Glimpse Bias
I wish I could have a life like that! Ever had this thought? Or may be said to your self that someone else’s life is so much easier and better than yours.
Either way, you my friend may be able to relate to something I like to call the ‘glimpse bias’.
Every day I see good, honest, hardworking, capable people, heave and sigh in the face of the ups and downs of life, look with disdain at their own lives while wanting to be somewhere else, in someone else’s life, wanting to do something else than what they are doing.
I myself look at posters of movie stars, read about popstars, envy billionaires named by Forbes, see pictures posted by a rich relatives (vacationing in some exotic location), hear about a college/school mate who owns the latest sports car, affords the finest fashion, jewelry… the list never ends. Each time I end up thinking to myself that their lives are so much better, they seem to have all the luck, how much nicer their lives must be compared to mine.
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My advise to future fellows
Be Resilient– A lot of times your plans/visions and intentions will not work. It may be due to things that you forgot to consider/plan/anticipate (#happens to the best of minds) or It may be due to things that depend on others e.g. superiors/colleagues reacting in unexpected ways, unexpected weather, resource crunches etc etc (ergo…shit happens !).
Be mentally prepared to take such things in your stride. Bringing the smallest change is not as easy as it sounds. The things you are going to try to reshape are closely related to human life and will come with all its volatility and unpredictability. So keep trying, keep reassessing, keep learning, keep getting back up (remember King Bruce and the spider).
Empty the cup- Please unlearn ! Empty your minds of assumptions, labels, definitions, opinions, ideas-Try to forget things that you have picked from books, sociological studies, news articles, anthropological courses, your university teachers etc etc. Human lives despite their complications, contrary to expectation, are often very simple to understand and work with. Be simplified, be open and you shall learn a great deal. Experiencing things yourself is something you’ll enjoy the most, so be open to it. Don’t carry preformed assumptions about anything. Make your own mistakes.
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Green Manufacturing
Gently rolling green meadows, a soft setting sun, the glistening water of a small farm stream and floating sounds of distant cow bells as they grazed were the pleasant companions of my summer evening as I sat with my new found close friends/ and YFI journeyers Achal and Anousha. My trance like pleasure at the evening was however soon interrupted by floating plastic bottles and shampoo sachets. The initial curiosity (How on earth did these get here, the nearest city was close to 90 miles away) was soon replaced by a pinching sadness at our ways. How we have managed to make our lives so immune and blind to the consequences of our creations.
The next few months long evening discussions with Achal and some random notes about what we could do, finally led us to our own version of green manufacturing. Achal formally shared the vision with the Tata group management (he works there post the fellowship). We also realized that there were others working on it passionately, trying to develop similar things. Will it be practicable, I hope so, What will we do with it, we will live with it, develop it, see it grow and someday smile seeing it exist in real– the journey of the simple hopes of two young men sharing a small 10’*10’ room.
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Are we different?
Why are we different? was bouncing around in my head. The setting –I had just hired a tricycle called a ‘rickshaw’ commonly found in South East Asia. My driver was a young boy roughly my age, pedaling to carry my weight. No matter how I thought about it, it always came down to the beginning. I was born in a big city, in a family that could afford me education, books, necessities and desires. His beginnings were probably more modest, simpler, in some rural part of my country, where education was scarce, necessities were a dream and where the only way to survive was to move to a big city and find a livelihood like pulling a rickshaw. Did either of us have a choice in this? I doubt it.
I meet a lot of people who tell stories of being self-made, but yet this basic premise of our start playing a rule in determining the journey, (welcome to the butterfly effect) strips away my pride and narcissism every time. I often wonder if this boy was born in my place, given the same education, met the same friends, he might have been doing what I do, may be even better. Who am I, if not the sum total of all the impressions I have received while leading my life.
The more I see us, as people, the more I realize we may look and speak different, but we are all the same inside––same in our hopes and dreams of doing better, our emotions, our struggles, our achievements, our inertia and our potential for leading a meaningful life.
Needs
I am often told when I share this that this is something Maslow came up with. Well! my pride in my nation’s heritage begs to differ. My thoughts about this were formed through one of my countries oldest spiritual scriptures, “the Upnishads”. Either way, the simple realization was about how our lives and needs are connected and how most of us are subject to these needs before we can evolve more.
An old saying roughly translated mentions- Poetry is more interesting than dry logic, a beautiful sight is more interesting than poetry, a beautiful companion is more interesting than a beautiful sight, a full stomach (food) is more interesting than a beautiful companion.
Food and water, we need it daily, day in and day out. Hunger wins every single time. A hungry man does not care for words or philosophy or deep thoughts. Probably one of the simplest most direct services you can do for another person is to feed him/her. Giving someone food security is a great gift.
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