Month: August 2021

of Preoccupations…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

This week was a blur. I was pre-occupied with something happening on the personal front.

That meant a lot of thinking beyond the obvious on what is happening, how to handle it, when to do what, and above all why should I do whatever I choose as the way forward.

As I spent the week surrounded by all these thoughts and running mental simulations and validating various hypothesis, it meant time between work or later spent in the pursuit. It was exhausting and refreshing at the same time.

And it helped me realise one thing – it is good to sometimes have some pressing preoccupations in your mind. Helps you feel challenged about certain things.

Prior to this week, I always used to view some of these pre-occupations as an issue interfering with work or something to be relegated to weekends. In doing so, I often pushed naturally occurring thoughts out or postponed moving forward until the weekend, which would then be spent crunching time and running a crash routine.

This time, somehow I let the thoughts flow naturally. And while it meant staying up late on some nights or ruminating about hypothesis during my morning routine, it allowed me to progress in an unhurried fashion and logically evaluate different aspects.

It was out of turn. Completely not me. And yet, this new approach helped me see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel in a controlled and faster manner.

The realisation that I don’t need to leave all the thinking on such aspects to the weekend and can manage it on weekdays along with work, also made me understand that preoccupations are not a bad thing after all.

Yes, if they interfere with your normal life or duties. Or if they completely take over and stop you from doing what you should be doing. Be it on the personal side or professional side.

But if they are controlled in a disciplined manner with clearly drawn boundaries between what has to be done as one’s duty and without letting them affect anything else, they can be a good segue into another direction that’s perhaps important to be explored.

After all, we cannot control what thoughts we have and when but we can to some extent manage what we want to do with them and how…

The 5 year plan…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

We have a special affinity to this term.

It was how India used to measure our progress as a nation – in blocks of 5 years. But it is also how most of us look at things related to work and life – what is our 5-year plan or view down the road? What is the horizon which we fancy considering and moving with?

Why not 10 years? Or 8 years? Or even 13 years?

I could never gather this nuance of why 5 years. Hence, when someone asked me recently, what is your plan 5 years down the line, I almost balked. Not out of disrespect to the person but due to the fact that I found it amusing.

In an age where our lives are changing every 2-3 years, and that too significantly, 5 years almost seems like 2 steps.

And yet, most of us plan not just for 5 years but even beyond that for 10-15 years.

Is it a good thing to do? I am not sure. But I have stopped doing that. Not because I think it is not required or it won’t help me but more so because after the trials and tribulations I have seen in my life as well as with others, I feel it is better to stick to a 2-3 year horizon and keep things fluid.

It may appear as too short-sighted an approach. However, it has been working for me for the past 5 years. It allows me to not think too far ahead and commit too much while also providing me with a flexibility of changing things if required.

I of course have possibilities that I map out and acknowledge beyond those 2-3 years timeframe but I don’t plan for them actively. If around the 2-year mark I find that what I am doing makes sense and it fits in my overall scheme of things, I double down on it for the next couple of years. If not, I am prepared to change course and modify my plan.

Most importantly, it has freed up my mind without the added stress around the BIG plan that has to be executed over a longer period of time to achieve success.

In a random world with too many things happening all around, I have found this little way of keeping myself focused. What’s your strategy?

Head or Heart?

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

It is the classic conundrum!

What do we do when faced with a situation and how do we decide? Or what perspective do we think from and act upon the most?

There have been reams of thesis work written on this I am supposing, from the 288 million results Google throws at us when we search for this term. And yet, we are none the wiser as to which one is better.

Going through life’s paces, this question somewhere stared at me during the week. And as I looked deep within, I was hit with the sheer complexity of it.

I for one, thought of myself as a heart person. I mostly tend to do what my heart / gut says, going with intuition rather than after a lot of thought / applying my mind. But it is ‘mostly’ and not ‘always’!

A few others I know up close and personal also fell into similar zones – choosing one over the other ‘most’ of the times. As much as I thought about, I couldn’t place a single person who was at either of the extremes all the time.

I didn’t get into full-on research mode, but I am guessing it will be almost impossible to place someone completely in a single category. We are by nature inclined towards one but cannot forego the other completely.

Is there a right choice between the two? I don’t know, as I will always choose the heart whereas someone who has had different experiences than me will probably lean on the other side. But we will never be able to side with our choice at all times.

In essence, it is one of those things in life which is never absolute!

In fact, if we look at many a things around, most of them are never absolute. We however try and categorise around groups, without realising that there are permeable boundaries in between.

