There was a conversation this morning about making time for exercise. Someone remarked that Barack Obama works out for 45 minutes every single day and if he can make time for exercise it is shameful that we ordinary citizens cannot. There were times when I have also followed similar reasoning, only to end up feeling quite low about my seemingly bad time management skills. Off-late equipped with more information the way my mind rationalizes has changed...
Here is a story from Hindu mythology that will hopefully help make my point. Narada, the chief devotee of Lord Vishnu grew quite haughty about the extent of his devotion to Vishnu. He goes to Vishnu one day asking him to declare Narada as his best devotee. Vishnu disgarees and takes him down to earth to the family of a poor farmer. The duo decide to spend a day with the poor farmer. The farmer spends his whole day from dawn to dusk toiling in his fields to bring home a small meal for his family. In the name of Vishnu, he is happy to share the meager meal they had with the guests at home. The next morning Narada takes the farmer aside to find out how often he worships Vishnu. The farmer says he is thankful to Vishnu for everything he has got and makes it a point to pray to him before he starts his day and at the end of the day. Narada is quite puzzled and upset with Vishnu and asks Vishnu how the farmer's chant a couple of times a day matches Narada's devotion. Vishu does not respond immediately but makes Narada go around a mountain with a pot of water on his head with the condition that he cannot let the pot drop. Narada accomplishes this with with some difficulty and a lot of concentration. Now Vishnu asks him how many times during this trip around the mountain Narada thought of him and Narada replies, "hardly once" because he was so focussed on the hard task at hand. Now Vishnu smiles and tells Narada that it is easy enough to think of him all the time when he has nothing better to do but the fact that the farmer can find time to think of him amidst his very difficult day is what makes him a better devotee.
Getting back to the point, Obama is not unique in his devotion to exercise. Bush is known for spending an hour exercizing every day. Reagan spent an hour hand replying to the letters he got. In fact, he spent a good year of his presidency at his ranch near Santa Barbara (not being a big fan of Camp David). Bill Gates and a lot of other CEOs are known for being very particular about their hobbies and their exercicise routines. In fact in that high rolling society, it is hard to survive without some predictable time everyday spent on something else. However,I would dare anyone to check with people at the lowest socio-economic stratum : someone struggling to make ends meet, unable to buy health insurance for their children and probably stradling a couple of jobs. Ever think how many of these people find time for an exercise routine? When you are all consumed by a powerful high paying job engulfed in a luxurious life, it is a no brainer to look for something which can help you "break" from the stress. On the contrary, doing the same when your very survival is at risk, when your very basic needs are not met and when your ego is crushed is a whole other story. When you do not have dishes to do, laundry to fold or that broken sprinkler to fix, your options are truly endless. I know I am not at either ends of this spectrum and it seems easy enough to extrapolate that my execrise routine is also somewhere in between. So I don't need to feel too bad right? I am exactly where I need to be...
So with all due respect to Obama and the other multi-miliionaries out there who have committed an hour of their day to the treadmill, while I am quite okay to tip my hat and give them credit for their health consciousness,don't blame me for not being blown over...I just spent my past hour cooking and cleaning for my family!!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Is eternal fame worth it?
2009 marks the 200th year of Charles Darwin and there has been a lot of media spotlight on his life, research and beliefs. I heard his biography on one such program on radio. His theory of evolution and natural selection contradicts some of the basic Christian beliefs of creationism and to this day the controversy remains. Darwin was married to a very religious wife and was worried about offending her by publishing his work and didn't for more than a decade. Then one fine day their only daughter, the focal point of their life, got sick. The couple tried everything they could and even travelled to try and make her better but she only got worse and eventually died. Her death was a huge blow to Darwin and his wife Annie, but in strange ways (or so the story goes) this brought them closer and he ended up publishing his revolutionary theory.
This narrative made me recollect some of the traumatic incidents in the early lives of other famous people (Thanks to a couple of interesting books S has). Lincoln lost his mother when he was only nine years old, Marie Curie lost her mother and her older sister within a time gap of just two years to tuberculosis, when she was barely ten. She actually watched her mom quarantined at home for about a year. Helen Keller lost her vision and hearing when she was only two years old. Whether it is Albert Eienstein, George Washington or even modern day history makers like Barack Obama, there was certainly nothing rosy about their childhood. Is this the cause of their success or is their past being put in perspective an effect of their success? Do children have to endure some amount of suffering or at the very least have something abnormal in their chilhood to become famous later? Is some amount of misery a prerequisite for eternal fame?
Okay, may be I am overeacting here...There are other famous people that have had perfectly normal lives or at least "normal" within the widely acceptable range. One thing however that seems to be universally true is, all these famous people have been extremely passionate about something even in their early lives. Something that helped them keep their focus amidst all the chaos around them and something they could take refuge in, no matter what. Famous or otherwise, may be that is what we all need to do...find that one thing in life that keeps us motivated and helps us (mentally) rise above what is around us. Something we can seek solace in or vent our frustartion with, when the world around us does not cooperate. As parents this is what we need to encourage our children to do, not for eternal fame but for eternal peace...
This narrative made me recollect some of the traumatic incidents in the early lives of other famous people (Thanks to a couple of interesting books S has). Lincoln lost his mother when he was only nine years old, Marie Curie lost her mother and her older sister within a time gap of just two years to tuberculosis, when she was barely ten. She actually watched her mom quarantined at home for about a year. Helen Keller lost her vision and hearing when she was only two years old. Whether it is Albert Eienstein, George Washington or even modern day history makers like Barack Obama, there was certainly nothing rosy about their childhood. Is this the cause of their success or is their past being put in perspective an effect of their success? Do children have to endure some amount of suffering or at the very least have something abnormal in their chilhood to become famous later? Is some amount of misery a prerequisite for eternal fame?
