Tag: Choice (Page 2 of 3)

The Blues of the Sky

May 22, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

I opened my eyes to see Buddha’s golden statue glint feebly in star light. It took me a moment to place myself and realise that I had been sleeping in a Monastery the whole night. The toil of the days cycling had anesthesized my wakefulness as soon as I lay down.

Once I awoke, I stepped outside the enclosure. There was not a single artificial light in the vicinity. I was in a remote part of the country, virtually untouched by light pollution.

I looked up, and heard a call,
Of countless clusters of stars , shining light years away, revealing themselves in the absence of moonlight.
Transfixed, I ogled as if I’d found a treasure all for myself.
I clicked many pictures with the lens of my eye, the shutter of my lashes.
I would not move an inch until the sun rose and claimed the sky for itself. A surreal experience from my last few days in Thailand.

A few days ago, I reached Kolkata, India.
I landed at 3am. I felt an excitement to witness the night sky again.
I quickly assembled my bicycle outside the airport and headed out excitedly, to embrace the sky.
But alas, the stars were all in hiding. Lights from sodium lamps blended with the haze in the sky to obscure the marvel of the milky way.
I waited patiently for the sunrise, hoping that it would be treat for the eyes.
But the haze in the sky casually relegated the majesty of the sun.

It was such a contrast to witness these two different night skies in two different realities.

I happened to read a newspaper article yesterday which threw light on the rising pollution in Indian cities that led to respiratory ailments in citizens. I imagined people would go to a doctor to ask for a medicine to help them cope and recover.

It felt as if we are trying to save ourselves from a world of our own making. And we are trying to solve our own individual problem with pollution and letting things be, as long as we can afford to brush the dirt under the carpet.

But what about the dirt in the sky?

One effect of technology on culture is that we do not look too far beyond. We have the world at a distance of half a feet, in the confines of our glowing smartphone screens. Much of our gaze never goes beyond this vantage, to look up and sense, that the we are deserting the sky, effacing a star from our view with each passing day.

While one can go to a doctor to find a cure for his own respiratory ailment,
Where do we go to find a cure for an ailment that inflicts our collective extended being, that includes our view of the night sky?

Maybe we need to rename the institutions that monitor how much further we can push our polluted existence.

Maybe we need a ‘Nightsky Saving Board’ than an ‘ Air Pollution Control Board.’

For we will be reminded of the problem at hand and have to look no further than the sky to realise our responsibility to act as windshield wipers for our dirty skyline.

Sometimes renaming can bring us closer to the reality we must collectively rise up to change.

The most severe of tragedies is when a tragedy becomes mundane and commonplace.

Let’s find a way,
So that our kids don’t get used to
A hazy sky,
A starless night.

The sky is feeling blue.

Let’s find a way to cheer it up !

The wisdom of a Tree

May 15, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

I was riding my bicycle merrily in a lush park in Bangkok. In an upbeat mood, I started to hum my favourite songs while breezing through a tunnel of trees.
I looked around at the trees and wondered,
‘ I wish the trees could also move,
I wish they could sing and dance when happy !’

I stopped under a mighty Peepal Tree and rested myself against its bark.

‘Why do you seem so low all of a sudden my friend?’ asked the tree, swaying to the wind.

‘Oh Mr. Tree, I wish you could also sing and dance. Travel freely and enjoy looking at the world beyond your vistas.
While I am grateful I can sing, and dance and travel around, I feel bad that you cannot.’

‘My friend, Thanks for your concern.
You are right. I cannot sing, or dance or travel freely around the world.
But I choose to not feel sad about it.
Instead, I grow with complete devotion and faith in my ability, in the universe.
You know what happens when you do that?’

‘What?’ I inquired.

‘ By growing with all my creative energy, a voiceless tree like me becomes an arena from where the birds choose to sing with all their heart every morning.
Yes, I do not have a song to sing,
But I foster so many mellifluous singers in my canopy!

I cannot travel. But when a traveller spots me from afar, he is brim with hope. He gets shade and shelter in my shadow.
Yes, I cannot travel,
But I foster faith in travellers to keep travelling, assuring that trees will provide a resting space once they’re tired.

I do no let my limitations bog me down.
I stay true to my own nature, grow with all my heart, and I foster people to do things that I myself am not able to.’

With the blowing wind, the birds sang, assenting to the wisdom the tree shared.
Resting in the tree’s cool shade,
I made a little choice in my heart,

To choose to sing when I can.
And if I cannot,
I should become the arena that fosters singing.
The stage that enables others to thrive.

