Anubhooti

In Sanskrit, Anubhooti refers to experience that comes after observing and living through something. It is not just knowledge from books. It is a realisation born out of an experience.

We can read about or be told about rain, but Anubhooti is to get wet in the showers, feel the water touch the skin and to smell the wet earth. Mistakes, joys, losses, and little daily experiences all become Anubhooti.

A guru, an artist, or an elder is respected not only for what they know, but for what they have experienced. Their words carry weight because they come from Anubhooti.

Educational institutions are now bringing Anubhooti back into learning. Instead of rote learning, learners are encouraged to do experiments, visit places, work on projects, and reflect. When a child grows a plant, cleans a beach, or interviews a grandparent, the lesson becomes Anubhooti.

Information is everywhere now, easy to download. But Anubhooti cannot be downloaded. It has to be lived. It builds wisdom because you start seeing learning beyond textbooks.

It is important to note that two people can go through the same situation yet walk away with very different understandings, because their experiences are different. Hence Anubhooti will differ from person to person leading to multiple perceptions and perspectives.

Immerse in the experience to learn and unlearn

Anubhooti will happen as an unexpected turn!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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Adopt a Tree

Planting a tree is an activity that has become fashionable. On environment days, during the ongoing Vanamohtsav Week saplings are planted as a photo-op. The next year the same space will be available to plant another sapling.

It is futile to plant a tree that will not survive because of lack of nurturing and protection. Speaking of protection, existing full grown trees are easily marked for felling for silly reasons.

Instead of casual planting, maybe we should adopt trees and look after them. The adopted trees could be fully grown trees or freshly planted saplings. The one who adopts that tree should look after it with care.

Adopting a tree requires the resolve of a consistent commitment. It is a choice made by those who connect totally to the common good. They do not seek immediate benefits for themselves.

So often, we are seized by an emotion that is well intentioned. But, the best of intentions can come to nought, if we do not back our initial act by a follow up of appropriate actions. So while it is good to ‘plant’, it would be better to ‘adopt’ and nurture that tree!

Choose to create a lasting legacy

Do not just plant... adopt the tree!

~ Pravin K Sabnis 

 #since2004 #motivation #blogging #MondayMuse

Steady Pace

In a culture that glorifies overnight success, the viral moment and over working, 'steady pace' is a prudent choice. We are taught to equate speed with ambition. Move fast, break things and hustle harder. 

Sprinters burn out. They also skip steps. The novelist who rushes to publish puts out a messy draft. The company that scales too fast builds a foundation of debt and duct tape. Speed creates casualties that steadiness avoids.

A steady pace isn’t slow. Slow implies a lack of urgency. Steady implies control. The marathoner who knows her splits. The student who studies 2 hours every day instead of cramming for 14 hours once. Water cuts through rock not because it is strong, but because it is persistent. 

When we sprint, adrenaline decides. When we are steady, we have room to think. We notice the crack in the foundation before the building collapses. We rewrite the bad paragraph instead of forwarding it.

At a steady pace, stay on your feet

That is the way to avoid any defeat!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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Alter Attitude

A woman approached her friend for poison to kill her hostile mother-in-law. Her friend cautioned her, ‘since, everyone knows that you hate her, it will be obvious that you killed her. Instead if you give her this slow poison every day, she will die in six months. In the meanwhile behave as if you love her. When she dies no one will suspect you.’

The woman started giving the poison to her mother-in-law; at the same time, she acted as if she loved her. Shortly, her mother-in-law began to reciprocate her love and caring attitude.

Now, the woman no longer wanted her mother-in-law to die. She rushed to her friend to ask for an antidote. Her friend calmly replied, ‘what I gave you is harmless. I knew that if you changed your behaviour to your mother-in-law, she would reciprocate with positive feelings towards you.’

Attitude is difficult to alter. But behaviour can easily change due to motives. A changed stimulus invites a transformed response. A renovated response gives rise to positive experiences which lead to a positively altered attitude.

