Ever felt like you were going through something you had to say a whole sentence for, and could never find a word to fit it?
I do, Constantly. And googled extensively to find those words. Found one I’d been wondering about for a while - the smell of wet earth – it’s confined in a very uninspiring ‘Petrichor’.
Douglas Adams in his book ’The meaning of Liff, where Liff is defined as a phenomenon for which there is no word, took the map of the British Isles and used whatever places showed up on it as words to describe things he couldn’t find words for. Like
ABILENE (adj.) Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of the pillow.
GOLANT (adj.) Blank, sly and faintly embarrassed. Pertaining to the expression seen on the face of someone who has clearly forgotten your name.
LUPPITT (n.) The piece of leather which hangs off the bottom of your shoe before you
can be bothered to get it mended.
NEMPNETT THRUBWELL (n.) The feeling experienced when driving off for the first time on a brand new motorbike.
NYBSTER (n.) Sort of person who takes the lift to travel one floor.
OZARK (n.) One who offers to help just after all the work has been done.
POGES (pl.n.) The lumps of dry powder that remain after cooking a packet soup.
QUENBY (n.) A stubborn spot on a window which you spend twenty minutes trying to clean off before discovering it's on the other side of the glass.
SHOEBURYNESS The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat, which is still warm from somebody else's bottom.
Adams made it seem so easy. No learning Latin and figuring out roots and etymology to come up with words. Recycle. Reuse. Invent. And if it fits, it’s yours. Maybe I could have a dictionary of my own.
I did start one, a long time ago, called Rayirath lexicon. But it had relatable things in it. Like ‘Pisa Effect’ (taking mistakes and turning them into novelty factors), ‘Mistletoe Syndrome’ (doing things because there is a environment conducive to it, like kissing under a mistletoe because tradition says so) and ‘Subtitling the mind’ (when one person puts into words what someone else might be thinking at that time.)
But maybe I could do one with invented words this time. So I set about the task of creating some meanings I needed words for. Here goes…
YAZOO – The feeling of not wanting to come to work today
PREBZLE! – Figuring the perfect wittiest killer of a come back line hours after you’ve lost the argument.
SWULL – When you’re lost in thoughts and don’t realize the light’s turned Green and everyone’s honking behind you.
YEEHAAA – The euphoric feeling just before you walk into your boss’s cabin to hand in your resignation letter.
GLINK - When your eyebrows rise involuntarily seeing a stunning girl/ boy walk up to you.
Figured something in all this. Nothing in this world makes sense by itself. We created everything when we created language. And oddly, we’ve probably become slaves to our creations, believing them to be the ultimate truth, when there’s possibly nothing like that. Even truth, afterall, is just a word.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Everyday Musings > Help yourself
Most people I know wouldn't be caught dead in the Self-Help section in a bookshop. Let alone sign up for a self-improvement program.
When I did the Landmark forum, I got plenty of 'why', 'what problems do you have', 'it's only for weak people who can't solve their own problems' and 'give me the money, I'll teach you all you need to know in an hour'. 'It's just positive thinking, will work for a week, then it'll fade away'. 'It's mass hypnotism'. I wondered with all this resistance around, why is it that self-help books sell so much or why self-improvement courses have so many people signing up.
One day, out of the blue, we're slapped on our butt and welcomed to the world. Unlike a profession or an education, there is no manual that tells you how to live. You find out along the way. Helping yourself to clues around you. Learning from experience, from parents, grandparents, neighbours, teachers, friends, movies, television. Our understanding of life is such. Assimilated, collected, collated and stored for further use. Self-help. At some point, we feel the need for advice, for direction and begin looking for answers. The options are around us. Peers, relatives, mentors, books, counsellors etc. Each one of us picks the one we have access to or are comfortable with. The end goal being the same. Progress from where we are at that moment, preferably radical progress.
Einstein said 'you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it'. I believe that. A change of context changes problems. I felt I was running in loops, that I was sailing through the years without any specific purpose, and it was a fun life, filled with multiple things to do, but I felt that I wasn't tapping my true potential, that my talents needed to be explored, that I was leading a far smaller life than I could.
