The blog's title is taken partly from the Johnnie Walker Brand Tag subtitle and the Iconic Rum Brand but this title IS NOT a cut-copy-paste job. Those who have read my blog or followed my writing know I try to write about the "bodh" of life. The term "bodh" is loosely translated in English as enlightenment but in fact, it is more of a concoction of revelation, conclusion and enlightenment. Unless I have bodh of a few things, I don't write them down as a Blog Post. I do have a WhatsApp group with myself and every time I have a small "bodh", I send it to myself. Once the dots connect, I write a post with a ghazal or a song. The bodh today is about a few things the old monk (that's me) and the pursuit to keep walking. My dad passed away on November 8th last year. On his 80th birthday, I gifted him a Johnnie Walker Bottle. He loved his drink and till he smoked, he loved his Gold flake too. It just occurred to me that I hadn't seen a better living example of "keep walking " than him. He was an eternal optimist , happy-go-lucky, slogger, foodie, emotional and chivalrous man. It occurred to me why "Keep walking" was so reflected in him. Ironically, He left me that bottle, almost more than half of it . 2 Days before his death, he pointed out the bottle to me in his wardrobe and asked me to keep it. Good Memories are the best inheritance.
The 10 months of 2023 have left the deepest, most indelible mark on me, it's been the most moving time in 2 decades. I truly understood the meaning of the expression "out on a limb", especially after my Knee surgery last May. Such time phases give you ample time to introspect. I am going out to write my First 3 "bodh" pointers. I must also say that they are in no specific order, they are not 3, I might write the remaining before the end of the calendar year
#1 - Nature, not Humans - The instruction manual to life is in nature, if you observe, nature wherever Human intervention hasn't impacted much, you will take away the most important conclusions of life. This time it's the story of an eagle. I was experiencing immense battle fatigue and in an unrelated Podcast, I stumbled upon the life journey of an eagle. So many things about an eagle's life are inspirational. The first one is Reinventing, The Eagle has the longest life span of its species. It can live up to 70 years, when an eagle gets to be about 40 years old and wants to live for another 30 years or more, at age 40, its beak becomes blunt, and its wings become so heavy that it can't fly any more. At this stage, the eagle must get to a mountaintop, grind its beek, grind the talon and then with the sharpened beak, pluck his own feather. Eagle then takes a new flight of life. This entire process takes about 5 months to complete and the eagle endures that pain for 5 months. In Japan and Singapore, there is nothing called retirement, it's just a change in the genre of activities to suit the body's energy level. Eagle is the master of change management and humans need to get better at that. Many of us want success or change, but without the sacrifice, handwork, disappointments and heartbreak that comes with it. To survive and grow, we must be willing to change. And sometimes, we may even need to go a step further — a death of the old self and a total rebirth. Ending toxic relationships, leaving toxic jobs, and getting rid of destructive habits, thoughts, traditions and mindsets that no longer make sense.
So Old Monk Keep walking.
#2- Perseverance = Decluttering - I have been intrigued by what are the kind of traits that people have who are great at survival, I conclude that the most important trait is their ability to ruthlessly and persistently declutter their lives. Within decluttering, the most important aspect is your ability to Forget. A great memory is a curse I feel. Well, the ability to selectively forget is not to be in denial but to conclude the merits/demerits of that event /phase in your head and archive it. Amjad Islam Amjad wrote this amazing Ghazal on the need to forget.
कहाँ आ के रुकने थे रास्ते, कहाँ मोड़ था उसे भूल जा, वो जो मिल गया उसे याद रख जो नहीं मिला , उसे भूल जा !
वो तेरे नसीब की बारिशें किसी और छत पे बरस गईं, दिल-ए-बे-ख़बर मेरी बात सुन उसे भूल जा, उसे भूल जा !
किसी आँख में नहीं अश्क-ए-ग़म तेरे, बअ'द कुछ भी नहीं है कम, तुझे ज़िंदगी ने भुला दिया, तू भी मुस्कुरा उसे भूल जा !
क्यूँ अटा हुआ है ग़ुबार में ग़म-ए-ज़िंदगी के फ़िशार में, वो जो दर्द था तिरे बख़्त में सो वो हो गया, उसे भूल जा !
Decluttering is also about deleting and choosing the energies around you, memories can be both good and bad energy, so choose the lighter ones. I ruthlessly delete phone contacts, WhatsApp groups and old irrelevant things that are memory markers. You have to keep deleting your emotional cookies. I declutter everything regularly and ruthlessly, people, expectations, things, emotions and everything I can.
In the movie "Up in the Air", George Clooney gives a speech on "What's in your Backpack", here is the speech in verbatim.
How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to feel the straps on your shoulders. Feel ’em? Now I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life. You start with the little things. The things on shelves and in drawers, the knick-knacks, the collectables. Feel the weight as that adds up. Then you start adding larger stuff, clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, linens, and your TV.
The backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. And you go bigger. Your couch, bed, your kitchen table. Stuff it all in there. Your car, get it in there. Your home, whether it’s a studio apartment or a two-bedroom house. I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now try to walk. It’s kind of hard, isn’t it? This is what we do to ourselves daily. We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move. And make no mistake, moving is living.
Now, I’m gonna set that backpack on fire. What do you want to take out of it? What do you want to take out of it? Photos? Photos are for people who can’t remember. Drink some ginkgo and let the photos burn. In fact, let everything burn and imagine waking up tomorrow with nothing. It’s kind of exhilarating, isn’t it?
Clear your emotional cookies regularly.
#3 Living = Optimism + intoxication It isn't observed often but human beings around us are all spending a large time of doing two primary activities, staying hopeful, staying entertained or intoxicated. Movies, cricket matches, sports, endless reel scrolling, social media, taking pictures of themselves or watching other people's pictures, gossip, birthdays, farewells, these are all activities that keep you away from realising the fatigue of daily life. The other part of this is that we are always chasing a tomorrow, a little far away, a holiday next month, a promotion next year or some life event. I feel that if you take away all the intoxications (Chai /Coffee/Smoke/Drink) included and neutralise a hope from tomorrow, how much of life do we live today. Life is Today and never yesterday or tomorrow, never in other people's validation or layers of make-up or looking nicer, life is about vibrating at the same energy as nature around us, syncing with happiness frequency. Science is now accepting that the same food consumed in two different states of mind has a different impact on humans and also that the heart has cells that have "molecular memory" and they reflect what's around. So keep your heart warm and happy and in today.
Read today's newspaper and not tomorrow's or yesterday's.
Today's Ghazal is by this brilliant young man , Prthivi Gandharv .
ऐ ख़ुदा रेत के सहरा को समुंदर कर दे, या छलकती हुई आँखों को भी पत्थर कर दे !
दिल लुभाते हुए ख़्वाबों से कहीं बेहतर है, एक आँसू कि जो आँखों को मुनव्वर कर दे !
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