Sunday, 10 November 2024

Tips, Tricks and Cheat sheets | For Planning Your Digital Detox Routine!

Tips, Tricks and Cheat sheets ❤️

For Planning Your Digital Detox Routine! 😍

Of the 24 hours in a day’s time, statistics tells us that we are more slavishly addicted to, and intoxicated by our techno-gadgets than even tipplers of the highest order!


So it would be a misnomer to call a tippler alone an addict! 

When we ourselves are confirmed addicts, intoxicated by the power of all those techno-gadgets, that’s enslaved us to the core! There may be a slight variation in degree, but the quantum remains the same! 


Intoxicated and addicted! Both equally are! So we in us find both the tippler and the techno! ;-)

Hence, much akin to the host of de-addiction centres that are in place all across the city for patients with substance use disorder, or the host of psycho-social rehabilitation centres that are burgeoning by the day at every residential locality across the city, a digital detox centre is the need of the hour for those of us who are so obsessed with our techno gadgets 24 x 7!

Before the situation starts getting out of hand, it is time to stem the rot, aint it? 

Hence these detox initiatives!

Moreover, as teachers and professors, it becomes our bounden duty to promote noble thoughts and noble qualities of the highest order in our wards, aint it?! One such noble concept is the idea of a digital detox!

Well, a digital detox doesn’t necessarily mean that we would be disconnected entirely from society. It’s a pretty decent 50/50! 

So it starts with a 12 - hour digital detox per day!

You choose your sweet convenient timing at that! It could be evening six to morning six!

Or you may also start from morning six to evening six!

In this particular time frame, you forget the fact that you ever had a cell phone or techno connect gadgets on you.

You don’t even get to touch your gadget in this ‘golden hours’ period! Period! Promise yourself on that! 

So what do I do? How do I indulge myself in other creative pursuits during this 12 hour detox schedule?

Well, it’s quite easy to begin with!

When you are just beginning to try out on your first ever digital detox, begin with just a day’s trial on the detox!

And before you start on your one-day’s trial on the digital detox, for courtesy sake, do tell your close friends / family to get in touch with a close friend /sibling in case of any emergency connect with you.

So yup!

Here we go!

Till six in the evening, you have the entire 12 hours for you to be pally with everyone around you, your friends, your well wishers, your family, your buddies, your pals, your roomies, et al!

The clock strikes six in the evening, and you quietly and gently dispense with all your techno gadgets on you!

So what do I do in this 12-hour period?

Yes! Seven hours goes for your sleep. So you’ve got just around five hours on you now.

At the stroke of six, get your walking gear ready! Get set go! Take a refreshing gentle stroll along the garden, or on the pedestrian pathway down your street, or in the next adjacent playground near your locale! 

When you go on your stroll, do not be like the lay, the pavapetta lay, with their head bent, neck lowered, in such revered attention to their cell phones! That’s not for the types of you! Look around you as you take every step! Look at the trees! Are they native varieties or are they foreign imported trees? 

Do birds flock up those trees, and if so, do you spot any bird calls twittering back at you? Some mynahs? Some bulbuls, some egrets, some parrots, some seven sisters, there are a whole variety of them in your area! Make sure you take a close look at them! Observe them! Thank heavens for these lovely birds that enliven your evening.

On your way back, get some bananas or fruits and biscuits on you! Near your home you might happen to chance upon a cow or a dog, a calf or a pup! 

Make sure you feed them the little you have! See the way they take the food from you that you’ve so thoughtfully bought for them! See the gratitude in their eyes! [What about keeping some good, fresh water and fodder for the chirpy birds? Well, that’s for the morning routine, though!] Now look up above, high above, and with a grateful heart thank heavens for helping you do all these noble deeds! Then come back home, take a refreshing, rejuvenating bath after your evening cuppa time!

After this one hour is up, now it’s around seven pm! 

And it’s time to catch up on the day’s newspapers. [I’ve specifically told my students, especially my PG Classes that they should read at least four different newspapers every day!]

Two English dailies and two vernaculars!


So at around seven, after a refreshing bath, sit for your newspaper reading over a cuppa coffee! Thirty to forty minutes to catch up on all the news of the previous day!

