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Life, in the blink of an eye!

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“Life is like riding a bicycle”.

Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to his son Eduard.

Balancing work, family, and leisure time can lead to a more harmonious existence.

One should maintain balance. To achieve it, we must be willing to adapt to new circumstances and embrace change.

But, that doesn’t happen too often. Life poses many challenges.

We grow old and lose a loved one. We get fired, get separated, meet with an accident or suffer an unexpected financial loss — any of these can happen when you least expect it.

A loss in life puts us down. But we should learn to move on with the same vigour rather than continue to suffer in pain.

Patience is what we should keep when overcoming challenges.

We all know how COVID-19 hit us all unaware. The pandemic showed how life is impermanent.

We suffered huge losses. Events were postponed, our travel plans cancelled, the economy tanked, many lost jobs, and uncertainty reigned supreme.

Buddha taught Four Noble Truths. 

They can be more simply put as: 

1) suffering exists. 

2) suffering has a cause; 

3) suffering has an end; 

4) and suffering has a cause to bring about its end.

Buddhism and Hinduism share the doctrine that says “nothing lasts, everything is in a constant state of change”.

Even Taoism and Sufism teach the same thing. 

We can’t take our bodies with us and accepting the impermanence of all things brings us closer to our divine nature.

The impermanence of life refers to the ever-changing nature and eventual perishing of all things in our universe. Plants die. People die. The universe keeps disappearing into eternity.

Everything ends.

Our life is recycled into the universe. All stars burn out. The universe will one day fold up, come to a close, so nothing, regardless of how big or small, can escape an ending.

You don’t have much of a choice. There’s no pause button in life.

‘This should also pass’ – should be one’s motto in life.

You’re here for a moment, so you might as well enjoy the blink of an eye that you’re here.

And remember what Jim Rohn said, “You cannot change the destination of your life overnight, but you can change your direction”.

 

All is fair in love and war.

Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.


Evolution is a brutal process. Only the strongest and the fittest will survive.

Millions of sperm are released into the uterus in a single ejaculation.

Conception is an arduous journey. The woman’s egg might reject the sperm of her chosen partner, says the latest research by a group of researchers at Stockholm University, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Manchester.

The female body considers sperm to be a foreign object and hence her immune system reacts to eliminate them.

And, defying the odds, a lone sperm staying alive in the uterus for up to three days, winning the war, swimming upstream, going on to penetrate the egg and completing fertilization is what we call successful conception. 

Being born, therefore, on this Earth must be the toughest and riskiest journey yet, and one should celebrate the moment rather than regret it.

I’ve won the war, a risky venture against a 250 million strong army, and I have no regrets.

 

A Polo for a Porsche?

Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

Well, it was one day in 2012. 

I was flying from Delhi to Chennai. I saw this advertisement in a magazine while sipping a cuppa.

I’ve always dreamed of owning a fast (flashy) car. But I can’t afford a Porsche.

I thought owning a Porsche would at least help avoid eating the horrible food on the airline. 

I now drive a Volkswagen Polo GT. I still fly. Eat the same boring food. Sad.

Wish I had seriously considered popping in at a Porsche showroom and laid a hand on one. So much so that I don’t eat the airline food any longer. At all.

I’m looking at an offer from the German car company that helps exchange a Polo for a brand-new Porsche.

Hello, Porsche?

 

The New Scare, Made in China.

Urbanization comes with a cost. A huge cost, perhaps.

China is presenting a grim picture. How?

Nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking because of water extraction and the increasing weight of rapid expansion, the latest BBC reports say.

Scientists blame the new cause for worry is because China is rapidly expanding. 

Some cities in the country are sinking rapidly, with one in six exceeding 10mm a year. 

Other major urban centers in Asia, including Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, also face the issue of subsidence. 

What does the future hold for people living in urban cities, then? 

If this trend continues unchecked, the people, especially those living in the coastal regions, are threatened with flash flooding as the sea level (alarmingly) rises every year. 

Shanghai in China has sunk more than 3mm in the past century.

A team of researchers from several Chinese universities observed the period between 2015 and 2022 using data from Sentinel – 1 satellites. 

They found 45% of urban areas are subsiding (sinking) by more than 3mm per year.

The scientists say that around 16% of urban land is sinking faster than 10mm a year. They say it’s a rapid descent.

That means a whopping 67 million people are currently living (at risk) on this fast disappearing stretch of land. 

What influences the scale of decline? 

The soil, the weight of buildings and, to a major extent, the extraction of groundwater water determine the decline.

