koolhead17
Our urge to know everything, be part of every conversation and accomplish as much as possible in a shorter time is making us clueless and miserable.
The virtue of mastering one thing and making a life out of it is undervalued.
Like hoarding furniture, clothes, or gadgets, we feed our brains with too much information and garbage. Most of it won’t help us in our careers or leading a peaceful life.
Minimalism is not for everyone in either consuming content or buying unwanted products.
I feel happy reading tech or medical books and journals that simplify content for non-core users. I am currently reading Matt Ridley: Gnome and Body on fire: Monica Aggarwal, Jyothi Rao. One talks about human GNOME and the other about how what we are eating is making us sick.
I liked the simplicity with which authors have covered these topics. I wish more complex subjects were covered in such simple terms.
It will give non-medical practitioners more to get more educated on these subjects.
The more and more I see war in Russia-Ukraine, the more I feel sad. It gives a clear indication of a divided world. One side is NATO and US, and the other is Russia.
The sudden need for weapons has increased, and nations like Germany are increasing their Defence budget, buying more weapons from the US. In the end, the arms race has increased.
Are we heading to a new world where every country will order more weapons instead medicines and food grains?
Food, oil prices, and joblessness are on the rise. But instead of addressing it, we are churning more weapons. How much will the next generation suffer because of all this? Will the world survive the next 50 years?
So, are we moving on, asked Shreya?
As if we have any other option, replied Sanjay.
Shreya got admitted to a college in the US and wanted to reboot her life. She had no time for long-distance relationships. Sanjay stayed in India to build a non-profit providing education to unprivileged kids. They were together from the first sem of college for over 4.5 years. It took just a coffee at Cannaught Place to call it off. I was sad and amazed both. Not sure how it was so easy for them. They were more mature than me. I studied with Sanjay and Shreya in the same college. That is why I am narrating this.
Last night from nowhere, Shreya reached out to me after 15 years. I wondered if she was back in India, which was not the case. I enjoyed the conversation and praised her for her accomplishments in all these years.
I asked Shreya if she was still in touch with Sanjay, She paused, and a gentleman said hello to me. I was watching a Karan Johar movie in real life because it was Sanjay on the other side. He mentioned after setting up his non-profit, he kept in touch with Shreya, and it was during COVID they decided to get married.
COVID made many of us realize the importance of many things in our life, one being the importance of loved ones.
Not all love stories have sad ending in real life too. I wished them good luck in the future. Looking forward to meeting them later this year.
We all make a bucket list. How about we also make a list and keep it near us of all the things we are thankful for.
I was reading Ashtavakra-Gita yesterday. Thanks to Nirajan for recommending me. It is a 60-page discourse between King Janak and his guru Ashtavakra. I found the section on Bondage and Liberation hitting hard to me. I felt like sharing the same here.
When the mind desires or grieves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things– this is bondage.
When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand.
If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage. When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation.
When there is no “I” there is only liberation. When “I” appears bondage appears with it. Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting
Other quotes I had shared on Twitter earlier.
“You are what you eat.”, said a doctor friend to me last week. We are living in a different world post COVID. Some of us are on Long COVID. Its cure is still under process. It has made us take our minds and body more seriously.
As we age, we are only deteriorating on the health front: mental pressure, pollution, and food habits are making it only worse.
It took me good 35+ years to realize what all foods are harming me and how my brain reacts once I eat out because of the oil, meat best of the best places are serving.
Health is wealth is said for the same reason. What will you do with billions if your health is bad?
Is shame a currency used by a few manipulators, religious leaders, or society? Why are we so vulnerable to shaming?
The other day while speaking to a friend’s son heard about how other folks in his class make fun of his ponytail. Some of us are scared of sharing our photos on social media because of how we look or our skin color.
How can someone overcome this shame labeled to them by society?
It takes effort to make a peer group or adjust to a new glittery world. It requires a lot of learning and unlearning. It requires not taking anything personally and growing a thick skin.
Unlearning is mostly on stereotypes and underconfidence. Learning mostly on grabbing all the opportunities coming on the way.
We have limited time on this planet and so much to do for ourselves. Choose your tribe wisely, it can make or break your life.
Social media is full of stories about depression and how it is killing us all silently.
Is depression a disease? Are we born with it, some hormonal deficiency causing it? Or could it be our inflammable gut? If it requires medical support, we can cure it. Is it not?
But what about self-inflicting depression? The mental state which makes us go bonkers because of our unmet desires or torn ego? Or cloning artificial lifestyle, Or fake it till you make sermon and fall flat.
We want everything: money, glory, love, appreciation, and always be a winner. Like never settling for less, is it making us more depressed? Is depression a lifestyle disease?
Or depression is a byproduct of our fear of losing?