When is your habba

 Ours is a fairly close knit family, with similar values, morals and ethics. So, our outlook on most things in life are quite similar and we tend to agree on nearly everything. The operative word is 'nearly'. The one thing that we do not is - "When do we celebrate Krishna Jayanthi?" In my living memory, I do not remember a single instance where all of us, including my uncles and aunts, on even one of paternal or maternal side, have celebrated this festival on the same day. And if you include friends and neighbors, Krishna is born several times over a few days (or even weeks sometimes) in the same year. 

One might wonder why all this confusion. As the name clearly indicates, Janmashtami or Gokulashtami, should be celebrated on the Ashtami thithi, no? To be precise, the Krishna Paksha Ashtami in the month of Shravana. But alas, as with most things in life, nothing is as simple as it sounds. This thithi business is confusing. They do not align nicely with midnight or sun rise. It has a mind of its own. So, some part of thithi in a day could be Sapthami and some part Ashtami. Now, wars have been waged and reams of paper (or palm leaves) spent on how to choose which of the thithis will need to be ascribed for the day. Multiple conflict resolution algorithms exist - the thithi at the time of sunrise, the thithi at midnight and some thousand combinations thereof. Every religious sect leader has their own favorite conflict resolution algorithm. And, for different events, different algorithms. Being the great intellectuals that we are, we just will not let go off an opportunity to complicate simple things.  OK, is this all? Of course not. There are the other set of people who strongly profess that Krishna was born on the Rohini star and hence we should celebrate his birthday then and only then. What happens if the Rohini star is not on Ashtami. It does not matter. Any Rohini after the Saptami thithi is good. 

Why is this important? Only one reason. Krishna Jayanthi is the festival where we make a lot of sweets and savories. So, while all your neighbors are celebrating their festival early and enjoying the sweets, you will have to just wait for the festival to celebrated in your home before you can join the fun, all because one of your forefathers, several generations ago, decided to distinguish themselves from their neighbors and chose a different day. This wait is even a greater torture than the Marshmallow test for the 4 year olds. We are not interested in testing our self-discipline. Just give us our seedai, thattai and murkku. That is all.

I like the US way of identifying and celebrating holidays. Totally deterministic. Labor day is the first Monday in September. Who cares if the rest of the world celebrates it on May 1. Presidents day is the third Monday in February.  Taking a leaf from that book, I propose to form a new religious sect with very clear algorithms for deciding festival dates. We will celebrate festivals on a purely first-come-first-serve basis. At the earliest eligible opportunity, we should celebrate the festival. If Rohini comes first, that is our day. Even if there is a milli-second of Ashtami, it is our day. Just simplify with clear deterministic algorithm. No more discrimination because your sub-sect of 100 people from this remote village, 75Km from Thanjavur, chose a different conflict resolution algorithm for no apparent reason. It will be a total egalitarian world.

I am welcoming registrations and enrolments to this sect, at a nominal fees. If there is sufficient interest, we can even buy the island next to Kailasa. Please do let me know while I go off and munch my வெல்ல சீடை.

Creation vs Consumption

In a given day or even a week, how much time does one spend consuming vs creating? This is a question that has intrigued me for some time now. Before we answer that question, of course, we need to define what creation and consumption are. There are no universally accepted definitions, so I will state mine. 

Creation involves making something new or doing something that creates value, ideally for others, but at least for oneself. Writing new code or a new blog post, cooking a dish, milking a cow, sketching that wonderful cartoon, taking that wonderful picture of a bird all make it to this list. I would also like to add things like singing a song, going for a run or working out, meditation to the creation list. Consumption is reading a book or a FB/Instagram/WhatsApp post, watching movies and serials and the ilk. One can of course claim that scrolling social media messages is adding value to themselves as they become more informed. That is why this is a gray area and everyone should define production and consumption for themselves. There are things like replying to office emails, adding comments to a design document and so on that are in the no-man's land and I will leave them out from this discussion.

