The Perfectionist vs the Optimalist...!

Balachander and Ben-Shahar

Neerkumizhi and Being Happy

‘On what criteria do you choose a film for watching?’ 

Friends quite often ask us this question, ain’t they?

And well, each of us has our own stock-replies to this question! ;-)

Well, for me, personally, I go by friend-recommends! :-)

From friends who double up as film buffs!

In like fashion, I chanced upon legendary film director K. Balachander’s directorial debut movie titled, ‘Neerkumizhi’ (Water bubble), that saw its maiden silver screen release in the year 1965.

Many things about the movie have so intrigued and captivated me! 

That’s because a lot of noble themes run concurrently in the course of this 2 hrs, 09 min and 21 sec movie!

No spoilers though! ;-) 

The movie begins with a famous football player getting injured while playing a crucial decider match, and is then admitted in hospital.

In the seventh ward of this hospital, where he’s admitted, a young and sprightly lady doctor walks up to all her patients and enquires about their health.

Then she comes up to the bed of the injured football player, Arun.

Arun is shown seated on his bed, and he looks quite dejected! 

The doctor then enquires if he’s had a good night’s sleep.

Arun replies with tears in his eyes that he’s not had a good night’s sleep for many days in a row, as he felt cheated at not being able to make it to the International match with the Russian football team due to his sudden injury.

The cheerful doctor then tells him with such positivity brimming in her words,

‘Mr. Arun, this world is like a beautiful book. And the book will not be of any use whatsoever, to a person who doesn’t want to read and understand it!’

These words give hope to the footballer and he tells the doctor on a pretty hopeful note,

‘Doctor, if I get to play against the Russian team, I would be so very grateful to you for all of my dear life!’

to which the doctor replies,

‘Yes! you will not only play against Russia, but you are also going to captain the Indian team to Russia’,

she says with such conviction in her tone!

MM...!

MM!
2000 & counting!!

This is a momentous occasion for this, our blog, and hence a kinda special post to commemorate the occasion!

Well, this post marks the crossing of a little milestone of sorts on our blog.

We’ve reached the milestone of having published two thousand posts on our blog, with our ’Clear’ post on 04 May 2020!

On this momentous occasion, I thank God Almighty for bestowing His blessings on me right from day one, to help sustain the momentum on this our blog, for the past many years.

Secondly, my pranams and gratitude to my dad and mom, who initiated me at a very young age to the art of writing a diary.

Both have been such intense diarists, dad in especial.

Whenever I get a chance to pore over his volumes and volumes of diaries, I am quite literally dazed beyond measure.

By teaching me the nuances of writing a diary, they taught me how to value, how to appreciate and how to celebrate every single day of our lives on this sweet planet earth.

A simple rubric they taught me. And that was -

'Learning one new idea won’t make you a genius, but a commitment to lifelong learning can be transformative!'

Atomic Habits | James Clear

Just one little step at a time!

‘You get what you repeat’, seems to be the mantra that sums up the essence of Clear, James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, published in the year 2018.

Suchmuch is its inspiration for us readers.

In fact, instead of being called a self-help book, it would do well to call it a transformative book rather!

Yup! Suchmuch is its impact on us readers.

James Clear acknowledges the theory of “stimulus, response, reward” by B. F. Skinner in the 1930s and its recent ‘version’, the “cue, routine, reward” in The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

But I personally feel that he owes a lot of what he’s written to Edward Lorenz and Stephen Hawking as well, who, unfortunately go unacknowledged anywhere in the book! 

Again that was quite a personal observation at that!

Added, the book’s charm lies more in its style than its substance!

‘Don’t follow your passion; rather, let it follow you’

Little Literary Nuggets – 2

Cal Newport | So Good They Can’t Ignore You

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, in his inspirational autobiography titled, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791), discusses in great detail on his work ethics and career choices!

Although theirs was a family of dyers and smiths, Benjamin Franklin (Benji) decided to step off their family occupation and instead tried his luck on other trades as well! And as for his choice of profession, Benji confesses in his Autobiography that, he got his calling for his profession thanks to his great love for reading.

It’s no wonder then that, your reading helps you test your call and prove your intuition right!

You might want to read our past post on Benji here!

Now to the book of the day –

Well, Cal Newport is one author who promptly comes to mind every time we have a discussion on digital declutter ain’t it?