This pattern is noticeable in several major urban areas around the world now, including Houston, Mexico City and Delhi.

“I think water extraction is, to my mind, probably the dominant reason,” said Prof Robert Nicholls, from the University of East Anglia.

The other major cause of worry is urban transportation systems and uncontrolled mining for minerals and coal.

The researchers say hundreds of millions of people are at the risk of flooding as the land is sinking faster than the sea level rising. The latter because of climate change, as you know.

Gone are the days when people in the 1970s used piped water and were less dependent on bore-wells. 

It’s time the authorities sat and enacted a law that makes it illegal to extract water (unscrupulously) from the ground.

Will they do? 

Because that might help save the ground fast disappearing under our feet and help save a million people living in the coastal regions. 

 

Social Media; Both Sides of Story.

How do you use social media?

I, too, am one of the many million who use social media for the purpose of connecting with people, reading news, listening to music and keeping abreast of what’s going on around the world.

I use it more for the purpose of knowing facts and fakes.

Social media provide me with both sides of a story. Sometimes multiple sides, perhaps. Much like how astronauts see the beauty of the Earth from the sky too far away, located in geostationary orbit. 

As a writer, I find that a boon.

Polling in India.

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

India goes to poll on the 19th of April 2024.

Polling in India is a huge exercise. This time the poll will be conducted in 7 phases spanning over six weeks. It will conclude on 1st of June.

There are 2600 parties vying for 544 seats in Parliament. The present incumbent NDA, with the BJP as the main ruling party, is aiming to clinch a win for the third time in a row. 

And the opposition INDI Alliance have formed a greater and stronger coalition, promising to spring a surprise. 

Voting machines have already reached the length and the breadth of the nation. India boasts the world’s highest polling booth at 4650 metres, up in the Himalayas. 

Wish India and the Indian voters good luck.

Nothing Stranger than Truth!

Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.

The year was 2004. I was new to London. 

I had just been there for work. My office was located on Marsh Wall Road and Canary Wharf, the famous financial district, was just 10 minutes’ walk away.

At the close of office hours, I used to take a stroll to see the place around Docklands. 

The Canary Wharf is home to many tall buildings, including the UK’s second tallest, One Canada Square.

Canary Wharf was a scenic beauty with a footbridge hung by wires and barely touching the waters, a huge shopping mall, seagulls flying so close to the waters in the Thames, the toy-train DLR (Dockland Light Railway) transporting commuters and visitors (in a solemn silence), the green parks & benches, punishing wind passing through skyscrapers, cycling lane and clean roads all around. It was simply a treat to watch.

I had a DSLR camera. The weekends in that part of the world are normally quieter. As one who had just landed in London, I wished to click some pictures and wanted to send them home to India.

I was snapping away all that came within my eyesight.

I had just stopped when I saw a group of kids getting ready for a face-painting competition. 

I watched them gather in groups and some sitting on tall stools. The make-up artists were busy drawing cartoon characters on their faces. I guessed an event was being organized. I didn’t want to miss one.

I started clicking. Shots of the venue, the audience, kids running, laughing and joking. I took the camera very close to the kids’ faces and clicked. The cartoon faces just began to fill my camera.

No sooner had I finished doing a great photographer’s job for the week than I was stopped by the long arm of an adult. Someone tapped on my shoulder.

“Sir, can I have a minute?” 

“Yes, sure” I said. I was a bit worried. 

The man said he was the father of one of the kids participating in the competition. And he wanted to know who I was and what business I had there.

​

I started sweating. Did I do anything wrong? 

I explained who I was, the reason I had been in the Docklands and told him photography was my passion.

The man who was a complete stranger warned me that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of kids unless I carried an ID or authorized by the organizers of the event. 

Secondly, he said it was a crime to take pictures of kids without permission from parents or the kids’ guardian. I was gobsmacked! 

He told me to show him those snaps. I quickly obliged, pressed the cam on and showed him the whole sequence of my evening at Canary Wharf.

He asked me to delete each one of the kids’ photos. The other parents soon gathered. They made sure I deleted all the kids’ pictures.

I apologized and left home. It dawned on me how ignorant I was. 

That was surely a positive lesson to learn in life. 

 

Man is man-made!

Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.

I’ve always taken my own decisions in life. Pursued a career, chased my dreams and built a personality, all self-made. 

DIY was how I honed my entrepreneurial skills. 

My pen has been my companion, all through. 

Writing is how I speak and express my thoughts. Sharp and witty!