Beta and Data

 

A Cunning Strategy

I have a habit of humming songs. One day, I went to a shop and I asked the shopkeeper to show me some stuff. While he was showing those things, I start humming a song. The shopkeeper looked at me with an overenthusiastic smile and gave a compliment on my singing skills. I said thanks and silently started enjoying the pleasant sensations which enveloped my body and mind after hearing this compliment.

That day, when I went home, I recorded my singing voice on my computer. Then I played the recording. I was shocked to hear my voice. It was not bad. It was horrible. I felt pity for those who had to hear my singing voice and suffer silently.

But a few minutes later, I felt respect for the shopkeeper. He had unknowingly taught me something valuable that day. He had taught me that you can stop somebody from doing something horrible by giving him a false compliment with a big smile.

गर्व निरोधक गोली

कई साल पहले मेरा एक सहपाठी हुआ करता था, जिसका काम लोगों को छोटा महसूस कराना था। अगर किसी ने कोई भी अच्छा काम किया और उसकी तारीफ हुई तो वो तुरंत बताने लगता था कि वो किसी और इंसान को जानता है जो और भी अच्छा काम कर लेता है। उसके सामने आप अपनी किसी चीज के बारे में अच्छा महसूस नहीं कर सकते थे।

सावधानी के लिए मैंने उसका नंबर अपने फोन में ‘गर्व निरोधक गोली’ के नाम से सेव कर रखा था।

More Options, More Boredom

Nowadays I hear from many friends that they are bored to death. Nothing can rescue them. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, YouTube, Instagram Reels, Sony Liv and hundreds of TV channels appear to be useless to them. They say that nothing is worth watching.

It reminds me of the days when I was around seven years old. Every Sunday, at nine-thirty in the morning, the city used to go through a half-an-hour long self-imposed curfew. We used to wait for this moment for at least one or two days. The more enthusiastic ones waited for a bigger number of days. The reason was simple. Doordarshan used to telecast the popular TV serial based on Ramayana.

Nobody talked of boredom then. I never heard anybody saying that nothing is worth watching. And frankly speaking, we had nothing to watch except one Ramayana, one Hindi feature film and two Chitrahars in a week. But we used to live in the bliss of entertainment, and we used to excitedly wait for each of them.

On one hand, today people are bored despite the hundreds of options available at their fingertips. On the other hand, people used to be excited despite having not more than four options in a week. There could be two reasons behind this contrast in the experiences.

First, maybe I am suffering from a case of selective memory. I remember the excitement we felt for Ramayana and Chitrahars, but I am conveniently forgetting the boredom we used to suffer from the rest of the time. Perhaps our boredom those days was just like the boredom we have these days. It’s just that I don’t remember the bad parts of the past days.

Second, I feel that we human beings enjoy something more when it’s available in less quantity. When the quantity is less, we spend a lot of time waiting for it and letting the excitement build up. But when we get something in a huge quantity which is available all the time, we don’t get the base of waiting and excitement which adds to the pleasure of actual experience when it finally comes.

It’s no surprise that discontentment and boredom in most of us are increasing with the bigger number of options being made available to us by the consumerist industry. We may have found a better lifestyle, but our mental and emotional satisfaction has gone for a toss. When it comes to feeling satisfied and happy, perhaps ‘the less is more’.

The Crafty Nature of Desires

When I was around ten years old, I went to the market with my parents and I wanted to purchase a plastic toy gun. I had fallen so badly in love with the gun that at that moment I wanted nothing else. I begged my father to purchase that gun for me. I promised that I won’t ask for anything else my entire life if my desire for that gun is fulfilled. After fifteen minutes of promising and cajoling, the gun was in my hand when I left for the home.

I played with the gun for almost two hours. I shot glasses, books and flower vases with plastic bullets. When I went to sleep, I was completely bored with the gun, and now I wanted something else—a set of a plastic bat and a ball.

My promise of not asking for anything else didn’t last even for a single day. Since then it has happened thousands of times in my life. When I get a new desire, I become so obsessed with it that I want its fulfillment with my heart and soul and liver and kidneys. But when my desire actually gets fulfilled, I enjoy it for a very short while, and then a new desire erupts which again overwhelms me with the promise of happiness.

Now I have reached a stage where I don’t trust my desires for happiness. I have understood that desires are like politicians. They promise a lot, but deliver a little. Their fulfillment can make me happy for a few minutes or hours or days or, at most, a few months. But after that, their effect wears off, and I want some new desire to keep my mind engaged with empty promises of some future happiness.

I don’t know if I have become a half-baked philosopher or I am just a lazy bum who wants to avoid working hard to fulfill ambitions. But there is one thing I have experienced after understanding the crafty nature of desires. I have more free time to enjoy what I have right now because I spend less energy chasing something which might come or might not come in future.

The Best Perks

Today I was video chatting with my three years old nephew, and he was asking me to join his birthday party which is going to take place within a month. The way he invited me was unique.

