Take time!

Cheeniya · Jan 17, 2010

Dear Padmini
This one such occasion when a feedback pushes the original thread completely to the background! Your FB is just beautiful to say the least.

I specially love these words:

"Slowing down is a conscious choice, and not always an easy one, but it leads to a greater appreciation for life and a greater level of happiness."

That slowing down is a conscious choice is very true but unfortunately most of us do not wish to exercise that choice. We are all under a mistaken notion that to be busy or to appear busy is the hallmark of all successful individuals. It is not true. To be busy may also mean poor time management. Look at the people who rush to catch a flight. When they finally board a flight puffing and panting, they become an object of ridicule. Other passengers get upset with him for delaying the take off.

This is easily the best FB that I have received from you so far!
Thank you!
Sri

Sobhi · Apr 1, 2010

Hello Sir

What a great post. very apt for me.
I was and currently even now iam in the same situation. But continously trying to make things better.

When I had my baby last year and back to office when he was 5 months old, the period after that was one hell of a rush.

Then I slowly started taking account of the situation and consiously made effort to slow down on my career and spend time with my kid.

I can re-start on my career, but cannot get back the initial years of my little angel.

The organisation that I worked faithfully for 8 years always performing above standards stated the family reason and said that this time my Performance was not upto the mark. It hurt me initially but iam least worried about it now.

My time with my kid is more imp at this point in time.

regards
Shobha

Amma15 · Apr 1, 2010

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

I am glad this post got revived and I got to see it. I enjoyed reading it. How very true. Take time or take time off can also mean being laid back - But who cares if you are doing what you like doing most. When I was in school there was this poem that went, " What is this life if full of care with no time to stand and stare......." Perhaps it meant take time off to do all the things you love to do ? Take time off to enjoy the beauty around you and within you ?

Regards,
Usha

ojaantrik · Apr 1, 2010

Dear Sri:

What a wonderful post. Particularly so since you speak the same way as my wife has advised me all through life and I have never ever been able to practise what she suggested. I cannot help suffering from everlasting pain thinking about my inadequacies.

I know that I am not Tolstoy. I think you know too that this is not the case. Yet, I often recall Tolstoy's struggle in producing War and Peace. Here is the story:

"The first draft of War and Peace was completed in 1863. In 1865, the periodical Russkiy Vestnik published the first part of this early version under the title 1805 and the following year published more of the same early version. Tolstoy was increasingly dissatisfied with this version, although he allowed several parts of it to be published (with a different ending) in 1867 still under the title "1805" He heavily rewrote the entire novel between 1866 and 1869. Tolstoy's wife Sophia Tolstoy handwrote as many as 8 or 9 separate complete manuscripts before Tolstoy considered it again ready for publication.<SUP id=cite_ref-10 class=reference></SUP> The version that was published in Russkiy Vestnik had a very different ending than the version eventually published under the title War and Peace in 1869."

Hugo took 17 years to write<LINK rel=File-List href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CD1C81%7E1.DAS%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><STYLE>  </STYLE> Les Misérables.

I don't know if they were at peace while carrying such loads. I have heard an anecdote that Tolstoy was found struggling with his hands to hold on to a ray of sunshine that had penetrated into a dark room where he sat. Can't vouch for its veracity though.

You are so right when you say that the goal is more important than the pursuit. (This, by the way, travels in a direction diametrically opposite to Dirk Bogarde's movie: The Singer, Not the Song. You must know this movie.) What happens if the goal is not all that well-defined. I am fond of quoting Poincaré's statement: 'The question is, "What is the question?" ' Once you know the goal precisely, the pursuit becomes bearable. But the goal could only be vaguely perceivable at best and then you keep struggling to understand what you have felt intuitively.

I know you will disagree with me. But then what are friends for unless they disagree? I am unhappy, you are happy. And we shall remain this way. So, being a friend, and to keep you the way you are, let me relate another anecdote. A happy one.

' "Dumas's quarrel with a rising young politician became so intense that a duel was inevitable. As both were superb shots, they decided to draw lots, the loser agreeing to shoot himself. Dumas lost. Pistol in hand, he withdrew in silent dignity to another room, closing the door behind him. The rest of the company waited in gloomy suspense for the sound of the shot that would end Dumas's career. It rang out at last. They ran to the door, opened it, and there was Dumas, smoking revolver in hand. "Gentlemen, a most regrettable thing has happened. I missed." '

I brought this story to your attention, you may already be aware of it of course, to prove to you that my unhappiness is a purely internal process. I am not the cantankerous old man that many might assume me to be. At least, outwardly you will rarely catch me in a grumpy state.

And, finally, here is the good news. I will take time, following your advice. I think I have finally found a miniscule goal worth pursuing. A goal that you alone can help me reach.

But will you, even if it is well within your ability, help me? I can assure you that it will be entirely costless for you. Or, so I think.

Best wishes.

oj

ganges · Apr 2, 2010

Very true Cheeniyaji. This is what I always tell my children who are in the race like others. Plan and take time for everything. I was also a working woman with huge family and no helpers. Stil I was sure to include office, home, relatives, functions etc etc in my life.