Swaying gently,
The tree flirts with the wind.

No wonder, Buddha got enlightenment while meditating under a Peepal tree !

When you feel you are not good enough…

May 14, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

‘Am I good enough?’
‘You know,
Maybe I’m not good enough.’
‘Maybe I should not pursue this at all. There are people out there who are way better than I am.’

Sounds familiar?

In life, we often find our self in situations when we question our ability. It happens way more to people who consider themself an artist.

While it is easy to bow out and not pursue something that you’re involved in, it is seldom the best choice one can make.

Before making a decision to quit anything that you’re currently pursuing ask yourself,
What kept me involved with this activity/art for such a long time?
Does my growth in this field matter to me?

If you hear a voice staying ,
Yes! My growth in this field matters to me,
Ask yourself,

How is the decision to quit going to take me any closer to the growth that matters to me so much?

As humans, we are prone to make irrational and impulsive decisions.
But when you question your own ability at an art form, and you are close to quitting, thinking there are people way better than you out there and you must not continue,
Think about,

What led you so far into it?
Does your growth matter to you?
Does quitting make you any better?

Once you can answer these questions with conviction, making a decision becomes much easier.

Most likely you will continue with the art form and work hard at it.

You are not the only one who loses faith in himself from time to time. Even the best of us fall for this trap.

The ones who march on despite this, are the ones who get better.

Don’t quit yet.

Comparison never fosters art.

I’m reminded of a story about a father and son looking at two mango saplings in their garden.
The son asks,
‘Which one of the two will bear more fruit Daddy?’
The father smiles and answers,
‘It is too early to tell son,
Let me just say,
they’re both growing !’

We’re all growing, at our own pace. And we shall all bear fruit in our own reality , in our own capacity.

No tree ever curtails its own creative expression. Why should you?

March on.
For your life is,
a masterpiece in progress…

The two paths

May 9, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Change is the most constant thing in the world. It applies to all things around us, and of course, within us.
With every experience, every interaction, we are changing.
Regardless of whether we are aware of it or not, the evolution is underway.

We all desire for positive personal changes. But working towards them consciously isn’t what we are best at.
We often take ‘the path of least resistance’ in doing something.

Citing an example of this phenomenon in nature, water always flows from high altitude to low altitude since it needn’t face any resistance in doing so.
In human behavior, the path of least resistance is the one we are on at the moment. We are satisfied with the status quo not wishing to do much about improving a situation since it will be met with resistance.
For instance, choosing a smartphone over a book is an easier way to get a dopamine rush.
So we find the path of least resistance to gratification. But this path doesn’t challenge us. It does not foster our creativity or make us a better version of our self.
It does not help us to grow as a human being.

Yes, we are changing, evolving at every moment, but are we influencing the change by our mindful choices or just letting life happen ?

There’s a better way than ‘the path of least resistance.’
It is called ‘The path of maximum learning.’
We can choose if we want to stream hours and hours of self improvement videos (the path of least resistance) . Or we can actively pursue the smallest self improvement plan we can devise.

When you are confronted with a choice that will inevitably change you,
Ask yourself,
Is my decision, the path of least resistance? Or is it the path of maximum learning?
Start with the smallest everyday choices that you make in life. It could be your diet, your data consumption, your parenting…

A choice made in the favour of maximum learning will make sure you evolve in the direction that serves you and the people around you best.

To your eternal learning spirit.

Paving the way for youth

May 1, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Deep inside we all realise we could be in better physical shape. The modern lifestyle is designed in a way that we have to make time for fitness related activities. A few decades ago, the mostly physical nature of work made sure we got sufficient exercise during the course of the day. Fitness was integrated with life.

But times are changing and so is the nature of work. We earn much more than our ancestors per capita, but we are poor when it comes to affording the time to be physically fit.
To make matters worse, we have so many distractions that steer us from activity to passivity that fitness remains a distant dream, even for people in the prime of their youth.

Most people think that once they grow older, assume familial responsibilities, they can let go off the possibility of cultivating vigorous physical health.
As a consequence they grow older much earlier.

But today, as I biked with a 72 year old youth named ‘Phulong’ all day long, I realised something.
The older we get, the more power we have to inspire younger people.
When we see a physically active elder person, we feel motivated to sweat it out too and reach a better physical shape.
A forty year old marathon runner has great power to galvanise people younger than him that haven’t put on sports shoes in a few years. The older one gets, the more power of influence he has.
Phulong bicyled up the highest mountain in Thailand at age 68. He showed the way to the summit to an entire generation!