I chose the Forum to delve more into all this, and found plenty of little things that made way for plenty of big things. I realised that I governed by my 'artistic temperament'. So I'd do things only if I felt like it. One day a dear friend suggested - 'write 500 words every day' - and I turned into a mission. 'Every day' being the operative word. It was something that I would have earlier skipped every time I didn't 'feel' like writing it, which would be every other day. But now I can differentiate a mood from a writer's block, and can find solutions for my writer's block without getting caught up in it. And other things like I make it a point to make chai for my maid Aruna every day regardless of how sleepy I am, I figured that I really love helping people discover their true potential and that I realised that nothing in life was not out of my choice, even the things I'd rather not be part of. Every day I discover something new that I've added to my life. And it's not been a fad, but a way of being.
Mark Twain said, I'm not young enough to know everything. Maybe some of us resist help, personally or professionally, because we believe the answers should lie in us. They do, but sometimes it takes a little nudge or a wake up call for us to see them. Maybe it's the reputation that self-help has garnered over the years, thanks to the people who are the helm of it, or people who have experienced it. And then of course, there's the mirage of positive thinking (translates to whipped cream over cow dung) that kills the actual benefits.
Came across a conversation in a book of 'est', the earlier version of Landmark Forum. It works perfectly for the Forum and anything, be it Art of Living or the wondrous Vipassana, that we see value in.
"What is Landmark Forum?" asked the stranger.
"It's gestalt encounter therapy with the touch-feely left out," said a guest who hadn't done the Forum.
"It's scientology without the hocus-pocus," said a second such guest.
"It's packaged Zen," said a third.
"It's Werner's(founder) way of earning a living," suggested a fourth.
"It's a scientific kick in the balls," said a recent Forum graduate.
"It's two weekends of madness to create saner weekdays," said a second Forum graduate.
"It's a car," said the third graduate.
"A car?" asked the stranger, now totally bewildered.
"Just a car," the graduate went on. "You can use it to get where you're going faster or use it to explore new places."
"I see," said the stranger, frowning.
"Or," said a fourth graduate, "you can just lie down in front of it and let it run over you and then blame the car."
When I did the Landmark forum, I got plenty of 'why', 'what problems do you have', 'it's only for weak people who can't solve their own problems' and 'give me the money, I'll teach you all you need to know in an hour'. 'It's just positive thinking, will work for a week, then it'll fade away'. 'It's mass hypnotism'. I wondered with all this resistance around, why is it that self-help books sell so much or why self-improvement courses have so many people signing up.
One day, out of the blue, we're slapped on our butt and welcomed to the world. Unlike a profession or an education, there is no manual that tells you how to live. You find out along the way. Helping yourself to clues around you. Learning from experience, from parents, grandparents, neighbours, teachers, friends, movies, television. Our understanding of life is such. Assimilated, collected, collated and stored for further use. Self-help. At some point, we feel the need for advice, for direction and begin looking for answers. The options are around us. Peers, relatives, mentors, books, counsellors etc. Each one of us picks the one we have access to or are comfortable with. The end goal being the same. Progress from where we are at that moment, preferably radical progress.
Einstein said 'you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it'. I believe that. A change of context changes problems. I felt I was running in loops, that I was sailing through the years without any specific purpose, and it was a fun life, filled with multiple things to do, but I felt that I wasn't tapping my true potential, that my talents needed to be explored, that I was leading a far smaller life than I could.
I chose the Forum to delve more into all this, and found plenty of little things that made way for plenty of big things. I realised that I governed by my 'artistic temperament'. So I'd do things only if I felt like it. One day a dear friend suggested - 'write 500 words every day' - and I turned into a mission. 'Every day' being the operative word. It was something that I would have earlier skipped every time I didn't 'feel' like writing it, which would be every other day. But now I can differentiate a mood from a writer's block, and can find solutions for my writer's block without getting caught up in it. And other things like I make it a point to make chai for my maid Aruna every day regardless of how sleepy I am, I figured that I really love helping people discover their true potential and that I realised that nothing in life was not out of my choice, even the things I'd rather not be part of. Every day I discover something new that I've added to my life. And it's not been a fad, but a way of being.
