Day 7

I am lazing around. Sitting still and idle is very therapeutic. There is no compulsion of doing the running around, working round the clock, preparing interviews and pitch for the client’s deadline or scribbling in the agenda diary. Life is a race, we are often told. Every day is sheer madness in running against time and obsessively trying to wrap up things for work never ends. We are caught in a seamless and entangled web where the adage, ‘Tomorrow never comes’ holds true for us.

The pressure is relieved today and a choice to take things easy. We all need this one day in life. This week, there were two public holidays, one on Tuesday for Maha Shivratree and today, Spring festival. I worked on Tuesday from home, sorting the client’s weekly newsletter and reading cum gathering for the corporate’s magazine where the deadline is fast approaching. At times, I don’t know where to put the head and choose to give myself an off today. We all need to slow down to figure things out.

At times, I wonder what social media is turning us into, the over obsessive who doesn’t shy in posting selfies every nano-second and showering our Valentine love going all over the place. The world just went gaga, crazy and weird to an irritating level on Valentine Day. It irked me to see so much of love splaying like virus in the atmosphere. It’s such a fake world we live in and we wouldn’t leave our smartphones to check notifications. It makes me wonder about the definition of happy individuals or healthy couples needing social media validation. I am also guilty of constantly checking notifications on the phone and high time to do some soul-searching, albeit cutting the phone chord momentarily.

What has happened to genuine human bonding and interaction where we would pick up the phone to call our loved ones? Zilch! One can count on the fingers the number of times we actually indulge in quality conversation with real people rather than being enslaved to gadgets or a life controlled with the daily stress of work which is stripping us of our real emotions. I feel that every week, we must choose a day to be with ourselves, chucking out the pressure of doing better than the self or the world, learning to take things easy and not doing anything. Just be with the self in a state of awareness. Breathe fresh air and meditate.

I connected with a friend on WhatsApp just now, R who was a classmate at Fergusson College and speaking after a decade-plus which feels like crisp and beautiful memories. We both agreed. At times, I am amazed how technology ushered in our lives and there was a time when we would send messages on SMS and nothing on earth would lead us to believe that one day, something like WhatsApp would make us connect again. The college friends are bliss and pure blessing for me and can’t even imagine life without the people who played such an incredible part in making me who I am today. I love such surprises for there is a hidden meaning that the extraordinary will soon unfurl. Hidden surprises have always been part of my life.

Now that what one calls a fulfilling and productive day in life without doing anything. I started reading Rishi Kapoor’s Khullam Khulla and like the book’s title suggest with the tagline uncensored or the initial pages, no stone or controversies would be left untouched right from personal things into his childhood days or his father, the iconic Raj Kapoor Sahab. It makes for a spicy read on the brash kid that he was and the book is a candid take on the lives of the Kapoor or the biggest showman’s offscreen romance with Vijayantimala and Nargis.

The weather been very hot today and sweated it out by doing 30 minutes of yoga to keep one healthy and fit. Yoga has brought me closer to my inner self and bringing so much peace, harmony and tranquility.

Shall be back to the grind tomorrow. I know it’s a Saturday but there is work that needs to be fleshed out and appointment sorted out before hitting the road in full gear next week. Time to accelerate things since I really hate the last minute rush that puts so much pressure on the head. I shall come with a fresh episode for Pune Memoirs super soon.

Love

V