Relax for around fifteen minutes.

Then, gently walk across to your reading table!

What do you do here?

Simple!

Take a book and start reading! Don’t waste time thinking about what blessed book to read! Just take a book and start reading!

And please don’t you ever read any book at a stretch for extended periods of time!

Read with intense focus without any distractions, whatsoever! But only for thirty minutes!

When you begin reading, don’t read with a desire to understand the story! There’s this common anxiety amongst readers to come to grips with storyline, and so they focus more on the characters. But that’s not the exact way to read!

You start appreciating the language of a text, every page and every line of it!

Say a ‘Wowww’, say a ‘Lovelyyy’ say a ‘Awww’, say a ‘Ooooh’ say ‘Amazinggg’, say, ‘Lovely-o-lovelyyy’ everytime you see a particular phrase or expression, a particular idiom or usage that’s so touched your heart!

That’s how you read! Not for the story line alone! Cos stories are universal! They almost always have the same structure to it! Ask the formalists, query the structuralists, and they all will stand in attention and say ‘Amen’ to that!

So you read! Read for the ‘How’ of the story! How the story has been presented to you!

What is the unique style of the story that makes it click?

What is that something special about the story that makes it endearing to you?

Now, after you’re done with your 30 minutes of intense reading, put your book face down, or bookmark it and close it for the moment.

Appreciate yourself, by patting yourself and smiling at yourself! You’ve done something extraordinary in your lifetime! :-)

You’ve sat on a book (not literally though!) for 30 minutes flat without any distractions!
That’s a huge achievement in itself of you, by you, for you!

Get yourself a cuppa hot piping coffee for yourself! Walk down the aisle, the lawn, or the footpath or the sideways! Do some moving ups, and moving downs on the stairs!

Now come back after 10 to 15 minutes, and open your diary or your scribbling  pad!

Write down whatever comes to you! Be spontaneous!!!
It could be a poem!
It could be your week planning schedule!
It could be your appointments for the week!
It could be the assignments that you’ve got to do!
It could be on some noble thoughts or ideas you listened to in class!
It could be some noble thoughts or ideas you’d gained in conversation with your friend, mentor or teacher!

Write them down! Write them all down! In some ordered way!

Let your 30 minutes of writing time be as creative as possible!

Whenever you write something down, bear in mind that it becomes a written record! A written record, becomes so valuable and highly cherished, after decades!

So write down your thoughts! Be it a short story’s outline! Or your top five friends, your top five teachers, your top five inspirations, your top five resolves and resolutions, your top five books that you’ve lined up on the stacks, your top five authors, your top five destinations that you intend to go this winter!

It could be anything! But write them down!

You’re now done with your 30 minutes! Hey presto! One hour of creative spending this evening! Appreciate yourself once again! Pat yourself yet again! Go smile at yourself in the mirror once again!

Yes! Do the happiness dance!

Now! get yourself a glass or two of water! Refresh yourself!

If you’ve got good neighbours, or good friends with whom you can talk, say a ‘hi’ to them!

A grandpa or a grandma at home? Go sit at their feet and say a ‘hi’ to them. Talk to them. Talk with affection and love to them! Do it for thirty minutes! 

Ask your grandma / grandpa if they want anything. Ask them if they need anything. Ask them if they are happy. Ask them if you could be of help to them in any way. Ask them about their favourite games and sports when they were young like you! Ask them! Talk to them! That’s what they need! And what do you get back in return?

Money? Nope!
Chocolates? Nope!!
Food? Nope!!!

Well, it’s something that is more valuable than them all put together! Yes! something that money or chocolates or food cannot get you! What you get back in reservoirs of abundance, are their blessings and their wishes for you. Their blessings in abundance are the greatest credit that has the power to steer you and to guide you all through your life!

Grandpa/grandma time may go on and on without bell or brake! But tell them you’ve got work, and tomorrow same time you’ll meet them again! They’d gladly allow you to take leave!

[Well, if you stay in a hostel, take these blessed minutes to talk with your close friends! Chat with them to your heart’s content. Joke with them! Share your thoughts with them! Do anything except except except… gossip! Discuss your future plans with them! All for around thirty minutes! Human interaction is a blessing of great value! Its value is far more precious than even the costliest rubies or emeralds!

