POOKALAM

 Onam is the harvest festival celebrated in Kerala to mark the arrival of King Mahabali. The ten day festival includes many activities including the Onam Pookalam which literally means Onam flower rangolis or the patterns made with flower petals.

 

The Pookalam is generally round in shape and then filled with intricate detailing with colourful flower petals. A new outer circle is added every day to the pattern made on the first day of Onam till the tenth day or Thiruvonam.

 

Besides the beauty of the diversity of seasonal flowers, Pookalam represents many learnings. The most pertinent to add something to the effort of the previous day.

 

We start initiatives which are overwhelming due to their immediate magnitude. However, if we do one step at a time, and keep adding fresh effort every day, we end up creating an impressive transformation by the last day.

 

One circle at a time and add another on subsequent day

The final stage will impress, the Pookalam seems to say!

 

Pravin K Sabnis

Interdependence

Human freedom has four endowments self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the power to choose, to respond, to change. The value of independence is what it makes you a human being.

But it is not just about independence of only me, but also about encouraging the independence of others. We must have the freedom to think our own thoughts, live our own life and help others to do the same.

Independence is an aspiration of individuals in a ground reality of a world that is interdependent. Hence, we should value and support the independence of all who share this interdependent world.

We need learn from each other, weaving our lives in an interdependent tapestry, through open dialogues in our relationships, in our teams, in our communities… where the lighthouse is one of ‘common good’!

While independence liberates our individuality...

Interdependence ensures flourishing collectively!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

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Ad Nauseam

Ad nauseam is a Latin term for an argument that has continued to the point of nausea. An argumentum ad nauseam is a logical fallacy in which erroneous proof is proffered by prolonged repetition of the argument. The argument is repeated so many times that persons are ‘sick of it’.

The words ‘this has been discussed ad nauseam’ indicates that the topic has been discussed extensively and those involved have grown sick of it. The fallacy of dragging the conversation to an ad nauseam state in order to then assert one's position as correct due to it not having been contradicted is also called argumentum ad infinitum (to infinity) and argument from repetition.

So often, so many of us argue ad nauseam on social media. At the least, we are boring… at the worst we can be irritating in sickening sort of way. The sick feeling upsets relationships and creates unforgiving fissures in further dialogue.

We must ponder whether we are repeating a fallacy backed by illogical proof and offending others by our behavior. We must realize that it is a ‘sick practice’ to argue ad nauseam. We must learn to let go and move on.

The important thing is to think! We must pause to ponder over other possibilities rather than play the broken record of damning prejudices. We need to breathe the fresh air that comes with an open mind that is ready to reconsider and be liberated from the nausea that comes from rigid irrationality.

Escape the trend to argue ad nauseam

An open mind needs a broader realm!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

#mondaymuse20thYear #pravinsabnis #since2004 #motivation #blogging #MondayMuse