All my children are working( two sons and dils ) and I found all the six days are very mechanical for them. On sundays half day they will sleep and half day they will relax. They didnt have the enthu to go out, to meet friends or to attend functions etc. I dont think they are having time to spend each other, than sunday. Once in a four months or six months they will go for some trips. There they will enjoy the maximum. They know the beauty of switzerland, paris or munnar. But they dont know the beauty of the lane where they are staying, or they dont hear the birds chirping from the trees behind the house, they dont know through which jannal we can see the sun rising in the morning, why they dont know who are staying near by doors. I am actually felt pity for them. But we have to accept that this is the present world.

ganges

Kamalji · Apr 2, 2010

Dear Sri,

Now that is a very profound statment Take Time.How true, and it took u to open my eyes to this.We all seem to rush, having so many windows open onthe computer, till the page refreshes, we are impatient and want to read other pages and not waste time.

3 days my interent was not working, and the first day i was irritated, but well got down to cleaning my office, and everyone was surprised how come i am away from the computer,not realizing i had no choice, as the interenet was nto owrking.

i puton the Hemant Kumar songs on the PC, cleaning files and throwing out old junk, and i really enoyed it, the songs refreshing me so much too.

Sri, i think time u came on TV as the modern day Guru, and klet us hear u live.I am sure u will have a lot of lady followers too.:biglaughAnd me too as a follower.

Great one, Sri, superb.

Regards

kamal

Cheeniya · Apr 2, 2010

Dear Sobhi
Thank you for reviving an old favourite post of mine.

In everyone's life, there is a big gap between the kind of life one lives and the kind of life he desires to live. This happens because there are different kinds of pressures that keep building up as we go through various stages of life. In our anxiety to meet those pressures, we forget that there is a personal side to our life that too has many aspirations. We suppress the personal side in order to do justice to our commitments.

My point is if we are going to live only to meet our commitment to others, such a life tends to become mechanical. By the time we age to a stage when people who were making all the demands on our time find us incapable of meeting them, we too lose our interest to pursue those desires which were at one time gnawing at our heart.

We should understand that those people who develop as multifaceted personality are the ones who are able to allot their time judiciously between their personal and public avocations.
Sri

Cheeniya · Apr 2, 2010

Dear Usha
The line you have quoted from the poem 'Leisure' is my favourite too.It is a beautiful poem that highlights the need to take time to look around for what leaves a a great impression on our souls.

These two lines bring out the uselessness of our mechanical life:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

Take time to look for such joyful happenings around us. This life is fast running out. Make the best use of it while it lasts!

Thank you Usha !
Sri

Cheeniya · Apr 3, 2010

My dear OJ
This planet is mostly populated by inadequate people and while every inadequate person is gloating over his ‘adequacies’, it is nice to see a highly ‘adequate’ person grieving over his ‘imagined inadequacies’! God must have been in one of His playful moods when He created you.

You always find someone to quote in support of your need and search for perfection. Tolstoy is a great example indeed. For a change, let me tell you of a great story that was done in a single sitting and there was no revision whatsoever after it was written. I am referring to Vyasa’s Mahabharat! He made Lord Ganesa accept being his ‘scriptwriter’ on condition that there should be no break in the dictation of the epic! This epic has turned out to be the fountainhead of all the stories written in this country subsequently!

Hugo took 17 years to write Les Misérables. But I am sure that many modern writers would be asking what was the need for taking so much of time! I mean no offence to Hugo but in this modern world, if you don’t deliver a book every year, you’ll perish! No one is complaining about any lack of perfection on the part of J.K.Rowling or Sidney Sheldon. They don’t take 17 years to produce a book.

Ends and means have always been the subject matter of raging controversy. As far as I am concerned, neither a sinful goal attained through honest means nor a honourable goal achieved through wrongful means would leave us in peace. Goal is of course very important but I am not advocating its accomplishment through sinister means! If the goal is not well defined, the chances are that there may be a flaw in what we want to achieve!

That was a good anecdote about Dumas. It just shows how resourceful he was! He had a commendable goal of wanting to stay alive and he achieved it through dubious means! But no one would grudge it as wanting to stay alive transcends all other conditions! You say that At least, outwardly you will rarely catch me in a grumpy state. That of course is a bit disappointing considering that I have a particular fondness for grumpy chaps!

Take Time, OJ. And I’ll help you most certainly. But take time only to entertain yourself but not to fulfill your abiding commitment to your fans in IL!
Sri

Cheeniya · Apr 3, 2010

Dear Ganges
"Ethanai kodi inbam vaithai yen Iraiva" sang the eminent Poet Bharathi. It is so profoundly true! You have beautifully summed up the quintessence of Bharathi's song in the words
"But they dont know the beauty of the lane where they are staying, or they dont hear the birds chirping from the trees behind the house, they dont know through which jannal we can see the sun rising in the morning.." All these are just a fraction of the millions of joys that God has placed in our way. But it is a pity that we keep our eyes shut to such joys simply because we believe that there are more important things than watching a monkey eating a banana like a human being!

We can't schedule a Rainbow. We must drink it in to our heart's content when it makes its colourful appearance on the sky. It will not wait for us to finish our work and come to watch it when we are free! Unless we keep our inner Eye open to the beauty of His creations, we would be wasting our entire life in vain pursuits!
Sri