Now, get back to your reading desk! Take another book! Start reading! Do an intense reading! For forty five minutes now – without any distraction of any sort!

Use highlighters or pencils to highlight lovely expressions that you come across! Write some of the useful expressions in a note book that you’ve got handy beside you.

To sum it all up,
Walking: 1 hr
Refreshing time: 15 minutes
Newspaper Reading time: 45 minutes
Reading: 30 minutes
Talking/Chatting time: 30 minutes
Dinner time: 15 minutes.
Getting back to reading: 1 hour
Writing time: 45 minutes
Meditation/Quiet time: 15 minutes

Having successfully accomplished all of the above, you may now get ready to do the victory dance!

The angels in heaven, and God/s above will sure join you in this victory dance, because they’d all take immense pride in creating you, in carving you and sending you into this world, and here you are, quietly and gently making  a difference in your own little way! 

After your victory dance, you may now peacefully, after having kept your triumphant routine, hit sack, and go into gentle snoring mode and avail the most pleasant dreams on you!

Now now now… tell me, tell me, tell me!!!!! where on earth do you have the time to squander, or fritter away, or waste on all those social networking sites or on doomscrolling? 


Well, before I conclude: the other day a student of mine asked me a very pertinent question! ‘Sir, if I don’t log into my facebook, I feel I am missing out on something so important. That’s why I tend to log into my facebook quite often!’

He has a valid point out there! He’s right in a way! But since he’s a student, I gave him an alternative arrangement! 

I told him, ‘My dear boy, everything you ever wanted to know as news or information may be on facebook, but you’d be glad to know that the most relevant and most appropriate news that you ever wanted to know will be carefully ordered and structured to you on a delightful package, available the very next day on a wonderful broadsheet called the day’s newspaper. 

Added, there’s no artificial intelligence unit on a newspaper to distract you jiffy by jiffy into unwanted terrains and domains you won’t even have thought of venturing into! Hence, on this particular parameter, you needn’t worry that you’d be missing something so great and so valuable! I said.

Yes! You surely ain’t gonna lose out on anything big!!!

Trust me! I’m not on instagram at all! And I’ve never felt anytime in my life that I’m missing something greatly, ever! Cos I get it all on the day’s newspapers! And even more!

So what do I get to do on the time thus saved from these trivial distractions? 

I get more time and space for myself - to read, to write, to talk, to blog, to vlog, to publish, to escape into the woods, to go on a long drive, to do a trek, to chat with real people and lots and lots more!

You may want to read more on a sample granny/grandpa chat time, HERE
You may want to read more on a sample trekky adventure time, HERE
You may want to read more on a sample tree walk time, HERE

Well, to conclude, the schedule above that’s been given for you, is just for the ‘detox trial day’, and meant to be tried out by students of all hues! 

And if you’ve succeeded on this routine with high degree of success, ping me on! Would gladly give y’all the regular detox routine, mailed across to you the next instant! That’s a regular detox routine spread over all seven days of the week!

Best wishes on your digital detox!!!

Saturday, 9 November 2024

Amaran & the ‘Liberated’ MCC Spirit...!

Amaran & the ‘Liberated’ MCC Spirit

Watching Amaran in Salem | Our Felt Experience ❤️

Well, I am so delighted to give my take (not review!) on the patriotic movie Amaran – a biographical action drama that foregrounds the valour and the sacrifice of our illustrious alumnus Major Mukund Varadarajan, with MCC forming the backdrop to the beautiful love story of Indhu and Mukund.

Well, since my beloved wife also happens to be an illustrious alumna of MCC, [having studied here in MCC for three years], we thought of somehow making it for the first day show of Amaran on Diwali day – 31st October 2024.

However, since we couldn’t get tickets on Diwali day, we thought of making it by all means on the second day at least!

And yes we did!

We were in Salem on 1st November 2024, and we had booked our matinee show in one of the good theatres there. The crowd was literally overflowing all over the theatre.

The very opening scene where Siva meets Indhu was met with such roaring applause and cheer from the audience.

MCC in fact becomes one of the main characters in the movie, along with Mukund and Indhu, shaping the hero and the heroine’s lives for the better.

