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 

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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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Mango Man

'Mangoes and Meanings' is an interesting exhibition (upto 14 June) at Museum of Goa. Interesting stories come from displayed mangoes, stuff made from them and art inspired by the king of fruits. One such story is of India's Mango Man, Kalimullah Khan featured in a painting put up at the exhibition.

He lives in Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh - India's mango belt. On his family farm, he grafted over 300 different varieties of mangoes onto a single 120-year-old tree. Each branch gives mangoes with different taste, texture, color and size. He calls it 'the biggest mango college in the world'.

He dropped out of school after 7th standard and started experimenting with grafting at age 17. His first attempt produced 7 varieties, but that tree was destroyed in a storm. Since 1987, he's been working on his famous 120-year-old tree. 

In 2008, the Government of India awarded him Padma Shri, for his work in horticulture. He is over 82 years of age and still walks to his tree every morning at dawn. He says, 'people will come and go, but the mangoes will remain forever'.

In Hindustani lingo, the common man is called 'aam aadmi'. 'Aam' also means mango and has become reason for the inspiring success of a common man called Kalimullah Khan who backed his dream with continuous commitment.

Passion backed by perseverance will take you far

India's Mango Man shows the way to be a star

~ Pravin K Sabnis

 

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Hurt Sentiments

'My sentiments are hurt' has become the default trend of public discourse. Even private, emotional reaction is now a public claim that demands institutional response, legal protection and social deference. 

The phrase now implies that feelings are fragile possessions that can be damaged by words uttered by the 'other', as if it were a personal wound. In communities with deep historical and cultural divisions, this wound is amplified. 

The consequence is a growing demand for restrictive boundaries around expression. The law in many countries places limits on speech that intentionally insults religion, race or community sentiments.

Yet the criterion of 'hurt sentiments' is inherently subjective. One person’s satire is another person’s sacrilege. One group’s reclaimed symbol is another group’s insult. Once hurt becomes the threshold for action, it creates a moving target where the most easily offended set the limits for everyone else. 

This shifts power from reasoned debate to emotional reaction, and from criticism of ideas to protection of identities. Over time, it can stifle art, scholarship, humour and dissent, because almost any idea can be framed as offensive to someone.

In the end, sentiments being hurt reveals something fundamental about modern life: we want both absolute freedom and absolute safety from discomfort. The choice a society makes about where to draw the line determines whether it remains open to truth and beauty, or settles for silence in the name of peace.

Whether hurtful offense or mere disagreement

Society needs to move beyond hurt sentiments!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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Slip Show

In the 1940s, the phrase "the slip is showing" was a literal warning when a woman's undergarment hem dropped below her skirt. It was a kind urging: fix yourself before the world sees what you didn't mean to reveal.

In today's context, the phrase has become a metaphor. Now it means that the mask has slipped. The carefully maintained image has slipped to expose a truer, messier or less rehearsed persona.

Never mind the best of efforts, the slip tends to peep out. The chances increase when we lower our defences due to carelessness or casualness. And the ugly inside slips out.

Last week, a woman aggressively took on a politician and his crowd for blocking the road for a protest purportedly for women's rights. The moment went viral and the politician's supporters joined the online battle to attack the woman. 

They put out her name and posted photos and videos to malign her character. They called her a prostitute and spilled filth and venom, till it turned out to be a mistaken identity. But the inner ugly side had already slipped. 

The filthy thoughts and the gutter language confirmed what the online warriors were trying to hide. It was never about what was right. It was about what was wrong in their heads. They stood exposed for the degradation they had sunk to and were now stripped of all cover.

No shame if the slip is showing as peeping lace

But when vile thoughts slip, it is a sure disgrace!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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Our planet

Our planet is a living set of connected systems. Forests make rain. Oceans set the thermostat. Soil (considered as dirt) is a universe of microbes feeding the crops that feed us.

When one piece shifts, the others feel it. A warmer ocean means stronger monsoons. Fewer trees in the Amazon means less rain in farmland thousands of miles away.

For most of Earth’s history, humans weren’t here. In the last 200 years, we have developed ways to impact our planet, both ways. The question is what kind of impact we choose. We protect what we love. And love starts with attention.

Notice the monsoon clouds building in the sky. Notice how a single tree cools a street by 5°C. Notice that the beach looks different after a storm, and again after a cleanup. The decor is data. It tells us when a system is healthy.

Our planet will exist with or without us. What’s at stake is the planet that’s good for us: stable climates, drinkable water, coral reefs, tigers, mangroves, winter, fruits. We must start with first noticing and choosing the right actions.

Our planet is home and classroom in every way

We must pay attention and act like we plan to stay.

~ Pravin K Sabnis

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