Time Out

As children growing up in India, the highlight of our winter holidays was a family road trip to three greatly revered Hindu temples, nestled high in the Himalayan ranges, way up in the North. For us siblings, this trip was less about paying obeisance at each shrine and more about time-out from the routine: to engage in fraternal pastimes, eat wonderful food and bask in the constant attention of our beloved parents. Looking back upon my childhood years, spent in a less expressive time – I don’t think our parents actually said ‘I love you’ to each other or to us – I know this annual pilgrimage was a declaration of our bond, even more than it was a strengthening of any religious belief. I know for certain that decades later, in conversation with my brothers, we constantly refer back to memories from those journeys and for each one of us those recollections are deeply etched…

This past week, I joined my younger brother and his family for a December vacation in an idyllic wooden home near picture-perfect Vail. Besides the breathtaking beauty of a white Christmas in a lovely holiday destination, we enjoyed lazy fireside evenings, too much delicious food and lots of laughter. I felt a sense of déjà vu listening to the children’s easy banter and, more than once, I saw that my brother had become my father – as he organized our transport or worried about someone being cold or fussed over his brood. I know that we came together and made new memories that we’ll look back upon, in the years to come…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/time-out/

Something about Babies

No matter how bleak life’s realities, there is something about new babies that rekindles hope, engenders love and turns even the most hardened cynic into a dreamer. We welcomed a newborn to our family a few days ago and she has transformed us all. Her parents have a new axis to their universe and her name means poetess, though she could well be likened to a poem they created.

There is nothing to compare with the innocence of the newborn and the sweetness on her face, as she begins to forget life in the womb and starts a new life in our world. Her greatest safe-guard is her helplessness, a powerful device that cannot be ignored. Her dependency is enough to ensure food and warmth and succor, when she needs it.

Babies, in their immaculate state, bring out the best in all of us. Perhaps, unknowingly, they allow as the opportunity to start over. As Henry Thoreau wisely put it ‘Every child begins the world again’.

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/something-about-babies/

Winter Chill

We have long known that signals received by our senses are interpreted by our brains to call up recollections from another time. It is common knowledge that sights, sounds, tastes and smells (especially smells!) can all trigger emotional memories from long ago. For some reason, the sense of touch seems to be least associated with evoking the past…

For me, it is always the feel of the first winter chill on my skin that conjures up my most magical connotations. During our school years, in a Himalayan boarding school, the cold of each approaching winter signaled the advent of our long winter holiday and an escape from school; it spelled a release from the classroom, the discipline and the wake-up bell that always rang too soon. Eventually, the same hilly region became my home and then the cold weather meant roaring bonfires, steaming soups and beds prepped with old-fashioned hot water bottles! To this day, after so many years spent in North India’s plains and Mumbai’s unchanging climes, I am inexorably drawn to the mountains – for their scenic beauty, for their eternal majesty and for their cold breezes that sing atop the cedars and touch my skin to unlock a treasure trove of associations.

Last week, as I walked out into gently falling snow, North America’s wintry weather reminded me that this cold also heralds the season of festivity and celebration for a big part of the world. This winter chill allows us the opportunity to seek warmth with family and friends and those we love.

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/winter-chill/

Travel Writings in Paperbacks

The wanderer in me is drawn to travel writing and we have so many wonderful writers in our times – Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Bruce Chatwin, William Dalrymple and more. All are legends, well-deserving of the recognition they receive. (I knew Bruce personally because he stayed with us in our Himalayan home a few years before his untimely end; and recognized him as eccentric, reclusive, and tortured.)

Each of these writers has transported me, in their works and oftentimes literally. I think Bryson is special – his style is like no other, his humor unique and his spirits always high! Several years ago, I read A Walk in the Woods – the movie doesn’t begin to do it justice – and knew I had to experience the Appalachian trail, even if I did not walk its length. A few short years later, I stood breathless beneath a woody sign that read ‘Appalachian Trail’ and had my friend capture the moment. (We had set up base in Gatlinburg, as we walked the Smokies for four days. So it has felt personal to see the tragic images of recent Tenessee wildfires, the loss of life and property and the evacuation of downtown Gatlinburg.)

As I pack my bag for yet another jaunt, I include The Lost Continent, described as Bryson’s ‘travels in small-town America’ and known for his unforgettable line, ‘I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to!’ I first read this book when moving from India to America’s mid-West, a decade ago (laughed out loud while landing in Des Moines just a few months later!). My son gifted me this book at that time. Today I opened its gently yellowing pages to see this neat inscription in a precise handwriting:

06/01/06

Dear Mom,
Just the book for you.
Think of it as an
extended tour of your
new neighbourhood.
Bon voyage!

Love,
Kartik

I can’t wait to continue the voyage and discover more of America…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/travel-writings-in-paperbacks/

Democracies Must Respect Citizens' Rights

India’s literate citizens have read reams, through November 2016, about the Prime Minister’s drive to demonetize all 500 and 1000 rupee currency notes. This initiative will supposedly flush out black money, halt corruption and put a stop to counterfeit money. These are all laudable objectives that are hard to object to, so what could be amiss?