I was particularly interested in this one scene where Indhu is shown as a kind of introvert, not at all willing to participate in any of the extra-curricular activities of the College.

This particular scene is shot in one of the Indoor Theatres of the Halls of Residence in MCC where Mukund is shown exhorting Indhu to take part in the Cultural fest.

But Indhu replies with diffidence that it would’t suit the likes of her.

‘I am good at tattooing, story writing, creative writing, art work, and related things. But when it comes to stage performance, I’ve got a bit of fear. I don’t think I am good on the stage’!

Then Siva gives a nonchalant look towards her, and replies,

‘Hey Mammootty, if you have to get rid of stage fear, you need to get on stage’!

So saying, he holds her by her hand and lifts her up onto the stage.

There starts her journey into the world of culturals and confidence in MCC.

Bespeaks to the great power of encouragement and how a small word of appreciation or encouragement can do wonders in the lives of people around us - shaping them and transforming them into a better version of themselves!

Well, yes! That’s one thing that sets MCC apart!

Well, MCC has always been unique in this aspect – where students get rid of their inhibitions and introverted nature by taking part in a host of co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities – outside the regular classroom, that make them confident, responsible and informed citizens.

Coming back to the movie –

Yes! We found Amaran a real Diwali treat and a must-watch for every Indian.

To me personally, watching a movie in Salem was a different experience altogether!

One could feel first-hand the emotional connect with the audience that resonates and reverberates in the Cinema hall with such hoots, whistles and claps all the way - up until the end of the movie!

When Siva teaches the famous ‘Achamillai’ song to his daughter, the entire audience chorus it along with him, sending real goosebumps all over us.

Well, watching a movie in Chennai might be a very refined, Apollonian experience.

Watching Amaran in Salem was definitely a Dionysian experience, and an exhilarating experience that made it one of the most unforgettable movies that I’ve ever watched.

Next only to my all-time favourite Anbe Sivam!

The Review of Amaran follows…

In the meantime, you may want to read our review of Anbe Sivam in our past post HERE 

Wednesday, 6 November 2024

"I had never met anyone like her. I had dated other girls before, some serious, some not. But Usha occupied an entirely different emotional universe"

Usha Vance and her Academic Prowess! 

On the Second Lady (designate) of the USA

JD Vance on his Wife Usha in his Memoir HillBilly Elegy

Today we had hosted a senior American Professor from the University of Houston – Robin E Gearing, who has more than a hundred research papers in SCOPUS/WoS to his credit, and has been quite a regular visiting faculty to MCC for the past six years now.

This afternoon, when he joined us for lunch – I was asking him if he found Indian food good on his palate. He was pausing a bit for an answer – and he then hastened to give me a reply – profusely apologizing for his delayed reply!

Said he, ‘I was busy glued to my mobile phone, looking up the latest on the US Election Results. Trump seems to be leading’ he said.

Well, the Trump win may have raised both positive and not-so-positive comments from the media - here in India and across the Atlantic as well!

But my post today, on our blog here, would focus on Trump’s running mate – J D Vance and his Indian-origin wife Usha Vance. Interestingly, Vance will be the youngest VP to assume office since 1953’s Richard Nixon!

And what interested me the most was the media attention given to Usha Vance and her Indian roots. Was so happy to know about that!

Especially about her academic prowess!

I was so happy to read that, Usha Vance has a great-aunt aged 96, named Chilukuri Santhamma, back here in India, who is celebrated as the nation’s oldest active professor, who – even today – travels around 60 kilometres each day, to her University to teach Physics.

Usha’s parents had moved to the United States way back in the 1970s, and they teach molecular biology and engineering in San Diego. Earlier, both her father and grandfather had studied and later taught at India’s premier Indian Institute of Technology.

Quite interestingly, I chanced upon her husband and Vice-President designate J D Vance’s memoir.

Yes, he had written his memoir titled, Hillbilly Elegy – ‘a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis’ - that of white working-class Americans!

Remarkable that he had written his memoir when he was just 31 years of age!!!

In this memoir he introduces to his readers, his wife Usha Vance as a ‘supersmart daughter of Indian immigrants’.

