A recent Hindi film showcased the modern Spanish festival in which revellers throw tomatoes at each other just for fun. It is pertinent to note that the origins of the festival can be traced to a brawl in 1945 in Bunol, where tomatoes got used as weapons. In the initial years, the authorities would round up the revellers but later they got around to organising the festival!
Inspired attempts to recreate the fest in Goa were squashed by indignant citizens who decried the criminal waste of food in a world where hunger is rampant due to food scarcity. It was heartening to note condemnation from all quarters to the event. But the larger question remains whether such public posturing will result in a conscious attempt to ensure that food does not get wasted.
So often, at parties, in hotels, in homes… food finds its way to the garbage bin. Such callous attitudes reflect a deep insensitivity to those who go hungry. A lot of modern traditions flaunt the unkind revelry of excessive waste of food. While it is good to see the opposition to the heartless event, it would be better to inculcate practices that are sensitive to the larger world that we belong to.
The planet earth is our common home. The resources – food, water, energy, fuels, ecology, etc – belong to collective ownership. When some of us abuse our privileges to waste resources; it results in the denial of the resources to the less privileged brethren. We have to move beyond condemnation of public fests that involve wastage… we must inculcate personal habits that align with that outrage.
A rising voice against waste is the right thing to do...
But let’s BE BETTER at aligning personal practices, too!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, November 14, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
HOPE ROPE
Trained elephants are often held, in their enclosure, by only a small rope tied to their leg. No chains, no cages. Obviously the elephant can, at anytime, break away from the bond but it does not. Actually, when they are young and much smaller, the trainer uses the same size rope to tie the elephants. At that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.
The animals can at any time break free from their bonds but because they believe they can’t, they remain stuck right where they were. Like the elephants, we too get held back by overpowering bonds of initial conditioning. We go through life hanging onto a negative belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before...
Initial failure often tends to weigh heavy on our belief systems and prevents us from recognising our own potential. But we need to be better at not allowing failure to blur our attitude towards our own aptitude. After all, failure is a part of learning and growth; it cannot become flimsy reason to be held back in life... the conditioning rope has to be undone by holding on to hope inspired committed attempts to transform the situation!
Do not allow failure to hold back liberating hope...
Let’s BE BETTER at escaping the conditioning rope!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, October 31, 2011
LOCKUP
A vain locksmith would often boast that he could escape from any lockup in less than an hour. Some of his friends built a new lockup and challenged him to break free. In the presence of a large crowd present, the locksmith marched into the cell, and the door was closed. He immediately went to work. Hidden in his belt was a flexible, yet tough and durable ten-inch piece of steel, which he used to work on the lock.
After an hour of elusive result, his buoyancy began to desert him. His reputation was at stake and he was soaked in sweat. Every passing minute seemed an eternity. At the end of two hours, he literally collapsed against the door... and it opened! Actually, the door had never been locked, except in his own mind...
The door had never been locked except in the locksmith’s own mind, which meant that the door was as firmly secured as if a thousand locksmiths had put their best locks on it. Indeed it is easy to unlock any physical locks, but not the lock that lies in the mind. The locks, in our own mind, prevent us from getting out of our “lockup”.
Most of us are confined in a “belief lockup”. In order to break out, we need to first recognise the fetters in our mind. Next we need to seize ownership of situation and choose the path for true liberation of our mind. And it is pertinent to remember that to be better at overcoming the mind lockup; we must give a little push to the mental restrictions rather than exert excessive pulls that keep us confined in the lockup zone.
Let’s BE BETTER at escaping the lockup in the mind
The little progressive push is all it takes, you will find...
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, October 24, 2011
SPARK
Sixty years ago, buses in Montgomery were divided into two sections... the front was reserved for the white people and the rear was kept aside for the black people. The sections were determined by the placement of a movable sign. If the ‘white’ section got filled up, it was extended by asking black persons to stand up and move to the rear. If there was no room, they had to get off the bus.
On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks who was sitting in the front row of the ‘black’ section of the bus was ordered out of her seat as the ‘white’ section had filled up. Rosa refused and as a consequence she was arrested. Parks’ action to reclaim her dignity was not the first... there were others, too. But her civil disobedience became the spark that precipitated the historic movement led by Martin Luther King.
Rosa wrote in her autobiography that ‘I didn't give up my seat because I was tired… I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old… just forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in… The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became’
So often, we give in to unfair situations because we give up on our own personal dignity. But when we stand up for real values, we will be better at aligning with humanism and common good. We can choose to transform into the significant spark that can overcome the worst of possibilities that may loom large.
Like Parks, let’s BE BETTER at asserting dignity
Little sparks can transform imbalanced reality!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks who was sitting in the front row of the ‘black’ section of the bus was ordered out of her seat as the ‘white’ section had filled up. Rosa refused and as a consequence she was arrested. Parks’ action to reclaim her dignity was not the first... there were others, too. But her civil disobedience became the spark that precipitated the historic movement led by Martin Luther King.
Rosa wrote in her autobiography that ‘I didn't give up my seat because I was tired… I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old… just forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in… The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became’
So often, we give in to unfair situations because we give up on our own personal dignity. But when we stand up for real values, we will be better at aligning with humanism and common good. We can choose to transform into the significant spark that can overcome the worst of possibilities that may loom large.
Like Parks, let’s BE BETTER at asserting dignity
Little sparks can transform imbalanced reality!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, October 17, 2011
PAPER BOAT
Last week Jagjit Singh, who harmonised so many mesmerising gazals and other songs, passed away. One of his songs from a forgettable Hindi film has seized our consciousness to become unforgettable. The lyrics of ‘Kagaz ki kashti (paper boat) refer to the lament of a person who has earned wealth but lost connect with his child-like innocence.
