We're all living in 'business'-the state of being busy. We've all become so busy that noticing little things has become impossible. Recognizing small joys seems almost non-existent. There’s this dialogue of Rajesh Khanna in the movie, Bawarchi which really gets me thinking every time I hear it. Translated in English, it goes somewhat like this, “We all are so busy trying to find that one big joy we always wanted, that we fail to see the small joys that come on the way." So true. And this was a line from an '80s something movie, I guess, and it fits in so perfectly into the scene even now.
The other day I was talking to Satya, who happens to be my boss, friend, philosopher.. Oh, it's like a package deal. He was telling me about a conversation he was having with his colleague. This colleague of his was talking about his two-year old daughter. He says that this kid gets excited whenever the family goes out for dinner. The excitement is not about the food, but two other things, trivial to us and really big and important to this kid- the tall chair and the finger-bowl. The girl waits for the waiter to come and give her a high seat to sit on, and keeps blabbing to her parents till she gets the chair. The dinner goes just as normally as it does at home and once done, she looks around with her eyes wide open to see if the finger-bowl was coming. After they're back home, it becomes a family discussion- how she liked her chair and all, the food doesn't play a fair enough role in the conversation, even if it was good.
To us, it seems to be such a normal and bland thing, but that little girl finds something extra-ordinary in them. We don't. That's because we all have lost that tinge of romanticism in life, and everything else. To us, what matters is our job, our search for the perfect house, and dreams of a big car- well, different things for different people. We've kind of lost the ability to see something big and extra-ordinary in small things that usually don't matter.
We've turned so practical that we don't have not only the time but the mere ability to see things in a different way, to find joy in little things- a smile for no reason, a silly joke once in a while, an old song, the sound of the rain drops, ice-cream on a winter night. Now if you really want to get practical, come on! It's not practical to be too practical.
The other day I was talking to Satya, who happens to be my boss, friend, philosopher.. Oh, it's like a package deal. He was telling me about a conversation he was having with his colleague. This colleague of his was talking about his two-year old daughter. He says that this kid gets excited whenever the family goes out for dinner. The excitement is not about the food, but two other things, trivial to us and really big and important to this kid- the tall chair and the finger-bowl. The girl waits for the waiter to come and give her a high seat to sit on, and keeps blabbing to her parents till she gets the chair. The dinner goes just as normally as it does at home and once done, she looks around with her eyes wide open to see if the finger-bowl was coming. After they're back home, it becomes a family discussion- how she liked her chair and all, the food doesn't play a fair enough role in the conversation, even if it was good.
To us, it seems to be such a normal and bland thing, but that little girl finds something extra-ordinary in them. We don't. That's because we all have lost that tinge of romanticism in life, and everything else. To us, what matters is our job, our search for the perfect house, and dreams of a big car- well, different things for different people. We've kind of lost the ability to see something big and extra-ordinary in small things that usually don't matter.
We've turned so practical that we don't have not only the time but the mere ability to see things in a different way, to find joy in little things- a smile for no reason, a silly joke once in a while, an old song, the sound of the rain drops, ice-cream on a winter night. Now if you really want to get practical, come on! It's not practical to be too practical.
Some of us are still different and still simple.
ReplyDelete"It's not practical to be too practical." Brilliant! Amazing! Fabulous! Easily your best blog post. Who better than you to realize the beauty in simplicity?
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