What’s your religion?

(an old poem written in 1990 that disconcertingly seems written for today)

One day,
we will be stopped
in our tracks
by a maniacal mob…
… and be confronted
with the Questions:

“what’s your religion?
Same as ours?
Or different like theirs?”

And our lives will depend
… on our answers
… and their religion!

~ Pravin Sabnis

Noise within

A marketing executive, from Vasco, visited Pedro to promote his company’s range of products. He received a call from his boss. The visitor seemed irritated as he spoke on his mobile , ‘I am in Margao’ he declared. Pedro was surprised as they were sitting in his office in Panaji. It was pertinent to note that the three cities were separated from each other by nearly an hour’s drive.

Intrigued, Pedro queried, ‘Why did you lie?’ The salesman replied, ‘If I had told my boss that I was in Panaji, he would have definitely asked me to get some toast from Café Central’. Pedro shot back, ‘What if he asks you to get some cookies from Morning Star Bakery located in Margao?’ And he continued, ‘what if your boss is in Panaji and bumps into you?’ The salesman broke into cold sweat.

The salesman did not imagine other possibilities as he was conditioned by the noise within. The noise within kept insisting that his boss would ask him to purchase toast if he knew that he was in Panaji. In his haste to escape his imagined predicament, he was putting himself into worse scenarios that come along with misrepresentation.

So often, we respond to stimuli based on perception and we resort to falsehood. Our assessment is affected by our previous experiences. We presume the worst based on such prejudice. Most lies are born of the noise within which keeps bearing upon us the burden of experience or that of wrong assessment.

While experience is a great teacher, it should not blind us to other possibilities that may exist. More importantly, deceptions are a two edged sword with the sharper knife on the side of the deceiver. Truth may bring hardships but it would not create worries that falsehood brings along. The noise within should be consistently aligned to integrity, not to wrong assessment, especially the ones based on experience.

Ignore the noise within that leads to untruths
Every stimulus needs the response of truth!

~ Pravin Sabnis

Thousand Times

In my training sessions, I share that martial arts films have similar stories. The protagonist is a simple, nice guy. And the antagonist is an expert in martial arts. In the fight between the good and the bad, the bad one wins as he is stronger and skilled. Hence the hero goes to a master to learn self-defence and attack.

He is exasperated when the master teaches him only a single move and insists that he practise it again and again. The hero pleads with his master, ‘Please teach me more moves’. The wise master replies, ‘it is not the thousand moves that you know that will help you… it is the one move you have practised a thousand times!’

We see it all around us. Singers and musicians involve in the ritual of riyaz! Batsmen practise the same stroke that they want to become better at. Bowlers strive to bowl the yorker again and again, in the nets. Novice artists keep drawing the same strokes till they become proficient. Actors keep repeating lines till they are flawless.

Of course, it is not just enough to do something a thousand times; one must do it the right way. Pedro says is you keep practising the wrong way; you will get it perfectly wrong! The constant and conscious drill of doing the right thing in the right way gets us to be better and better.

So should we restrict to only single moves? While it is good to know many moves, the ones that matter will be ones you have done many times! Interestingly, in every sphere, the fundamental moves are few and the rest are variations. So it makes sense to work a thousand times on the fundamentals.

Never mind thousand moves that you claim to know
Those done a thousand times are the ones to show!

~ Pravin Sabnis

Development

Once in a nature camp, I spoke on the tendency to abuse water as a resource. Drinking water was going to get scarce, due to destruction of water sources by indiscriminate development. A bright boy pointed, ‘With technological developments, one day it will be possible to treat sea water and convert into drinking water’. He felt that it was possible to find new solutions to problems created by development.

After appreciating the lad for his intelligent intervention, I said, ‘The Jaipur foot is an important technological development for those who lose their limbs. But would it be correct to amputate our healthy limbs just because we have a remedy? Does it make sense to scout solutions for problems we insist on creating?’

Development is a connotation that means different things to different people. It can be as personal as our self-centredness or as global as wider concerns. It can be conditioned by immediate needs or liberated by a desire to leave a legacy. It should be a corollary to the advancement of humanity. It can be about a better future not just for us but for the generations to come.

Embracing fundamentals based on a vision of equity, justice and self-reliance, for the entire humankind, should be the priority. Development cannot be walking the path to the future whilst destroying the present. And most importantly, it is about having the courage to leave the wrong road and walk only the one which benefits all the people and the environment around, not just of today, but of tomorrow as well.

Creating problems and finding solutions is a recipe for erosion…
Development is when our Earth is nurtured for future generations!

~ Pravin Sabnis