Ageing is inevitable. But our youth is in our hands.
And with preserving our youth through physical activity, we can create a fitness centric narrative for the younger generation.

The elder you get, the more responsibility you have. Not just of your own health but also of the health of the younger generation.

So remember,
when you choose to go out for a jog at the stroke of dawn,
You are paving the way for the younger community to tread along.

To smiles borne out of sweat.
To a youth that never ages.

The gift of gifting

April 30, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

As a pure stroke of luck, I found myself in the midst of a few hundred Bicyclists today. We were all participating in a bicycle rally, a 25 kilometre ride along the coastline in Trang, South Thailand.
It is funny to confess that I still have no idea what the rally was about !
Everything was written and communicated in Thai and barely anyone spoke English.
I mimed my way into the rally much to the amusement of my fellow Thai cyclist friends.

Towards the end of the race, there was a freebie distribution session for all finishers. We had to choose a ball from an opaque pot containing balls of many colours. The ones who got a red ball went home with a bag, blue balls got key chains, green ones got pens and so on.

It was such fun to observe that everyone there could easily afford all these free things. And no one really felt the need of these extra things in life. Yet, the joy of getting something for free was much apparent on everybody’s faces. It was hilarious to see a 60 year old grandmother jump up and down as she got a free water cooler. I am quite sure it wasn’t the most pressing need of her life.
But oh the joy of getting something for free!
It cuts across all of humanity, location and culture notwithstanding.

Most often, sponsors use this vulnerability of participants by giving away things that can serve as a promotion tool for them. All bags would have their names on them, so would t-shirts and other accessories
A freebie costs the sponsor some money, but it provides an avenue for promotion, with avid participation from all.

No freebie is totally free.
While there is joy in giving, it comes at a cost.

I got thinking about the prospect experiencing the Joy of giving without a monetary cost per se.
And I thought about kids.
Just through their pure being,
Kids give out so much energy filled with joy and laughter at every moment!
In fact the whole community around a little child feels the happiness that it emanates through its existence.
What makes it ever more beautiful is that the child has no idea how profound a difference it makes in the life of everyone around. Just through the pure state of being, it acts as a true harbinger of joy. A true freebie, where everyone wins, and the smiles are much more lasting and meaningful.

If a human wishes to experience the joy of giving unconditionally, by all means he can. He just has to turn to a kid to learn how.
Expressing an unadulterated state of pure being, sharing one’s creative energy, or just even making people around feel good, is a profoundly meaningful gift to the community.

The best gifts is one which the receiver didn’t realise he needed so badly in life. All of us can use a source of good energy in our lives.

And gifting someone with constant nourishment of good energy also helps one cultivate his best self.
Both the giver and receiver benefit, with no ulterior motive, with no additional cost.
A true win-win situation.

Every human, no matter how poor or rich, is in a position to gift abundantly.
And it is the greatest feeling to spread love like a child, without even realising you are, through the pure state of being.

It is a choice,
That not surprisingly,
Is free for all.

I Love You

April 29, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

I had been staying at my Hostel in Chiang Mai for four days. The hostel was quite a dynamic place with people checking in and out all the time, changing personality with departures and arrivals.

But in my four day stay, there was one constant in terms of occupancy.
A frail old English gentleman with a disfigured face lay in that quiet corner in the common area, much the same way as I saw him the first time, four days ago.
He didn’t even seem to move. Occasionally he would turn a little with great discomfort to get to an agreeable bodily position.
I felt a bit afraid to approach him. I felt he wanted to be left alone.
As I was leaving the hostel, I mustered the courage to approach him.
I had a few Rose Apples fresh out of the fridge, just at the temperature they taste best at. I patted him on his back and offered it to him.
He opened his uninjured right eye and accepted it.
I left for the next destination soon after.

A week later, I happened to pass through the city again and chose to stay at the same hostel. Much to my surprise, most of it was deserted with people leaving to cooler places in Thailand as compared to a hot and humid Chand Mai.
I entered the common area to find the elderly Englishman still lying at the same spot. This time I felt more responsible to act since there was barely anyone around.

With a ripe mango in my hand I approached him gingerly.