Who can forget his axiomatic statement –

If I want to add meaning to my life

I need to subtract the clutter!              

Well, Cal has also written a wonderful career-strategy book titled, So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, in the year 2012.

Through this wonderful book Newport gives us an answer to the quite intriguing question, “How do people end up loving what they do?”

To this end, Cal lands up in unexpected places, to better nuance his understanding of skill!

Pave your path with peace, prosperity and positivity...!

Little Literary Nuggets

Rajinikanth’s Petta | Gleanings

This February 2020, some of us teachers, we had asked all our final year students, who are graduating this semester, to be present in classes, for the last few weeks of this, their last semester with us in particular!

“These are classes when we usually give y’all some good tips and suggestions on facing your future, career guidance etc”, we had then told them!

But as things have turned out, with the corona virus forcing us all indoors, and the shipload of ‘end semester classes’ having sailed past us, it’s only meet that we continue the momentum full throttle on our e-platforms!

In this regard, this little series hopes to give you all, our dear students, some high-octane motivation [with some literary allusions as well], to face up to your futures with the brightest hope and the fullest confidence possible!

So here we go in right earnest into the first part of our Little Literary Nuggets for Life!

Well, last year I had the blessed opportunity of watching actor Rajinikanth’s movie titled, ‘Petta’.

And yes! Nobody who has spent the best part of their lives in South India, would ever want to give you a reason for watching a Rajinikanth movie!

A ‘Rajinikanth movie’ is reason enough, you see! ;-)

But for once, I had an added reason too, for relishing a Rajinikanth movie!

A Joyful Celebration of YOUR Artistic and Creative Space...!

Dear Students, Friends and Readers,

Greetings!

I am very thrilled and happy to know that many of you are spending your Covid Curfew days in such exciting ways!

Over the past one month, many many many of you, creative beings, aka literary beings, have written to me on the myriad ways in which you are giving vent to your creative vibes in these curfew times!

One of our past kids Sai Shri has crossed a hundred poems and counting, these holiday times! Proud of you, as usual, kiddo! 

Some of you have taken the time and effort to even share with me your personal blogs.

Thank you so much. So happy for you and so proud of you!

Sargunan Ranganathan, 2003 batch in especial. I am giving his link to the right of our blog.

I would like to make special mention of a few other literary beings who’ve shared their creative musings with me these holidays.

Kirthika our past student is doing vlogs on a regular basis. Kudos Kirthika. Will be sharing them with y’all once she gives the nod! ;-)

Prof. Neelakandan has done his first vlog yesterday, and so has Prof. Rajesh! Congrats Profs!

Harini has almost completed her novella! Kudos kiddo!

Sara Abraham has written short stories and poems that are so highly original and highly appealing. Kudos kiddo! Keep up the good work!

Dr. Gabriella has taken a sweet resolve to write down her literary jottings on a wonderful e-platform. Kudos Ma’am! So proud of you!

Prof. Krishnan is into writing research papers with such fervour, these curfew days! Kudos dear sir. 

Aparna mol is on a writing spree! Congrats kiddo!

Prof. Anamica is celebrating her personal space by writing wonderful poems. Congrats ma'am!

Dr. Maria is also 24x7 into creativity! Some amazing poems I was so delighted to read! Happy for you, ma’am!

Dr. Benet is up to his favourite hobby of all time – reading! Proud of you sir!

Some are into doing webinars!

Some are busy catching up on their research papers!

Some are catching up on their good ol’ favourite movies that they’d piled up in their ‘bucket list’ for decades!

Kudos and appreciation to all of you folks!

So proud of you all!

Your tireless strivings matter a lot, in making the world a better place!

As Jidduji says,

‘In enquiring into ourselves we are not isolating ourselves from the rest of the world. That is an actual fact. I have created the world as I am’.

What a beautiful axiomatic premise worthy of celebration and admiration!

Indeed, YOU have the ability and the capability, the potential and the power to create the world as you are, and as YOU wish it to!

That’s your style! That’s your route! That’s your path!

You need no mentor, no guide, no research supervisor, no teacher to show you your style!

The most they could all possibly do is to show you the way! - the direction!

But it would do well for you to remember that, it’s up to you to pave YOUR path!

And as you know, it’s quite easy to walk on a path already paved by somebody else!

