are living a mundane life. The truth is, it's anything but mundane. At least in my experience, there are 5 or 10 things that are unique, happening to us every day. If I try listing some of them, it'll turn into an essay that's too long to read at one sitting. But just an example-

Take an academic setting, from a student's point of view. Meeting your classmates, learning something new from a class (I was going to say Teacher), or a book you found in a library (what's that?) or a conversation with anyone, planning for an event, a case study discussion that surprised you, are just a few things that can happen in a single day. 

So it is with life elsewhere. It throws up surprises, many of them good. So each day might be worth celebrating, barring very few.

Habits and Learnings

 Habits are formed unconsciously, many a time. We learn, of course, from multiple sources, starting with our parents in formative years. Moving on to friends, classmates, teachers and anyone else we may get inspired by. 

We tend to pick up habits or learnings from all these. If you tend to spend a lot of time with a few people in your immediate circle that you like, they may influence you a lot. Or role models whom you look up to.

But my theory about this goes a bit further. You may end up learning from people you dislike too. For instance, a corrupt bureaucrat may inspire you to be the opposite. Or, if you find an incapable administrator, or leader, you may start thinking about performing that kind of a role, just to prove that you can do it better.

Any examples come to mind, of either kind? I have a few, and have written about them elsewhere.

No Problem

 There was this ad many years ago, for a bike, that said it was a No Problem bike. Nicely made. 

So, one can imagine a conversation that goes "No problem" as follows-

Someone- It's so hot!

You- So what? No problem. Makes you appreciate the cool weather when it comes.

Someone- There's so much traffic.

You- Yes, but I think about other things while stuck in it. Not a problem.

S: It keeps raining so much.

You- We need the rain, farmers will have no problem.

S: There is so much corruption all around.

You- It could be worse, in some countries, they kill innocent people. There is so much violence.

S: My boss is always putting me down, 

You- Think about those who don't have a job. What's a bit of a problem with the boss?

Two Types of People

 Trying to classify people is not easy. But this is a practical classification, with no claims to scientific proof. Put simply, those who give you positive vibes, and those who don't. Like the P and N junctions in electronics, if you will. 

Among the positive, there may be further categories- like the Excited Electrons, super-enthusiastic types. They are bubbling with ideas, or enthusiasm, or both. They have banished the word Excuse from their dictionary. They will not say no to anything that comes their way, from God, or from his representative-the boss, I mean. 

Frequently, you find students who are in this category..not a lot of them, but some. A large number are found among the Doctoral students- there must be a correlation, I'm sure. (Ha, ha). But generally, these enthusiastic people carry the organisation forward. The naysayers may have their uses in keeping you from trying stunts that can take you off a cliff and prevent disasters, but they generally sap everyone's enthusiasm. 

I was reading a book recently about a theory of the universe, which said that desire drives everything, and that each element (even the smallest one) in it is autonomous, and makes choices or decisions, rather than one single, all-knowing entity. If you think about it, we do have choices, and we do pick pathways on how to go about each day. And the days turn into months and years, finally taking us where (hopefully) where we wanted to go. So it's up to us to avoid people of a certain type, and spend more time with the positives (excluding the Corona positives, for the time being).

Thinking- a Lost Art?

We had a lot of time on our hands in my years of growing up. We probably had a lot of physical activity too, but this post is about the time we spent thinking about things, when we were not playing, studying, or watching movies-in theatres.

One of our think-tanks in engineering college, Osmania University. 1977-82.


I am not sure what we thought about-maybe what we would do as a grownup, whether we even wanted to grow up (I think we did, as the grass appeared greener on that side then). Maybe about doing wonderful things like flying (my first flight was at age 23), travelling to a different country or countries (that happened on my Ph.D. cum sightseeing trip at age 26).

Most likely, thoughts also included finding the love of your life (maybe not, maybe you thought you had already found her/him with every new crush), owning your own car and going on an adventure (it IS an adventure, come to think of it, on our city roads), owning a Badminton court so you could play without interruption ( a friend from college in Hyderabad had this ambition of having a Billiards Table in his basement and playing with Me!).

The world of thoughts is not constrained by reality, and is positive at all times. To this world!

Learnings From Traffic

Traffic is the ultimate punching bag for all of us, with apparently no redeeming features. But during one such heavily-filled road journey, I came up with the following things one can learn from negotiating traffic on our roads (apart from of course, learning to use choice expletives, which some consider a useful part of language training)-

1. There are no kings or commoners here. We are all as the maker intended-equal.

2. This makes us contemplative- note that my (above) contemplations happened on the road.

3. This teaches us patience- I would have said forbearance, but I realise not many would recognise the word.

4. It lets us appreciate the beauty of our existence- the mind wanders into all the beautiful places that one could have been in -especially when you are not driving (it could be fatal if you ARE).

5. It makes us acutely aware of how much we long to be at home, or even at work. Therefore, it increases our positive feelings for both. Even the boss appears to be better than what we are going through.

Happy Trafficking (of the right kind, with the right mind).

Using the Freeze

Apparently we in Delhi and around it are experiencing the deep arctic freeze, the likes of which happen only once or twice in our limited lifetimes. While pondering over the positives of this phenomenon, I imagined the following -

1. The gaalis freezing on the giver's face even before he gets to the colourful part.

2. Conservation of water as the urge and the necessity of bathing diminish.

3. Sales of many products rarely used increase- such as thermal underwear, room heaters, gloves, scarves, mufflers, shawls and so on..

4. Sales of some frequently used products like rum, brandy etc. may shoot through the roof, along with tea, coffee and other hot stuff including parathas.

5. People may discover the joys of staying indoors, and visit corners of their houses thus far unvisited.

6. Rediscovering of the simple joys of a bonfire- as long as it does not convert to a wildfire.

7. Writing more blogs, as there is nothing much to do outside. Don't know if it's a positive for the reader, though...

Zen and the Art of Cribbing

This is actually about the art of cribbing, but the word Zen adds a little bit of mystique to the discussion.

We all crib. The list of things to crib about expands with the time available to us for cribbing, like Parkinson's Law which says work expands to fill available time. IT guys who do billing by the hour should know this well. This also reminds me of a joke- two lawyers were discussing how they bill their clients (in the US) and one asked the other, "Do you include the hours you spend dreaming about the case?".

Anyway, back to cribbing. This can easily start with the weather- too hot, too cold, too humid, too...., and go on to the place where you kept your unwashed cup, clothes, dishes, or the amount you spent on x, y, z, (this is my favourite), to imaginary slights (he/she did not even look at me, etc. etc..) and so on. But what is the philosophy of cribbing?

Sociologically, if you expect companions in misery, it makes sense to crib, to find a community of like-minded, well...cribbers. Makes you feel part of a larger group with whom you have common cause. You can always find a boss, a parent, a spouse, assorted relatives, or capitalists, MNCs, Terrorists, Religious minorities or majorities, the traffic, inflation (not our opinion about the self, but the price-rise) and a zillion other crib-worthy objects of attention. If something good comes out of it, like some action towards improving your environment, it may actually do all of us some good. If not, well, at least you got the conversation going!

Maybe, just maybe, positive thinking may also be contagious. But don't take my word for it.