The Other Side of Life

Moving Day is here, folks! Personally speaking, I hate moving. It comes with so many ifs and buts that noone warns you about. Like, what do you do with that bag of plastic covers you have been collecting for the last 100 years. You cannot just throw them away. What about all those free guide maps and train tickets you collected on your Eurotrip? Surely, you will get around to making that scrapbook out of that some day? And that jar of olives. There are probably insects which have made that their home. Can we just uproot them like that? Noone tells you that you will be adding to chemical pollution when you throw all those expired medicines away.  And noone warns you that bubble wrap from the Amazon package which you got 720 days ago is not going to be used for "protective packaging" ever. That old mobile phone charger whose mobile has gone awol long back? What do you with that? Throw it away? And that digicam. How will you tell the digicam...

Amongst the many mysteries of the human mind, the one that will go on to enthrall curious psychologists and social behavior scientists for long, will be the innate hurry the human being is in, while deboarding a flight. There is almost no logic on earth that can explain that impatience. For the longest time, I thought this was a very Indian thing. But on a flight to Rome, I had that same familiar nudge from my co-passenger - "Go, or let me go." and I realized, it's not an Indian thing, it's a human thing. On one of my numerous Mumbai-Bangalore trips, I decided to design an experiment. I genuinely wanted to know what hurrying up in those few minutes leads to - Do you progress in life faster, do you get promoted, is your work-life balance better, are you happier and the other not-so philosophical questions. So this time when my excited co-passenger nudged me to give way, when the flight tires had barely even experienced the friction on the runway that caus...

My Mom says whatever you do on the first day of the year, you end up doing all year round.  And so, I am writing. There's something magical about new years. This Calvin comic strip sums it up for me: Image: Calvin and Hobbes - It's A Magical World Nothing actually changes, but that newness in the air - that's magical.  Like my 5 year old niece explained to me yesterday, "New year is pretty cool. You can write 17 in the date now, instead of 16."  If that is not cool, what is? So, here's wishing you all a very cool year ahead, with loads of happy news, delicious food, interesting conversations, free time to do what you love, lots of good books, inertia inducing vacations, photos where you look good, a lot of family time, energy to follow your passions, more new friends, lesser unread mails, faster internet, shorter meetings, longer work-outs, more discounts, less of unnecessary spending and lots and lots of smiling moments. Ch...