We seek the absolute because there is comfort in knowing something sticks, in consistency, in predictability.

Life on the other hand is the complete opposite – shifting always, never settling in one direction. Always challenging us to change ourselves, to consider other sides and opinions, and to move even when there is uncertainity.

It is when we grasp this game and accept to play it as it comes, using our heart to gauge it and leaning on our head to pull us through, is when we move ahead and progress…

Win or Lose – what after the Games?

~ Rishi ~ 1 Comment

What is important? Is it even important to fuss over the result or is it sufficient to have just played? What to make of those who won? And those who lost? And what does all of this hold for us?

As the Olympic Games gala got over today, some of these questions floated into my mind…

These Olympic Games saw the best run ever by India, finishing with 7 medals. All of us Indians are ecstatic right now. After all, we won a Gold in a track and field event for the first time. Going with 2 silvers and 3 bronze medals, including one for Hockey which is our national sport, a lot of our champs proved their mettle.

It’s been an interesting last few weeks as I observed the commentary on the games and also had multiple chats at home and with friends on what to expect, how India is faring, good bad and ugly of Indian sports, and so on. I’m sure, for most of us, these last 2 weeks would have been in a similar zone – with sports dominating the conversations. And that too, not cricket for a change!

Depending on who you talked to, there would be different views – some focused on the personal aspects like what went behind the training of the sportsmen / women, who were they competing against, etc. And some focused on the collective aspects like is India really doing it’s best to provide facilities and infrastructure for fostering world-class sports stars, how is it that Chinese have started winning so many medals and their training regime, and so on.

You get it – most of these conversations we had were merely that. Talk of the town to berate or praise different aspects of sports without actually knowing what goes behind the scenes or what to attribute the outcome to. In fact, most of the conversations start with sports and then deviate into politics.

As with other seasonal topics, these will die down after a few days or weeks and will be replaced by other topical issues.

What I do hope remains though are the dreams that these games have given to the young ones in the country and how some of those dreams metamorphose into effort and training, leading to more glory in the coming years across different sporting disciplines.

What I also hope remains is the interest that has been generated in the other sports apart from cricket, which encourages many more kids to pick them up and many more parents to allow their children to pursue them seriously.

And what I certainly hope for is that all of us Indians start laying much more emphasis on sports as a medium of all round development for ourselves and our kids. For what is important is not to win or lose but to play well and gain from either of the experiences. Something that our kids generation definitely needs to imbibe whole-heartedly…

Only then, will the promise that we saw in these games will be translated into action not only in the sporting field but also in all aspects of our lives as a nation!

Friends

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

I am not referring to the sitcom which had a reunion recently. I am talking about the real people in our lives, who make it real and fun.

1st August is celebrated as Friendship Day in India. As I got up today and saw some messages floating in, I was reminded of it. Curiously, I googled about its history and was surprised to note that it was initiated as a commercial gimmick in the 1920’s.

While it has taken more concerted efforts in parts of the world to commemorate the bonds of friendship / fellowship, I for one was taken aback by the origination story. Someone, somewhere had to thoughtfully create this day to help us all get reminded of one of the most important groups of people in our lives!

So, after sending greetings to friends across different groups, which is a newly adopted custom by most of us in this day and age of social media, I sat down reminiscing about my friends and the way they affected my life.

I had the privilege of studying in multiple places and hence had a new set of friends every few years. I had friends who were living in the neighbourhood, those who were in the school with me, and those whom I knew because of the social circle my family had.

And it was fun because while I made new friends every time I moved places, I also had an old set of friends whom I maintained communication with. So, while new bonds were built, there were old ones which made me feel special, every time I received a letter or a phone call in those days from an old friend.

A few of those friendships formed instantly, some of those built up over the years I spent with them, and some others blossomed in later parts of my life. But one thing was common – they all helped me evolve and become the person I am today.

The biggest thing for me though was and has been – friends always make me feel real and alive. Give me the assurance that there are people out there who care for me or will stand by me.

And yet, only a few of those I remain in touch with now regularly. They are the ones whom I forged special bonds with, which have stood the test of time. Some of the others are forgotten in the strands of time, in the vagaries of life, or in the ashes of the past.

However, as I sent those messages today, I realised that in the rigamarole of life, I have been sometimes guilty. Of not being in touch. Of not following up. Of taking things for granted.

Perhaps, it happened naturally and due to specific alignments during various phases of my life, nevertheless that is the truth.

Perhaps, some of them can still be rekindled. Time to give it a nudge and try then…

And more importantly, to continue being in touch with those whom I have been talking to and nurture those bonds!