Usha comes into the picture for the first time in Chapter 13 of this memoir.

Here goes his lovely words on his Usha -

As I began to think a bit more deeply about my own identity, I fell hard for a classmate of mine named Usha.

As luck would have it, we were assigned as partners for our first major writing assignment, so we spent a lot of time during that first year getting to know each other.

She seemed some sort of genetic anomaly, a combination of every positive quality a human being should have: bright, hardworking, tall, and beautiful. I joked with a buddy that if she had possessed a terrible personality, she would have made an excellent heroine in an Ayn Rand novel, but she had a great sense of humor and an extraordinarily direct way of speaking.

Where others might have asked meekly, “Yeah, maybe you could rephrase this?” or “Have you thought about this other idea?” Usha would say simply: “I think this sentence needs work” or “This is a pretty terrible argument.”

At a bar, she looked up at a mutual friend of ours and said, without a hint of irony, “You have a very small head.”

I had never met anyone like her. I had dated other girls before, some serious, some not. But Usha occupied an entirely different emotional universe.

I thought about her constantly. One friend described me as “heartsick” and another told me he had never seen me like this.

Toward the end of our first year, I learned that Usha was single, and I immediately asked her out. After a few weeks of flirtations and a single date, I told her that I was in love with her. It violated every rule of modern dating I’d learned as a young man, but I didn’t care.

Usha was like my Yale spirit guide. She’d attended the university for college, too, and knew all of the best coffee shops and places to eat. Her knowledge went much deeper, however: She instinctively understood the questions I didn’t even know to ask, and she always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn’t know existed.

“Go to office hours,” she’d tell me. “Professors here like to engage with students. It’s part of the experience here.” In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home.

But there were signs that things weren’t going so well, particularly in my relationship with Usha.

We’d been dating for only a few months when she stumbled upon an analogy that described me perfectly.

I was, she said, a turtle. “Whenever something bad happens—even a hint of disagreement—you withdraw completely. It’s like you have a shell that you hide in.”

It was true.

I had no idea how to deal with relationship problems, so I chose not to deal with them at all. I could scream at her when she did something I didn’t like, but that seemed mean. Or I could withdraw and get away.

Those were the proverbial arrows in my quiver, and I had nothing else. The thought of fighting with her reduced me to a morass of the qualities I thought I hadn’t inherited from my family: stress, sadness, fear, anxiety. It was all there, and it was intense.

So I tried to get away, but Usha wouldn’t let me. I tried to break everything off multiple times, but she told me that was stupid unless I didn’t care about her. So I’d scream and I’d yell. I’d do all of the hateful things that my mother had done. And then I’d feel guilty and desperately afraid. For so much of my life, I’d made Mom out to be a kind of villain. And now I was acting like her. Nothing compares to the fear that you’re becoming the monster in your closet.

I was near Ford’s Theatre, the historic location where John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham in the head. I turned the corner, and after a few steps I saw Usha sitting on the steps of Ford’s Theatre.

She had run after me, worried about me being alone. I realized then that I had a problem—that I must confront whatever it was that had, for generations, caused those in my family to hurt those whom they loved.

I apologized profusely to Usha. I expected her to tell me to go fuck myself, that it would take days to make up for what I’d done, that I was a terrible person.

A sincere apology is a surrender, and when someone surrenders, you go in for the kill. But Usha wasn’t interested in that.

She calmly told me through her tears that it was never acceptable to run away, that she was worried, and that I had to learn how to talk to her. And then she gave me a hug and told me that she accepted my apology and was glad I was okay.

That was the end of it.

And the endearing saga goes on and on. Do grab yourself a copy of Hillbilly Elegy rightaway!

And here’s wishing JD Vance and Usha Vance a remarkable stint at the White House grounds, as Second Gentleman (SGOTUS) and Second Lady (SLOTUS) of the US.

PS: For those of you into binge-watching - on Netflix, there’s news for you on the Vances. Hillbilly Elegy, is streaming now on Netflix. It’s an American drama film [directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay by Vanessa Taylor] based on JD Vance’s 2016 memoir! Here’s wishing you happy watching!

The Turtle Episode | A Screengrab from the Netflix film

Photo courtesy: ClevelandDotCom