But to pave your own path is a delightful challenge in itself, alley?

Indeed, as the good ol’ saying goes, the windows of every house in your locality may be the same, but what YOU see through YOUR window from YOUR house, is NOT the same! 

That’s your perspective to life! Your perspective to living!

That’s your ‘perspective’ to reading a book!

That’s your ‘perspective’ to writing a book!

And yes! Please do remember that, you should see life through YOUR window!

Not through the windows of your friends, neighbours, teachers, mentors or relatives! ;-)

Therein lies your style!

Therein lies your success!

And this is real liberation that one could possibly obtain for oneself!

And this is indeed the liberation that the narrator of the intriguing short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ strives to attain! And how!

Well, the narrator to the story, real frets and fumes over all her ample restrictions imposed on her by her husband John, a doctor by profession. 

Since she is now undergoing treatment for an unspecified ‘nervous condition’, she has been forbidden from working and writing! 

But as the story progresses, the narrator is seen to slowly and steadily free herself from the constrictions and restrictions that have limited her potential and her identity! Her chief therapeutic source being her writing!

Not able to talk her mind to anyone, she finds such solace and therapy in writing down her thoughts and ideas in her personal journal! ‘I must say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!’, she quips!

Something on a similar vein happens in Maxine Hong Kingston’s 1989 novel titled, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book.

Wittman Ah Sing, the protagonist to the novel appears disillusioned with the modern world. He is vexed and troubled beyond measure to find the rampant commercialization of society. 

The Monkey King myth has such rich resonances here!

Moreover, Wittman is also upset at the widespread racial intolerance towards Asians in his society!

Feeling stifled in his job as well, our protagonist decides to abdicate any desire towards people or fame or money!

He resolves to work on his muse overtime, the domain in which he feels he rightfully belongs!

Having resolved thus, he then starts working with such intense commitment to staging his play! He sweats it out over the next few months and finally he is able to come out with his wonderful creative vibes on his own stage. 

What joy and what relief he feels, and rightfully so, when he sees his muse unleashed on stage thus!

Once he has gotten for himself this lovely stage space or creative space, where he could put forward his own views, (through his own window!) he heaves an intense sigh of happiness! 

Now, at last he is able to ably speaks his thoughts and his ideas to the people about the racial stereotypes that have long burdened his soul, and gently persuades people to claim their rightful space in American society.

Tripmaster Monkey as such, is a joyful celebration of the artistic and the creative space that’s the rightful domain of any literary being!

So why wait!?

Celebrate your me-space these curfew days!

Ably and sprightly, in your own sweet ways!

Happy creativity time for y’all, folks!

'What happens if the gift is not allowed to move on?'

Lewis Hyde | The Gift

Celebrating the Creative Spirit within You!

Today, in a long time, I had the lovely opportunity of talking to a very senior professor, who is so passionate about creativity!

The call lasted for one hour and forty two minutes to be exact, and all along, we were discussing the various facets of creativity and how it could be made to relate to our academic set-up of today’s, where the ‘creativity part’ has taken a nose-dive for sometime now, for various reasons, what with the ‘creativity code’ or the ‘machine code’, adding to our list, and slowly intruding into the much celebrated ‘creative space’ of humans!

I was in fact, reading through a lovely article on ‘Creativity’, by this vibrant professor, which has insightful analogies and impactful lines for anyone who loves upping their creativity quotient!

There’s this lovely comparison that she’s made between ‘The Thirsty Crow’ and Henry Ford, who according to her, are both alike, innovators!

And Professor then proceeds to examine the concept of ‘Creativity’ through seven beautiful lenses –

Creativity is like a bird

Creativity is like electricity

Creativity is like breathing

Creativity is a muscle

Creativity is insight

Creativity is ‘magic’

Creativity is ‘your signature’

Then, for my little part, I told her about a book I’ve been so obsessed with recently, (yes! reading it for the third time in a span of ten months’ time!) by Lewis Hyde, titled, The Gift!

You might want to read out our past post on The Gift here!

Well, this particular book has the ‘gift’ of offering you such newy-dewy insights of the most tasteful and graceful order, every time you read it anew!

Suchmuch is its charm! Suchmuch its impact! On us, the readers!

Would so love sharing with y’all from that particular part of the Scottish folk tale from the middle of the nineteenth century, from off Lewis Hyde’s The Gift!