Lacuna refers to an unfilled gap. I’m extending it to the scenario now wherein I’m back here in this space from a considerably long hiatus. I was actually moving my home to a different place and was rebooting myself as well. For me, I need that calmness and serenity to write/work on art-related stuff. The obvious chaos ensued from a house shift had to settle itself down. Netta and myself had been pondering a lot on moving to a new space. The earlier space that we’ve been living is an area that I’ve been in for around a decade or so. The new place is also in the periphery of the same area, but there’s a different vibe out here. Loving every aspect of it so far. This blog as it has been ever so still continues to be a book or a toolbox of intuition and spontaneity. This has been in chase of the mind wandering soul that I’m.
Like me, you should also be remembering instances and encounters from your life where you were blown away by the quality or passion with which you’d find a person would work regardless of the field they’re into. It can be a CEO, a laundry guy, an engineer, a programmer, a person running a grocery, the person delivers food to you, a farmer, anyone! I’ve read somewhere that monetary income is a deceptive way of seeing a man’s true worth. I’m trying to share some of my short memories from over the years that’s pouring into my mind right now as I think about it. The one thing that I can tell you with certainty, at least on what I have seen is that when a person is truly passionate and enthusiastic about what he does or the service he delivers, he or she wouldn’t be overly money minded. Of course, everybody would require money for their needs. But you get what I mean, it’s that their prime intention is to deliver excellence in what they do or giving the best service and the monetary aspect is secondary. There’s a tremendous difference if the primary intention is monetary benefits as opposed to “being best”, “delivering excellence’ etc.
I very distinctively remember an online cab driver who came to drop me and Netta at the bus station on our journey from Chennai to Pondichery. He was a very old man, and when we spoke to him, we learned that he has retired from his primary work and is working as a cab driver. We fondly remember his politeness and the way he served us during that short ride. When we were about to reach the bus station, for our convenience, we asked him whether he could do a Uturn and drop on the other side of the road. His response with a cheerful grin was ” Of course, This is your car ” That left a smile on my face. See how he made us happy with his service.
The guy from the laundry service that I rely on during our stay in Sharjah is a very smart young man Uttam from Nepal. He is very good at what he does, is very well mannered and leaves us happy.
Similarly, since I’ve been living in the same town in Sharjah for almost a decade now, I have been almost visiting the same salon for many years now. My favorite one among the barbers there is a guy named Sulayman, who absolutely loves what he does. Unlike some other barbers who’re in a hurry with no focus or attention on what they do, Sulayman does it slowly ensuring perfection on the cuts and I always leave the place with a smile.
To the point that I’ve been speaking of, all of us can make our best efforts to do what the best in whatever we engage in. It uplifts us and would fill us with fulfillment. Not everyone in this world is blessed to be in a job that they’re in love with. But even then, with a positive frame of mind, we can align it as an opportunity of learning and excelling in what we do. The quality of what we do, even if we don’t try to show it off or advertise it, would be perceived. The reason I quoted some examples from my life is that I find it almost very universal that it’ll be a pleasure to be around with people ingrained with such a frame of mind. As we might have read, when we try to chase the world, it goes away, and if we despise it, the world would be behind us. From what I’ve read, it would take a lifetime of experiences to convince us of this truth and it’s tough to remember it when we are going through tough times.
As Oprah Winfrey famously said, “Let excellence be your brand… When you are excellent, you become unforgettable. Doing the right thing, even when nobody knows you’re doing the right thing will always bring the right thing to you.”
The photograph of a meal during a journey to Buyukada island in Constantinople ;).
Around 5 months back or so, I had written on the theme of realizing roots. We talked about trees with their branches spreading through the air and producing fruits & the marvelous miracle of tiny seeds and grains bearing huge trees within them. If we pause and consciously think about it, the roots which are soft when we touch then pierce through hard rocks and dark earth. As the roots pierce the hardest depths, the branches on the top spread in the air bearing fruits and leaves retaining moisture despite the heat outside. Have we wondered about what a miraculous piece of machinery this is? We can see that they’re under a command. A seed in the process of its initial development would require a lot of things for it to flourish well. The right kind of soil, the balance of water, temperature, delicate humidity balances are some of them. The proportion and the correct balance of each of these factors are paramount for the seed to develop. The right mix and proportion reach them. Can an unconscious entity like a seed work consciously for this proportion to be right? That’s a definite no. We see intention, purpose, and design. Almighty has left these beautiful wonders around us as locks that could only be opened by the key of our thoughts and awareness. It’s consciousness and awareness that elevates & humbles us. The provisions in front of us would invoke yearnings and reflection for the seeker.