So often, we crib about the negatives in others. But the attitude of others is also impacted by our own attitude that is reflected in our behaviour towards them. If we alter our behaviour we will discover positive impacts that eventually result in transformed thinking and altered attitude on both sides!

When you want other's attitude to change

Try altering your own  behavioural range!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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HEARD OR HERD

Two friends were out on a walk alongside a busy road. One of them stopped and said, ‘I think I hear something.’ He put aside a loose paving stone to set free a cricket that was chirping.

His friend remarked, ‘that’s amazing… so many people are on the street at this hour, hurrying from work; yet you alone heard the cricket above all the traffic noises.’

The first replied, ‘people hear only what they want to hear. Right now, the noise of traffic has neither increased nor decreased… but watch.’ He dropped a coin from his pocket to the sidewalk. Everyone within an amazingly large hearing distance stopped and looked around.

The man, who heard the cricket, had been able to retain his childhood ability to hear well. This was aided by his interest in the sounds of Nature. The hearing ability of the crowd was restricted to materialistic motivations like the sound of coins. 

We are born with amazing abilities to use our senses, but for most of us, as we grow those abilities get narrowed down to hear and see lesser and lesser.

Whenever we say that we did not hear something, we must accept that the onus is on us to heed and hear. Never mind the distractions; we must be better at listening. We must rediscover the child that was born with the ability to maintain an engaging interest and hence could hear it!

Choose to be different from the distracted herd

With keen interest, every little thing will be heard!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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Me Time

The term 'Me time' refers to time spent relaxing, focusing on oneself and doing activities purely for yourself. It is a conscious break from daily routines, work obligations and the demands of others, allowing you to recharge your mental and physical energy.

While it sounds simple, it is the thing most people never actually get around to. Life keeps piling on  responsibilities, chores and commitments. The choice of doing something just for yourself starts to feel selfish or even impossible. 

'Me time' isn’t a luxury. It is important maintenance. Without it, things starts to blur. You get irritable, forgetful, tired in a way sleep cannot fix. You are so preoccupied with things to do that you do nothing for yourself.

Me time resets that. It pulls you out of everyone else’s orbit. For some it is an hour with a book and no phone nearby. For others it is a walk without a destination, music in their ears. It can be what you really like: cooking, sitting on the floor to draw or just lying in bed staring at the ceiling.

'Me time' gives you space to notice what you actually think and feel, not just what you are supposed to do next. It connects you to your passion and the little joys of life. 'Me time' is you, undivided. And that version of you is the one everyone else gets the benefit of later.

'Me time' will reclaim my childlike grin

Just me, and the joy I choose to be in!

~ Pravin K Sabnis 

#mondaymuse23rdYear #pravinsabnis #since2004 #motivation #blogging #MondayMuse

Museums

Today's muse is an ode to museums on occasion of International Museum Day. A museum is a building that refuses to forget. Civilisations fade, languages die, and ways of living get paved over. The museum puts a roof over what remains.

Humans collect for two reasons: evidence and longing. Proof of the past, of the things invented, of the battles fought. Longing because every exhibit is a world that is lost to us or is on the way out. 

Museums are born from an innate human drive to preserve, understand and share our collective memory. They are driven by a desire to educate the public, celebrate cultural identity, and protect historical artifacts from being lost to time.

Museums are about the choice to display, to showcase, to label... a choice about whose story gets a room. The British Museum holds the Parthenon Marbles; Greece holds the empty space where they stood. Both are museums now: one of objects, one of absence. 

The museum exhibits chronology so we can see patterns of how our ancestors lived. It is the only place where you can watch the Stone Age end and the Space Age begin in thirty steps. We look, we read the text, we listen to the narrator. We revisit the past.

However a good museum is not a mausoleum. It is about the past we want to hold on to. Good museums let things breathe: rotating exhibits, living artists, community curators, repatriation. It is about a continued conversation aiming to retrieve, restore and refuse to forget.

Was the past perfect? No! But there are lessons to be learnt. To do the things that were right and to learn from the things that were wrong. The museum can be our talisman to learn the right lessons. 

They relive the past, unlike the dead mausoleum 

The present is grateful to the lovely museums!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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