Okay, may be I am overeacting here...There are other famous people that have had perfectly normal lives or at least "normal" within the widely acceptable range. One thing however that seems to be universally true is, all these famous people have been extremely passionate about something even in their early lives. Something that helped them keep their focus amidst all the chaos around them and something they could take refuge in, no matter what. Famous or otherwise, may be that is what we all need to do...find that one thing in life that keeps us motivated and helps us (mentally) rise above what is around us. Something we can seek solace in or vent our frustartion with, when the world around us does not cooperate. As parents this is what we need to encourage our children to do, not for eternal fame but for eternal peace...
Ghirardheli and Globalization
Our family is a big fan of the Glirardheli's. For people not familiar with this place, they are very famous for their chocolates and have been around for over a hundres years. They are headquartered in SF, where they have this cafe near SF wharf where they sell an awesome selection of icecream and of course chocolates. I still remember the "earthquake" (A platter with your choice of 7 icecream flavors with all the toppings one could possibly imagine) we enjoyed when my sister visited us a few years ago. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I learnt about the store in San Diego. Since that time, we made it a habit to go there for every small celebration and never miss a chance to take any of our unsuspecting SD visitors there. We typically bring back a souvenir of their hot cocoa or drinking chocolate box every time.
So it all began one evening when S wanted a mug of hot chocolate. I reached out for the box only to find barely a spoonful left. "We are out of drinking chocolate", I declared. S answered just the way I thought ( and hoped) she would, "We better go there soon and get some amma". Yes!! yet another opportunity for a family outing there!!! It so turned out that this hot cocoa situation was so bad that P felt compelled to go to Vons to pick up a replacement ( S barely drinks any milk and she typically prefers it with hot cocoa). I wasn't too alramed, what kind of a match is Hershey's to Girardheli's...this stop gap purchase isn't going to stop us...We had to go and get the "real" thing sooner or later. The same evening I looked for the box to make a mug for S fully expecting Hershey's or some such hot cocoa box but there was it was...a shiny new box of Ghirardheli hot cocoa in my cabinet!! I certainly took my time digesting that...
Our favorite Ghirardehli hot cocoa at Vons!! Coming to think of it, regular grocery stores have always carried Ghirardheli chcolates, so why should their hot cocoa be any different...I suspect they have always carried it but I never bothered to look. I truly felt let down. Where has all the uniqueness gone? Now we truly live in a world where you get everything anywhere. Advent of on-line shopping hasn't made that any better. I still remember every little thing P and I collected on our first visit to Europe. The mask from Venice, the cuckoo clock from Switzerland, statue of Paulina from Rome ...each one was special. It gives (me) immense pleasure buying something knowing you can't get it anywhere else in the world, the purchase itself marking your very presence there. Now you barely need to leave your bedroom to get items from any corner of the world. I hardly buy anything on my travel these days. The very excitement that forces you to make that "buy" decision: the pressure of "if not here you can't buy it later" just isn't there anymore. I know I can always order it on-line if I REALLY want it.Another thing I really used to enjoy is looking at "duty-free" shops at airports, now I can barely even walk through them. You basically get the same darn thing in every single duty free shop all over the world. I am not against globalization in general but sometimes I do feel that we have fallen victim to our own success...As for Glirardheli, luckily we do have a couple of milestones of S's to celebrate, so looks like it IS going to work out after all...
So it all began one evening when S wanted a mug of hot chocolate. I reached out for the box only to find barely a spoonful left. "We are out of drinking chocolate", I declared. S answered just the way I thought ( and hoped) she would, "We better go there soon and get some amma". Yes!! yet another opportunity for a family outing there!!! It so turned out that this hot cocoa situation was so bad that P felt compelled to go to Vons to pick up a replacement ( S barely drinks any milk and she typically prefers it with hot cocoa). I wasn't too alramed, what kind of a match is Hershey's to Girardheli's...this stop gap purchase isn't going to stop us...We had to go and get the "real" thing sooner or later. The same evening I looked for the box to make a mug for S fully expecting Hershey's or some such hot cocoa box but there was it was...a shiny new box of Ghirardheli hot cocoa in my cabinet!! I certainly took my time digesting that...
Our favorite Ghirardehli hot cocoa at Vons!! Coming to think of it, regular grocery stores have always carried Ghirardheli chcolates, so why should their hot cocoa be any different...I suspect they have always carried it but I never bothered to look. I truly felt let down. Where has all the uniqueness gone? Now we truly live in a world where you get everything anywhere. Advent of on-line shopping hasn't made that any better. I still remember every little thing P and I collected on our first visit to Europe. The mask from Venice, the cuckoo clock from Switzerland, statue of Paulina from Rome ...each one was special. It gives (me) immense pleasure buying something knowing you can't get it anywhere else in the world, the purchase itself marking your very presence there. Now you barely need to leave your bedroom to get items from any corner of the world. I hardly buy anything on my travel these days. The very excitement that forces you to make that "buy" decision: the pressure of "if not here you can't buy it later" just isn't there anymore. I know I can always order it on-line if I REALLY want it.Another thing I really used to enjoy is looking at "duty-free" shops at airports, now I can barely even walk through them. You basically get the same darn thing in every single duty free shop all over the world. I am not against globalization in general but sometimes I do feel that we have fallen victim to our own success...As for Glirardheli, luckily we do have a couple of milestones of S's to celebrate, so looks like it IS going to work out after all...
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