Month: August 2023

Playing the long game…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

This past week, I had three instances when I was talking to someone about how I am working on my first book.

As I wrote earlier, I have been inspired by my dad’s will to finish and publish my grandfather’s magnum opus. With this inspiration, I took it upon myself to translate the book, originally written in Hindi with Sanskrit words, into English.

I chose English because that’s how I think and write. But more importantly because I feel that will help me expose the book to a far wider audience.

As I was talking about it this week, it felt good that I am able to contribute to this legacy that our family holds.

Then, as I reflected back on those conversations, I realised that it isn’t just because I am contributing but also because I am picking up a challenge!

The challenge of translating my grandfather’s poetic flourishes into an equitable prose form. Translating a story steeped into mythology into something which is perhaps more relatable to the current generation.

While these thoughts were overwhelming, I also echoed the goals I have set for myself during these conversations.

This year is dedicated to understanding the original version. The next year is meant to start translating and writing down portions. And the one after is when I hope it will all come together.

By breaking down my ambitious take into smaller goals, I feel I am helping myself. To be able to measure progress in one’s pursuit is helpful and I should be able to do that with these goals.

I may slip a bit sometimes. For example, I haven’t been able to spend any time on the book reading with my dad for the past three months. But I know that having gone through sixty percent of it, I have time to do it before the end of the year.

Maybe I will slide some more and miss some goals. But I will continue to strive to keep myself in pursuit without too much deviation.

For playing the long game requires planning and patience…

It also requires to be appreciative of the phases when things don’t go as per plan. And then recover and start again.

Something worthwhile for us to think about in general in our life!

“Legend”

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

It is a heavy word – Legend. Could be a person who has done something spectacular in his/her field or could point to notations on a map / drawing. But it also means a story that has carried on for years about someone or something.

I am talking about the third type today…

Idling around the house this weekend, this question raked up in my mind. What is it that people around us know us for? How is it that we come across when others talk about us, even when we are not there?

Not that it really matters to me much. I am someone who doesn’t care for what people talk about behind my back. And I rarely indulge in petty gossip.

But this weekend’s inquisitiveness was more from the fact that when we do so many things in our lives, what is it that we leave behind? How do people recall us? What do we stand for?

Long back, if someone would have asked me this question when I was in my early 20’s and 30’s, I would have pointed my finger at success. How successful I am in a particular endeavor. For I believed that nothing speaks like success does.

It does for sure. But I also discovered through my own life’s twists and turns that what matters more is what we do and how it turns out. And more importantly, how do we treat others working alongside us.

We may have done something really well and still failed to see success. Or we may go the extra mile to make things happen without getting adequate results. Those efforts still count. And are still remembered by people.

In fact, as I looked back into my own life, I realized that this is the value system that I had always received. At one point in time, somewhere in the early race for life, I put that aside for a while and started treating success as more important than effort.

It took me a few shocks to get back to my previous self and understand that what matters is how I do things and how I treat others and work with them during the course of my endeavors.

As I changed my approach and my thinking, my efforts improved and so did my relationships with those who I worked with. And eventually it led me to successful outcomes. For all.

For, what is success, if it comes at the cost of burnt bridges or sour feelings…

In the Zone

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

It’s only some times that we get into “the zone”. I mean a mind space where we are doing things right – in terms of effort and in most cases, output. And feeling good about what we are doing!

During our lives, we go through multiple ups and downs. And phases of high or low effort or output. But very few times we are in the zone.

The thing is, we are never pushed into these zones, we rather do it due to an intrinsic motivation. And that’s what makes it worth its while.

These last few weeks, I have been in that zone. Work wise as well as fitness wise. And it’s a good feeling.

I can distinctly recall those few times when I was in the zone. When I put in that extra effort because of an internal calling. And whenever I have a reference point of how I felt about my contribution on the work front or the effort I put in on myself, I always go back to those few times.

So, it has been a pleasant surprise to me that I have been able to maintain this streak!

I call it a streak because that’s what it is. Until it continues, I am in the zone. Then, something switches off and I move out of the zone. I don’t know what changes but that heightened level isn’t sustained beyond a particular period of time.

One thing that I have been able to recognize though is the fact that my internal feelings guide whether I continue in the zone or not.

As I reflected this weekend, taking time off my fitness routine to rest and recuperate, I realized that this probably isn’t just a pattern with me. When I look around, or when I think of people whom I know and have observed operating in their zone, it’s almost always been because they were feeling good inside in that period of time.

So, what’s important for us is to identify how to get to that sweet spot where we feel good. Where we feel we are doing something important. For ourselves and for those around us. Whether at work or in our personal lives.

We all possibly already know that sweet spot in our lives. But still, we don’t get there often. Not because we don’t want to. But perhaps because we don’t let ourselves.

We often get stymied by middling concerns that divert our mind. We lend our heart to unimportant things and give our time away. All the while thinking about how we could have done better.

Only if we could focus ourselves on what we want to do that gives us happiness. And then doing it religiously, for days to come, no matter what. Until we get to the zone and then strive to stay there…

“Breaking up”

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

No, I am not only talking about the kinds that come to our mind immediately…

Well, matters of the heart between two lovers are of course a much more difficult topic to deal with. A subject that can be written about endlessly and has been explored in depth by much more accomplished writers and thinkers.

So, the only thing I would like to mention on that aspect is that we have increasing rates and decreasing remorse. Something, that shows either we are becoming more experimental by nature or that we are becoming more intolerant.

But I am more interested in talking about the general culture of breaking up. Something that’s quite visible these days.

These are break-ups between friends, between siblings, between parents and children – human bonds which seemed made on another planet.

We as a society and as humans are drifting apart. In our thoughts. In our minds. In our behavior. And in our actions. We are becoming more intolerant of other views. Of other’s perspectives. And of other’s preferences.

And that is leading to breakage of long-held bonds!

Friends don’t talk to each other over a small skirmish and give up on that friendship that they held close to their heart for so long. Or they hold that grudge and increase the distance between each other, giving up on the string that pulled them both through laughter and sadness. Without realizing if it was worth it.

Siblings have always fought. Specially so in their childhood. But now they are fighting way too often over frivolous things, while being grown ups. Which ought not to matter so much in the grander scheme of life. But matters for some strange reason in that ephemeral moment when they must prove that their argument holds more weight. And then post that moment, the only way ahead between them is down.

Even parents and children are growing apart in some cases, which is quite shocking. May be due to mismatched expectations and thoughts or due to the age/cultural differences with the idea of living life on one’s own terms. Now, that’s a bond that forever existed and will continue to be and breaking up isn’t even an option. But then, such is life and we definitely have the capacity to surprise ourselves as people. So instead of talking things through with each other, we hold it in our heart and let it play with our mind.

These things I am talking about aren’t a figment of my imagination. They are happening around me and I am writing this with pain in my heart on having witnessed some of these situations first-hand.

We celebrate these relationships and friendships with special days. And yet, there are so many of us who aren’t going to celebrate knowing someone, somewhere. Because, well, we decided to break up!!!