‘How are you?’ I asked.
‘Ah, it’s you!. I am much better than last week. I can finally walk on my own.
You know what happened to me? I fell off a bus after getting nudged by a heavy backpack. Once I got up, I had my money and phone stolen and I did not recall much at all. I forgot my bank passwords, my email…It was like a complete reboot.
Gradually I remembered things and I wrote to my bank to send me a new card. I have just been waiting for it all this while.
I was a reporter for BBC you know, I’ve covered news from war-zones, but never in my life have I felt so lonely and helpless, on a holiday for God’s sake, when I am supposed to be having fun.’

‘That day when you gave me that fruit’ he continued,’ I felt I could eat a hundred of those. I hadn’t eaten in a while and my body didn’t feel ready to accept anything. But since that day, I’ve been eating and recuperating.’

‘How about a mango today?’ I asked him.

‘Oh, I love mangoes. That would be a dilight !’

I left him to savour the mango and retired for the night.
The next day as I was leaving, I stopped to check if I had any food left in the common fridge. I had mangoes and a few packets instant noodles.

I took the food with me to the English man.
‘Care for another mango?’ I asked.
He slowly opened his eyes.
I placed the cold mango in his palms.

‘Oh thank you so much!’

‘Okay, Michael, I am leaving now. I wish you a speedy recovery.’

The staff at the hostel interrupted to inform Michael,

‘He also left noodles for you. You can have for dinner tonight!.

Joining both hands together in gratitude,
He just said,

‘Thank you so much. I love you.’

We waved goodbye and I left the hostel happily.

While bicycling, many questions arose in my mind.
‘It must have been a long time since he made a new friend.’
With age, we lose the openness of making new friends. Kids have a new friend an hour. But adults barely make new friends after an age.
But finding a friend, especially when you need them, in situations you least expect, is such a cathartic joy.
You feel like a child again.

And once the gentleman felt like a child again, it was second nature for him to say ‘I love you.’
That’s something people don’t even say to their spouse after a decade into the marriage. We guard our hearts with utmost caution in the real world. But the moment the heart turns into a child’s , a guarded, 70 year old man, sings these words like the song of a canary.

I also got thinking about
‘How hesitant we are to ask for help. Even sadder is how reluctant we are to help people who could use some.’

It is easy to not help when there are many people witnessing the same problem. We think that ‘someone’ will help. A classic case of diffusion of responsibility.
But once we get past that and be proactive in helping someone in need,
Not only do we gain goodwill, but also the prospect of making a new friend.

As they say, ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed.’ Especially a new friend, who chooses to stop being a bystander, a passive sympathiser.

It helps to keep an open heart.
When you need help, ask for it,
When you are in a position to,
help in the best way you can.
That’s how we create the possibility
Of new friendships,
Of blossoming hearts,
Of having faith in humankind.

I LOVE YOU.

Replenishing Nostalgia

April 27, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Meeting your old school friends is a special experience, isn’t it?
One of the reasons why we share such a special bond with them is because many of the significant ‘firsts’ in our life happened in their presence. That first crush, first night out, bunking a lecture for the first time, shoplifting, and that heartbreak you thought would pain you your whole life.
The list can go on and on.

Most often when we meet our old friends, we have so many memories to reminisce that we keep talking about the good old times for hours on end.
And since we meet only briefly for lack of time and physical proximity, the little time together is just enough to let nostalgia take over us.
In the presence of old friends we discover where we come from and who we truly are. It’s something you cannot expect from friends you meet later in your life.

But there is an issue with the premise of meeting old friends. The brief time we meet for barely gives us time to create new memories. Still drowning in the warmth of nostalgia, we seldom find time to do something new together.
Shouldn’t we be creating fresh memories so that we keep feeding the nostalgia box?
Or would we still be reminiscing the same good old days all our lives?

To have memorable friendships early on in life is a gift. It is one of the most resilient bonds in human relationships.
I believe there should be a steady pursuit among old friends to create things together in the new reality we live in.
Technology has enabled us to connect and collaborate in wizardly ways.

Among old friends, the collective expertise of a diverse background should be harnessed to cultivate a fresh playground, the new-old school, a supportive environment that enables us to thrive like a rainforest.

The choice of activity can vary from person to person. For instance, I choose to write handwritten letters to my friends in this day and age. And we question, challenge, educate and inspire each other with each letter exchange.
The choice of engagement is in our hands depending on mutual interests.

Friends must always strive to make fresh memories, collaborate, create stuff and go through challenging experiences together. That’s when things can go wrong. And that’s how the best memories are made.
There are many ‘first’ yet to be experienced together if we choose to imagine the possibilities.
And that’s how we can keep feeding the nostalgia box.