He was holding a Peppa Pig cartoon book. He said he would let me read the book if I come to the party. After a few seconds, he said that he would give me a box of chocolate if I join the party. I said I will come to the party. But he didn’t stop. Next moment, he said he would offer me to play with a toy he has purchased recently. Before I could react, he offered to give me a big rubber ball in the party.

After finishing the call, I realized that I have never been offered so many perks for joining somewhere.

That’s a fine example of how children are influenced by their parents. Needless to say, his father and mother work in the HR departments of different companies

मच्छरों का खलनायक

मच्छरों से परेशान होकर कुछ दिनों पहले मैंने अपने कमरे की खिड़की के बाहर जाली लगवा ली। तब से मैं निर्भय होकर खिड़की खोलकर कमरे में रहता हूँ। आज सुबह जब मैं दरवाजे को खोलकर बाहर गया तो एक दृश्य देखकर मेरा दिल पसीज गया।

कम से कम भी तो पचास मच्छर वहाँ जाली पर और जाली के बाहर दीवार पर बैठे थे। मुझे ऐसा लगा कि मेरे आते ही वो मुझे एकटक देखने लगे। मैं उनकी नन्ही आँखें नहीं देख सकता था, पर उनकी बेबसी मेरे अंतरात्मा को टेलीपैथी के जरिए छू रही थी। मुझे अपने आप पर ग्लानि होने लगी।

इस ठंड भरी रात में मैंने उनसे उनका आसरा और भोजन दोनों ही छीन लिया था। अभी कुछ दिनों पहले तक वो, या उनके पूर्वज, बड़े आराम से रातों में मेरी रजाई के कोनों में सो रहे होते थे और मौका मिलने पर मेरे चेहरे पर आराम से बैठकर सेवेन-कोर्स डिनर करते थे। लेकिन समय का पहिया घूमा, और एक जाली ने उन्हें, आशियाने और बिरयानी, दोनों से बेदखल कर दिया।

उनका खलनायक कौन था? मैं था।

सोचता हूँ कि जाली हटा दूँ। मेरा क्या ही बिगड़ जाएगा अगर मेरे रक्त की कुछ बूंदें कई नन्हे और बेजुबान प्राणियों की भूख मिटा सकें। लेकिन फिर याद आता है कि मैं उनके कारण रात भर सो नहीं पाता। रात्रि के तीसरे पहर में तालियाँ बजाते रहता हूँ।

पर क्या करूँ? इंसान हूँ न! मुझे अपनी नींद किसी की भूख-प्यास से ज्यादा जरूरी लगती है।

One Minute Meditation

 

Outer World versus Inner World

 

Life and A Piece of Paper

 A few days back, I was talking to a thirteen years old boy who had gone through the misfortune of bad results in exams a few months back. He was hoping to do better in the recent exams although he hadn’t made any significant changes in his studying habits. When I asked him to take his studies more seriously, he proudly said, “A piece of paper cannot decide my future.”

He was hoping to get an I’m-so-impresssed kind of expression on my face, but I laughed. He was disappointed to hear my laughter.

I told him that his exam results were not just a piece of paper. They were the X-ray report of what he had done in his school days, and they will matter a lot when he will be choosing a college and a career. If a patient refuses to take his X-ray or blood report seriously by saying that ‘a piece of paper cannot decide my health’, he will invite nothing more than pity from his doctor.

His words reminded me of a small conversation with the younger brother of a friend. He had just passed out from an engineering college, and he was going through campus placement. While talking to me, he started criticizing the stress we put on studies. He named some popular standup comedian who was bragging on the stage that he was earning more money than his ex-classmates who did much better than him in studies.

I asked him one simple question, “What’s the common length of an engineer’s career?” He said, around 25-30 years if nothing goes wrong. Then I asked him, “What’s the common length of a standup comedian’s career?” He paused for a few minutes, and then he said, “Most of them don’t survive even for 10 years.”

I told him that being a standup comedian is not a bad thing. Any career which gives you money and satisfaction cannot be bad. But this tendency of making fun of studies and nine-to-five jobs could give a harmful message to youngsters. They can defend their lack of interest in studies by giving excuses that they are going to be YouTubers, Instagram Influencers, stand-up comedians or some new hot career thingee. They should be told that despite the flood of these new career options, most of the people get decent employment only if they have paid good attention to studies in their school and college days.

That popular standup comedian has become almost unknown today. My friend’s brother has been placed in a decent software company and he loves posting the pictures of his office on Facebook. If you have a youngster at home, don’t forget to tell him or her that the piece of paper (popularly known as exam results) can play a vital role in giving him a long term and decent livelihood. If they make fun of those who are paying attention to studies, one day they might find themselves at the receiving end of the joke cracked by life.

I hope my friend’s younger brother has finally understood a simple thing. It’s not always advisable to take serious career tips from those who earn money by telling jokes.