From a personal perspective, it is galling that those of us who work hard and pay our taxes should be denied access to our own money, even for a day! No matter all the talk about cashless transactions, most middle class Indians require cash each day – to buy the milk for breakfast, to pay the three-wheeler rickshaw, to pay for small groceries at the corner store on the way home – and these demonetized notes are after all equivalent to approximately 7.5 and 15 US dollars respectively.

On another level, I object to supporters who dismiss the trials and tribulations, being suffered by those most in need, as a ‘temporary hardship’. No dear friends, this chaos is the direct result of poor preparation, inadequate foresight and abysmal implementation. There is no denying that the economically oppressed should have been cushioned from the dreadful impact of these overnight actions. A leader risen from humble origins should have guarded against this erosion of the daily earnings and small savings of countless Indians.

Finally, perhaps the most worrying concern is the unilateral and autocratic approach that has been employed through this whole exercise. I am not entirely surprised. Most thinking Indians cannot be unaware of our top man’s individualistic, macho, muscle-flexing approach. Should we then be surprised that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seems to have relinquished its autonomy as it toes the line drawn by the Finance Ministry? Did RBI ask Government for more time to print new currency, bolster the infrastructure and create the processes that would be needed to iron out the wrinkles in as mammoth an undertaking as was being embarked upon by our ambitious prime minister?

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/democracies-must-respect-citizens-rights/

Fall Weather

Autumn is an unknown season back home, across most of India. The North sees an abrupt change from blistering Summer to frosty Winter, perhaps with a few mild weeks in October (marred this year by an ugly pall of pollution that will likely change unnoticed into winter fog). India’s tropical South remains warm throughout the calendar and both our coasts unmindful of any winter chill. All the more why Alexandria’s glorious Fall colors take my breath away! Yesterday’s yellow is orange today and today’s orange will be the color of wine tomorrow – and as intoxicating…

There is something delicious about the Fall season, seasoned by the promise of approaching winter holidays, friendly gatherings and festive cheer. The chilly weather and gusty winds are all the more appealing, because we can anticipate the prospect of shutting them out and retreating to cozy interiors. I love that it is time to bring out the woolly throws and warm coats and tall boots. I love that it is time to indulge in hot soups and comfort foods that evoke nostalgic feelings. I love that it is time to give thanks!

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/fall-weather/

Another Kind of Freedom

Most of our lives are governed by the clock each day and, whether we like it or not, we become bound by our schedules from an early age. For three decades now, every hour of every weekday day has been regulated for me. While my life has been eventful and exciting and often surprising, the daily routine has generally been planned and deliberate and somewhat predictable.

There is nothing wrong with the predictable. Predictability can be wonderfully reassuring and it is, after all, intrinsic to design. We need the comfort of each season following the other in an unceasingly predictable pattern, just as we are reassured that the day must predictably follow the night.

Still, it is an exciting prospect to become liberated from the clock and it is a discovery of a sort, to follow where my mind takes me. I no longer set the alarm each night. I choose when I will read or write or call a friend. I decide if I will walk outside or curl up on the couch with a cup of tea to watch a favorite film. It is wonderful to buy groceries in the quiet of a Monday morning. It is delightful to savor a beloved book in the garden bathed in early afternoon sunshine. These would once have been guilty pleasures, but it is another kind of freedom now…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/another-kind-of-freedom/

Forgiving a loved one for dying. Getting past the anger.

Even though the end of life is inevitable, oftentimes death is predictable and unsurprising. We all know people that consistently abuse their health and their bodies or fall prey to addictions and invite an early end. It is hard not to think – well he was asking for it and now he has brought it upon himself and what else could his life have resulted in. How then should one feel sympathy or sadness?

If this foolish person is a loved one, the initial anger supersedes the grief: anger at the senseless futility, the thoughtless waste and the uncaring selfishness. But feelings are not rational and one cannot plan not to grieve. Sorrow eventually finds its way to pushing aside the anger and occupying a place alongside it. I think that eventually both the anger and the grief are swept away by a combination of time and wisdom and the innate tendency for the positive to rise above the negative… 

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/forgiving-a-loved-one-for-dying-getting-past-the-anger/

Biotech Crops or Organic Food

This past summer, 110 Nobel Laureates put their signatures on a letter addressed to “the Leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and Governments around the world”. Noting that the global production of food, feed and fiber will need to double by 2050, to meet the needs of the world’s population, the Laureates urged opponents of genetic modification “to re-examine the experience of farmers and consumers worldwide with crops and foods improved through biotechnology, recognize the findings of authoritative scientific bodies and regulatory agencies, and abandon their campaign against GMOs …” https://www.biofortified.org/2016/07/110-nobel-laureates-greenpeace-gmos/

All of us know people who blindly oppose GM food or biotech innovation in agriculture, despite the fact that there has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from consuming GM crops, which are less damaging to the environment and a boon to global biodiversity. These same people often hold completely unfounded beliefs around organic crops. The truth is that organic farming is utterly unsustainable, because its low productivity requires far more land to produce the same amount of food. If the world were to be fed, just with organic farming, we’d have to cut down 10 million square miles of forest to grow our food.