When you renounce the world, the world comes to you. When you don’t expect something, it comes to you.
From an evening stroll with Netta, 2019
“Peace is not always easy to grasp or keep close. In the process of attaining and protecting it, you may find yourself tired, weary, and uncertain on how to keep your peace safe. While being uncertain is normal, continue to commit yourself to peacefulness. You are worthy of every drop of sweetness and ease that you encounter. Being tested is a part of the journey. Giving up, and letting go, is not.”
I’m very ardent and passionate about learning things online. Whatever little skills that I count on, including building this very website you see here are self-taught. Over the past several days, I’ve been pondering on information consumption and the prevalent model of content delivery and its status quo. It’s easy to learn something from YouTube or any other online platform for example, and that could hop on to a stage of following the personality or tutor online, and in most cases, there’s a very good probability that you’ll be bombarded with a lot of sponsorship videos and ‘obscure’ ads purported as informative or engaging original content that you were originally behind them for. Yes, it’s totally understandable that these content creators would need advertisements to sustain themselves if that’s their full-time profession, but I think the advertising model prevalent on online platforms, especially the way of sneaking in ads without being explicit about it tend to jeopardize the value of time for the content consumer in the long run if thought is given to it. This sort of an evaluation mindset made me rescan all the regular channels that I engage with for learning or infotainment and I’m on the point of a reboot. God willing, I’m making a conscious plan of wielding time for skill enhancements by being selective with the choices. Life is too short to be buried in regular ads on online platforms. God willing, I’ve broad plans to learn a new language and to enhance some coding knowledge to automate a lot of things and chores.
An old saying goes by the note that everyone would like to live on top of the mountain, but all the experience, joy, and growth would be acquired in the process of climbing the mountain.
“Which is more important?” asked Big Panda, “the journey or the destination?” “The company,” said Tiny Dragon.
“Much of what we assume are “natural” units of time are really fences our ancestors constructed in order to corral time. Seconds, hours, and weeks are all human inventions.”
I always have this fantasy of flying high up in the air and having a bird’s eye view of places. I had numerous childhood dreams of just flying about in the sky freely like birds. As a natural extension of that, I’m an ardent appreciator and passionate admirer of aesthetic drone footages, be it video or aerial photographs. Philosophically also, I have this sort of unassertive frame of mind and view that if we always take a broader and eclectic view of any issue or hurdle or pleasure or any gifts of destiny, it allows us to keep ourselves grounded and calm and we can arrive at solutions much more easily. Broadness and narrowness are diametrically opposite poles in visuals and also really in life. (Remember “Mind Magnet” ? )
To experience what I’m relating to, disconnect from what you’re doing now, plug in headphones, and take a peek at this! Grateful for your glance and time. Keep reading!
I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer — and what trees and seasons smelled like — how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
There’s something called involuntary memory in us. When we get exposed to a stimulus, that’d trigger a strong memory from your past. For me, it could be the rich aroma of south Indian dosa with thick sambar that takes me to my childhood days and brings the memory of my home. There’re perfumes that bring in memories of Netta. For some people, the baking smell would take them from their rooms through memory travel to a cafe they’ve been in before. Brain regions processing smell, our vivid memories, and emotions are wired similarly.
A scent is a chemical particle that floats in through the nose and into the brain’s olfactory bulbs, where the sensation is first processed into a form that’s readable by the brain. Brain cells then carry that information to a tiny area of the brain called the amygdala, where emotions are processed, and then to the adjoining hippocampus, where learning and memory formation take place.
Scents are the only sensations that travel such a direct path to the emotional and memory centers of the brain. All other senses first travel to a brain region called the thalamus, which acts like a “switchboard,” relaying information about the things we see, hear or feel to the rest of the brain, said John McGann, an associate professor in the psychology department of Rutgers University in New Jersey. But scents bypass the thalamus and reach the amygdala and the hippocampus in a “synapse or two,” he said.
That results in an intimate connection between emotions, memories, and scents.
There’s a plan, order, and purpose in the way your brain is wired. How did this sophisticated system come around to you? Are with thinking about it? There’s master craftsmanship in our bodies and how everything is perceived. If we delve deep into the ordinary, it helps to discover the extraordinary miracles in them. Time for reflection