A first verse is a plea to ‘take away my riches, my fame, even my youth... but in return give me the monsoon from my childhood, the paper boat and the drops of rain...” Childhood is when the simplest of things are triggers for great happiness. It is time to be happy with things around rather than the futile pursuit of happiness as a commodity.
Everyone craves for the simple pleasures of childhood. Yet so often, we choose to run the dash for complex materialism. As children, we could play with an empty box or a stone or a paper boat... But as adults we tire easily of everything and we chose to be perpetually dissatisfied with what we have and hope to be better at gathering further acquisitions.
The choice is simple. Stop lamenting and choose childhood attitudes... we need to be better at reclaiming our childlike innocence and fascination for life’s simple pleasures... these are found in contentment and connect with relationships and Mother nature... and this is best done by the playful attitude where we create and ride little paper boats in natural streams caused by the falling rain...
Make the paper boat, make time to share and play
Let’s BE BETTER at reclaiming the childhood way!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
A first verse is a plea to ‘take away my riches, my fame, even my youth... but in return give me the monsoon from my childhood, the paper boat and the drops of rain...” Childhood is when the simplest of things are triggers for great happiness. It is time to be happy with things around rather than the futile pursuit of happiness as a commodity.
Everyone craves for the simple pleasures of childhood. Yet so often, we choose to run the dash for complex materialism. As children, we could play with an empty box or a stone or a paper boat... But as adults we tire easily of everything and we chose to be perpetually dissatisfied with what we have and hope to be better at gathering further acquisitions.
The choice is simple. Stop lamenting and choose childhood attitudes... we need to be better at reclaiming our childlike innocence and fascination for life’s simple pleasures... these are found in contentment and connect with relationships and Mother nature... and this is best done by the playful attitude where we create and ride little paper boats in natural streams caused by the falling rain...
Make the paper boat, make time to share and play
Let’s BE BETTER at reclaiming the childhood way!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, October 10, 2011
REBOOT
In 1976, Steve Jobs formed Apple and built the world’s first commercially successful personal computer. In 1985, Jobs was fired from Apple by the CEO and the board. Imagine being fired from the company you started and by the very people you helped recruit.
Early in his career, Jobs was described as someone who ruled “by force of personality, making numerous economies with his ridiculing the ideas of others, his unwillingness to hear views contrary to his own and his outbursts of bad temper”. The lack of humility finally did Jobs in.
Jobs really didn’t know what to do for a few months. He felt that he had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down. He met with David Packard and tried to apologise. He started a computer company aptly named NeXT and bought a struggling animation studio named Pixar.
In 1997, Jobs was back at Apple as “interim” CEO. His first move was to drop the very operating system developed by him at NeXT and that Apple had purchased from him two years earlier. That move wasn’t the Jobs of old. He had mellowed and seemed more open to ideas. Jobs himself was sure none of this [NeXT, Pixar, the iPod, the iTunes, the iPad] would have happened if he hadn’t been fired from Apple.
Every big setback provides us to reboot ourselves. We must be better at using the opportunity to overcome every weakness that was reason for the setback. We must follow the route chosen by the inspirational Steve Jobs who showed that ultimate nirvana needs us to reboot our attitude.
Every setback provides the opportunity to reboot...
Let’s BE BETTER at emulating Steve Jobs’ route!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Early in his career, Jobs was described as someone who ruled “by force of personality, making numerous economies with his ridiculing the ideas of others, his unwillingness to hear views contrary to his own and his outbursts of bad temper”. The lack of humility finally did Jobs in.
Jobs really didn’t know what to do for a few months. He felt that he had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down. He met with David Packard and tried to apologise. He started a computer company aptly named NeXT and bought a struggling animation studio named Pixar.
In 1997, Jobs was back at Apple as “interim” CEO. His first move was to drop the very operating system developed by him at NeXT and that Apple had purchased from him two years earlier. That move wasn’t the Jobs of old. He had mellowed and seemed more open to ideas. Jobs himself was sure none of this [NeXT, Pixar, the iPod, the iTunes, the iPad] would have happened if he hadn’t been fired from Apple.
Every big setback provides us to reboot ourselves. We must be better at using the opportunity to overcome every weakness that was reason for the setback. We must follow the route chosen by the inspirational Steve Jobs who showed that ultimate nirvana needs us to reboot our attitude.
Every setback provides the opportunity to reboot...
Let’s BE BETTER at emulating Steve Jobs’ route!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, October 3, 2011
LOSING GOLD
My friend, Avinash Tavares shared a tragic scene seen on a televised Talent show. A couple of kids had won the second place but there was no trace of a smile on their faces. Their parents were weeping bitterly. Avinash raised pertinent queries: Whither sense of achievement? Whither sense of gratitude towards all those who helped the kids rise to such a performance?
In an increasingly competitive world, in the quest to be better, too many of us are insisting on nothing but the best. When we frown upon even second best positions, imagine our disdain for those that come last! All this is in sync with the media catchphrase about those who win second position: ‘You don’t win silver, you lose gold’
A real sense of achievement has to flow from the satisfaction of sincere endeavours and not from the vagaries of results. The very act of taking on a challenge has to be, by itself, a cause for celebration. An attitude of gratitude is the only fair return to all those who help in different ways from guiding, training, facilitating... including those who are audience.
More important than winning is to have a winner’s attitude that comes from celebrating efforts and sportsmanship. The score should not be allowed to douse passion. Eventually, it is never about winning or losing gold... we need to be better at ensuring that every failure turns into a stepping stone to success. After all, it is only true sportsmanship and earnest efforts that wins hearts of others... and ours too!
Losing gold does not deserve despair and misery...
Let’s BE BETTER at celebrating golden efforts truly!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