Did you know: for a product to have USDA’s organic label, just 95% of its ingredients must be ‘organic’ and even these could be exposed to USDA-approved biological or botanical pest controls – or even chemicals from a list of allowable compounds, poisonous to weeds and bugs. Of course, the non-organic 5% could be sprayed with any amount of herbicides and pesticides. (It is noteworthy that about 200 non-organic substances can be added to food, without giving up the organic label!)

Finally, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that organic food tastes better or provides more nutrition or is healthier. What we all know is that it certainly costs a lot more…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/biotech-crops-or-organic-food/

The World of Little Children

I am amazed by 10 year old Dhruv and five year old Sara. I’ve often wondered at the spectrum of the varied emotions these children express: unfettered laughter at a joke known just to them; angry tantrums when an unreasonable wish is unfulfilled; sullen long faces when an adult says ‘no’; and so many more…

I am struck with each little being’s supreme innocence, matched only by its supreme selfishness as it views life with a single world view – its own. I am curious and intrigued by how children’s minds process everyday events, which must assume a magnitude that is impossible for grownups to fathom. But then, who decides that our concerns are more important to us than theirs are to them?

Above all, I am fascinated by the thought process that often confounds!

(Yesterday as Sara was drinking her milk:)

Me: Sara, why is milk good for you?

Sara: Because it has protein.

Me: So, why is protein good for us?

Sara: Because it makes our bones strong.

Me: What are ‘bones’?

Sara: Bones are, like, in our skeletons. (After a pause) but they are different from dog bones. (After further thought) the bones in our skeletons are inside our bodies, but dogs’ bones are outside and can be in the garden…

Truly, out of the mouths of babes oft times come gems…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/the-world-of-little-children/

Lap Swimming as Meditation

Central to meditation, and the Eastern philosophy of Yoga, is control of the breath or prana or life force. The essence of swimming laps is control of the breath.

As a young adult, I frequently swam across the several lakes that bordered my home in India’s Himalayan foothills. It was an indescribable experience – just the green water, the blue sky and a body in tune with its environment and the rhythm of its breathing.

Today, I try to reconstruct the experience (somewhat) with lap swimming – a sensation that can only be understood by those that experience it. This exercise lifts me above myself to a mind-body experience that undeniably releases a flood of endorphins. The feeling is not dissimilar to the uplifting experience that follows a yoga session or meditation practice.

If meditation means guiding the mind inward and is marked by concentration, controlled breathing and withdrawal of the senses from the external world - then swimming laps can be viewed as meditation. Who says meditation insists on us sitting down cross-legged, or being still, or closing our eyes?

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/lap-swimming-as-meditation/

Human Connections in Old-fashioned Ways

Through much of my life in India, local ground transport has meant being in the back of a chauffeur-driven car, cocooned and insular. In recent years, since access to modern communications technologies, weekday mornings were spent immersed in reading the news and evenings in email or on the phone. Not only have I mostly missed the ever-changing microcosm of city life playing out outside my vehicle window, but I have largely missed viewing the daily grind of Mumbai (it really is like no other city and home to a population equal to all of Australia!) passing on the opportunity of a daily ringside view.

I am doing it differently now, in historic Alexandria and the vibrant DC area. For one thing, I’ve decided not to have a car and find there is nothing quite like public transport, to teach you about a new place and its people. I have also decided to refrain from reading or listening to music on my bus or train, opting instead to be conscious and mindful and, yes, curious.

Each day is an adventure on the Metro – It could be a quiet ride into town in a near empty train, or a standing-room-only experience at rush hour. I can freely indulge my interest in people watching: viewing the passengers around me, using little clues to gauge their states of mind and spinning imagined stories about their context and who they might be. I think  most fellow travelers are regular folk, but am conscious of how each must be unique in his or her own way and special to the people in their own unique lives. Above all, I love the eccentricities - be they in attire or footwear or hairstyles - and never tire of these! While there are established rules that govern behavior toward strangers, I will often smile at someone or comment on something extraordinary. I find that even strangers welcome the human overture and it’s as if they were waiting for someone else to start the conversation, for someone else to first step outside the comfort zone…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/human-connections-in-old-fashioned-ways/

Transitions

The unknown – it is scary, exciting, adrenaline-inducing, all at once. Still, I would not advise you to embrace the familiar, the safe, or the comfortable just because it is also the known. No, I urge you to make the leap!

I have just made a migration on so many levels: from Mumbai in distant India to the capital of America; from a long career of full-time employment to consulting where I choose my own level of discipline; from a regulated and planned schedule to the flexibility that allows me to be where I want. Above all, I have migrated away from my life of predictable security to become an explorer in a new world. Of course there are moments of doubt and uncertainty, but these are followed by moments of pride and the satisfaction of knowing that I am following my mind as I advance in this next phase of my journey. This path is not easy, but constantly wondering ‘what if…’ would be infinitely harder!

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/transitions/