"The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders..."

‘Uppuma, Newspaper, Retreat’ – Repeat… 😊

MCC School | Blessed Hostel Years

Action | Artefaction | Abstraction | Habituation

#mccschool #hosteldays #memoriesfromdiaries

29th October 1994

[This day, 29 years ago, from my personal diaries]

A reflective trip down memory lane is sure bound to double up as a nostalgic and a therapeutic trip as well. 

This post intends to describe the concept of ‘habituation’ with reference to an event in the past!

Habituation – a form of non-associative learning – is ‘a process of acquiring ‘habits’ by repeatedly engaging in actions of a similar type!’.

Habituated actions or habituated states of character are not states we are born with.

Rather, we are born with the ability to acquire such states, states that form a person’s “second nature” and that are difficult, though perhaps not impossible, to change.

The more frequently a person does a certain type of action, the more one becomes that sort of person; and then, in turn, the more one becomes that type of person, the more one is liable to do that sort of action.

For this reason, Aristotle emphasizes that it is most important to acquire the right sort of habits right from one’s youth.

Desmond Morris, in his insightful book titled, People Watching, highlights on the difference between action, artefaction and abstraction.

All animals perform actions and most do little else.

A great many also make artefacts – constructed or manufactured objects – such as nests, webs, beds and burrows.

Among the monkeys and apes there is also some evidence of abstract thinking. But it is only with man that artefaction and abstraction have run riot.

This is the essence of his success story.

With his massive brain, man has increasingly internalized his behaviour through complex processes of abstract thought – through language, philosophy and mathematics,

says Desmond Morris.

He then proceeds to explicate on the broad classification of the Types of ACTIONS –

Inborn Actions – Actions we do not have to learn

Discovered Actions – Actions we discover for ourselves

Absorbed Actions – Actions we acquire unknowingly from our companions

Trained Actions – Actions we have to be taught

Mixed Actions – Actions acquired in several ways

This diary entry of 29 years ago is ample evidence to the concept of ‘Absorbed Actions’ – how we acquire unknowingly certain actions – say habituated actions – from our friends and companions.

Some of the habits that have sweetly stuck to me for years and years, thanks to good friends, who initiated me into those good actions.

Like reading the day’s newspaper first thing in the morning. 😊

On this particular day, being a Saturday, we were given the privilege of waking up a bit late into the morning.

Our warden Mr. Parthiban came to our dormitories and our cubicles and announced the news that all of us had to go for the retreat at the Visual Hall.

Something that we HSC students found a bit boring, monotonous, and tedious, on a Saturday morning.

If not for this kinda ‘boring’ Retreat, we would have gone shopping or enjoyed watching movies, or enjoyed our swimming sessions in the lovely swimming pool constructed at the MCC-MRF Pace Foundation near the ‘railway station’ entrance to the school.

Well, Sai and Sunil were my trusted and regular companions in reading the day’s newspaper.

He was also a great fan of Asterix, Tintin, Tinkle, Champak, Hardy Boys, Satyajit Ray’s Short Stories, MAD, Target, etc.

Hence our spare time discussions always revolved around the various fictional characters that were featured in these books.

Each of these favourite books had a certain function associated with it. For example –

The Asterix comics was known for its pleasant opening, and how it transports us in one sweep into the world of magical realism. 😊

Sample the opening lines of Asterix –

The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium…

Likewise, Tintin was known for its memorable characters, including Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Thompson and Thomson, Bianca Castafiore, Professor Calculus, etc. Each was known for their memorable, inimitable characteristic expressions as well.

Like – Captain Haddock’s ‘Billions of blue blistering barnacles…’, ‘Thousands of thundering typhoons’, etc.

Tintin’s ‘Great snakes,’ Thompson & Thomson’s ‘To be precise…’ etc.

Interestingly, all Tintin comics came to THE END in exactly 62 pages – not more, not less!

Coming back to habituation,

Says James Clear, in his much popular book titled, Atomic Habits,

You get what you repeat!

So yes!

For us, on any given Saturday, it was –

‘Uppuma, Newspaper & Retreat’ – Repeat… 😊

PS: You may want to read our past blog post on ‘Sunil runs off with Champak’, HERE. 😊