Note that we do not want to be judgmental and claim that consuming is necessarily bad. On the contrary, for producers to thrive, there should a good number of consumers. Also, we all yearn for some entertainment and need to do things for relaxation. Consumption is the primary avenue for that. But, from a given individual's perspective, for their own self improvement, there should be a healthy mix of production and consumption. Or so, I think.

Personally, for me, I think a healthy ratio is 2:1. For every 2 hours spent on consuming, I should spend one hour producing. Now, am I anywhere near that ratio - absolutely not. Majority of days, the ratio is like 10:1 -- the 1 coming from the run or the work out I do. I clearly spend an inordinate amount of time reading through articles and other posts. Even if I discount the articles that are apparently useful, like work related posts or reading non-fiction books, this ratio would still be an unhealthy 8:1 or so.

There are two ways to bring this ratio to the desired number. 1. Create more. 2. Consume less. While creating more looks like the better option, it is not that easy. If we stay true to the spirit of production, we should produce something that is useful or at least that needs a lot of thought and mindful action. Writing a post or scribbling a sketch, just to label it as a creation, does not cut it. So, getting the ratio better will need a substantial contribution from the second option - consume less. Lesser consumption is clearly a factor self-discipline and can be more deterministically accomplished.

Everyone has their own definition of what their ideal ratio is. If someone is just comfortable with 100:0, so be it. It is not prudent to judge if a ratio is good or bad. That is totally personal. But what I think we should do is to provoke this thought and ask ourselves what our ideal ratio should be, where we are and how we get there. If you do not know the problem, you cannot solve it. Or at least, we should know if there is a problem in the first place.

Vicissitudes of life

December 2022 -- Life was as joyous and peaceful as it could be. Work was going well. I had just clocked my personal best for a Half Marathon. If one had peeked through my window, it would not have been out of place to see me humming the merriest of tunes. But then, the dark storm clouds were just around the corner. As PG Wodehouse puts it eloquently, 

"it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping"

"it has been well said that it is precisely these moments when we are feeling that ours is the world and everything that's in it that Fate selects for sneaking up on us with the rock in the stocking"

First, I got injured while running. My left knee just gave up, putting a full stop to all running. I missed Mumbai Marathon for the first time in 12 years (discounting the Covid years). All the preparation towards getting to a sub 3:30 marathon just vanished in no time. 

There is a saying in Tamil - "கொடுக்கிற தெய்வம் கூரையைப் பிய்த்துக்கொண்டு கொடுக்கும்’. Which colloquially means - when you are at the receiving end, you will be dispensed with largesse. So, it was. We ran into some bizarre issues with the documents related to my mother's apartment. 

And then came the Google layoff announcements. 

While each of the above fall into the "disappointments" category, luckily none of them is even remotely closer to the life-and-death category. I just need to undergo physiotherapy for a few months and hopefully (Fingers crossed. I am advised not to cross my legs though😀) I can get back to running. Correcting the documentation just means that we have to spend some more money, effort and time. In essence, I need to endure some pain and hardship before things will likely get back to normalcy. I am ever so grateful for that.

What this also highlights is that life is so uncertain. It is at your own peril that you take things for granted. It is so easy to complain about so many things around us that one forgets what one enjoys currently is in itself a big gift. Just being able to wake up and run a 10K is not something that I thought much before. Now, I would give anything to get back to that state. One should absolutely be grateful just for a normal life.

Another thing that also came to limelight as I was facing these challenges is the support from family and friends. While there is not a lot that they could do, every one of my running friends was empathetic and supportive. Similarly, a lot of my friends and colleagues just rushed to my side to see how they can help, work wise. Just the thought that my life is surrounded by these kind of kind individuals is such a wonderful feeling.

One often builds their identity based on some of their passions. For example, a lot of my life worth came from being able to run those many marathons and chasing targets there. Or so I thought. While there is nothing really wrong with that, at times, it behoves to think more holistically. Our life is more than just our passions. In fact, the kindness and generosity one shows to their family, friends and the world in general should play an important part of one's identity. That is something that will last for life and beyond. Anything else, like running, can be taken away from you in a jiffy.

Life is short. Life is unpredictable. Cherish every moment.