Tuesday, August 18, 2020

COVID - Appreciating a slow-moving life


For a long time, I wanted everything to move fast. While I was traveling in bus, I wanted my bus to go fast and overtake all others on the road. While having food, more than enjoying the taste, I wanted to be the first one to complete it. This may give you the wrong impression that I completed a lot of things in life. Well no; I just wanted to complete something quickly and then sit idle or binge-watch movies. It was never about taking another project!!! 

I still remember our 11th class excursion trip to the Nelliyampati forest range in Palakkad district of Kerala. Nelliyampati is a wonderful area to get lost for days. There time moves slowly, nature sings in your ears while pure white cotton clouds massage you. Here one can forget everything about the outside world and just be with yourself. Unfortunately, when I went there, my only objective was to finish all viewpoints and come back first. At that time, it looked like a great achievement. Now, after another decade and a half, when I look back it was one of the stupidest things I did. I wish someone told me those words at that time. I continued the same practice in my numerous journeys across India - always sprinting.



Now stuck at home in this COVID time, I got enough time for reflection. Did I achieve something by sprinting? Honestly, I can't say yes. Slowly that realization is coming to me, life is not sprinting its marathon. Many people told the same sentence before; but unless and until one experiences the same, live through that; it is difficult to understand its true meaning. 

To understand and enjoying the real beauty of a place or to feel the taste of food, one needs to invest time in it. Here you need to spend a currency called time. It is better to do a couple of things right rather than just completing a dozen items. Now I am not jumping from place to place, and trying not to finishing food in seconds, or reading books just to reach my yearly pledge. It is better to take a step back and enjoy it.



Sajeev.

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