In the interest of creating newer stories today, so that they can serve as nostalgia of the future.

Imagine.

Begin.

The subtle art of making friends

April 17, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Late at night, I was working on my laptop in my hostel. There were other people around me busy with their own devices as well. The dark room was lit up by the faces of people staring on the screens of their phones. No one breathed a word.

Until a gregarious Irishman walked in through the door. He went on greeting everyone.

‘Hey, howya doin? ‘ Pretty good? Jolly good I bet eh? ‘

He took great care of each person in the room . He greeted everyone and asked them about their day.
He had such an affable energy that everyone felt connected to him instantly.
One conversation led to another and through eavesdropping, everyone got to know each other.
One of us was a competitive bicyclist, one a peripatetic traveler, one a Yachtsman and so on.
He got himself a beer from the little fridge and sat down across me. We had a good exchange of words. Soon he called up the peripatetic traveller to join him for a beer.
The three of us got talking and over the course of the next couple of hours we shared a lot of things close to our hearts.

As the night came to a close he shared his story.
‘A Yachtsman from Ireland, at age 74 he dreams of sailing across the Atlantic to go to the Caribbean. Then he wishes to cross the Panama canal and sail the Pacific like a roaring trade wind.’
His curiosity and childlike fascination about other people’s stories was inspiring to experience.
At a ripe old age, he personified the vitality and spirit of an young, adventurous sailor.

I was enlivened by his sharing.
As we got up to go to bed,
I thanked him for bringing us all together on one table and enabling the exchange of ideas. We were sitting like perfect strangers until he arrived. And now we all felt close to each other, as if we’d been friends for a long time.

‘Thank you Mr. Eugene!’ I said as I hugged him.

“Don’t thank me young man,’
He raised his glass and said,
‘I just chose to say Hello’

Whenever you can,
‘You should too.’

Wonder-struck, sleepless on my bed,
I cherished the most simple advice I’ve gotten to cultivate brotherhood.

‘Just say hello!’

So my dear friend, I ask you,
How are you doing :)?

Choosing to Smile

April 14, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

After a 14 day ride up north from Bangkok, I finally reached Chiang Mai yesterday.
The great thing about travelling on a bicycle is that you get to transition from one place to another. The shift in place is not sudden like a train, bus or an aeroplane journey where you travel from point to point.
And with the slowly changing landscape, food, flora and fauna, I also noticed another discerning change.
This change was about people.

I bicycled mostly through rural Thailand. Even though people did not speak English at all, they offered helped in the best manner possible. They would smile more often. Without any reason I would find myself smiling at them as I passed by their field of view at a leisurely pace. And over the past two weeks, I learnt to smile at strangers.

As I reached Chiang Mai yesterday afternoon, I stopped at a public park to rest.
Being the second biggest city in Thailand, it has a sizable population. Tourists thronged the city to celebrate the Thai new year ‘Songkran’ in huge numbers.
Sinking in the feeling of having safely reached the city, I smiled, just like I did at the village folk in rural Thailand.
I looked into the eyes of people passing by and smiled genuinely, like a child.
I was happy and I wanted to share the energy.
But I was met with reserved smiles, guarded hearts looking at me curiously.
For a moment I wondered,
‘Why aren’t people smiling?’

Equally perplexing was the way people were reveling in the streets with uninhibited laughter and festivity of Songkran celebration. People were splashing water at pedestrians and passer-by and laughing their hearts out.
But the kind, natural, sincere smile was missing everywhere I saw.

In a few hours, I had to accept the reality of how a city gets used to individuality, at the expense of a collective community.

My smiles became much guarded in a day, just to not make other people uncomfortable.
In my eyes however, there still was unbound happiness and wonder.

As I walked past a big building in the city today, the security guard and I exchanged a glance. And we both smiled at each other in perfect consonance. What a welcome change it was !

Deep down I know, he still has a little part of the village in his heart,
As do I.

While we cannot change a city’s culture,
We can surely influence the culture through our interactions, our immediate surroundings,
In the little world we dwell in.

As I write, I am looking at a flower and wondering,
‘The flower is only looking to transform itself from a bud to a bloom, not worried about where it is in the world.
It only expresses its energy and graces the little world it dwells in.

We as creators of culture are confronted with a choice.
And in the interest of more smiles,
We should always yearn,
To Bloom.