Mark Twain said, I'm not young enough to know everything. Maybe some of us resist help, personally or professionally, because we believe the answers should lie in us. They do, but sometimes it takes a little nudge or a wake up call for us to see them. Maybe it's the reputation that self-help has garnered over the years, thanks to the people who are the helm of it, or people who have experienced it. And then of course, there's the mirage of positive thinking (translates to whipped cream over cow dung) that kills the actual benefits.
Came across a conversation in a book of 'est', the earlier version of Landmark Forum. It works perfectly for the Forum and anything, be it Art of Living or the wondrous Vipassana, that we see value in.
"What is Landmark Forum?" asked the stranger.
"It's gestalt encounter therapy with the touch-feely left out," said a guest who hadn't done the Forum.
"It's scientology without the hocus-pocus," said a second such guest.
"It's packaged Zen," said a third.
"It's Werner's(founder) way of earning a living," suggested a fourth.
"It's a scientific kick in the balls," said a recent Forum graduate.
"It's two weekends of madness to create saner weekdays," said a second Forum graduate.
"It's a car," said the third graduate.
"A car?" asked the stranger, now totally bewildered.
"Just a car," the graduate went on. "You can use it to get where you're going faster or use it to explore new places."
"I see," said the stranger, frowning.
"Or," said a fourth graduate, "you can just lie down in front of it and let it run over you and then blame the car."
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Everyday Musings > In focus
I have had this quote as my signature for while now - "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert Anson Heinlein.
I love this quote. Because it's how I think, and behave. I love doing and learning a dozen things at one time. It gives me so much joy. But I always thought that meant I'm scattered and lack focus, that there is no one single passion in my life, I need to channelize my energies into one specific thing. And let the others go etc etc.
One day, waiting for a friend at a tiny bookstore, I found a delightful book by Barbara Sher called 'What to do when you want to do everything'. The title struck me as being just what I was thinking of – at last here's someone who's not talking of focus, focus, focus. Bought the book. Came home, sat down with a cup of herbal tea to read it.
It spoke of people with multiple interests and talked of how everyone from Da Vinci to Aristotle had multiple interests. To be great and truly accomplished was to do many things in that time. Post industrialisation, specialists came in who did only one thing. And that has followed ever since. And she gave people like me, who like doing multiple things, a name – scanners. Scanners are essentially people who flit from one thing to another, or take up different things, study it in detail, and move onto something else, or those who get bored easily, or some who are very curious and thus do many things etc.
It felt great to know that there are many like me, with a dozen things to list as favourites and must dos. I forwarded that book to many friends who came up and spoke of their focus conflict.
Saw an enactment of a short story on Sunday at Prithvi. It was about a girl who felt she was being followed by this old, angelic looking man. Everytime, it turned out that he pointed out to her laces being undone. Finally he asks her, how are you going to teach your children to tie laces? Then he said that if the world were to end, we would need to forward our knowledge to keep civilisation going. Like Noah did. He saved two of every species so we could continue our existence. He said that he has been looking for Noah everywhere, but hasn't been able to find anyone who does one thing perfectly, even if it means tying shoelaces. One task does master.
Specialists are revered today, but the concept of being an all rounder is coming back into existence now. People are bringing back hobbies and learning to live lives that explore more than one facet of their personality. I wonder sometimes, what would happen if everyone in the world was appreciated for doing many things in their lives. Would people pursue more interests, take time out for a hobby, or explore their limits without any guilt? Would we be more adventurous as a race, more dynamic, more active? Would our children have more options to be happy about?
In this age of chaos and drama, doing many things is probably the one right thing to do.
I love this quote. Because it's how I think, and behave. I love doing and learning a dozen things at one time. It gives me so much joy. But I always thought that meant I'm scattered and lack focus, that there is no one single passion in my life, I need to channelize my energies into one specific thing. And let the others go etc etc.
One day, waiting for a friend at a tiny bookstore, I found a delightful book by Barbara Sher called 'What to do when you want to do everything'. The title struck me as being just what I was thinking of – at last here's someone who's not talking of focus, focus, focus. Bought the book. Came home, sat down with a cup of herbal tea to read it.
It spoke of people with multiple interests and talked of how everyone from Da Vinci to Aristotle had multiple interests. To be great and truly accomplished was to do many things in that time. Post industrialisation, specialists came in who did only one thing. And that has followed ever since. And she gave people like me, who like doing multiple things, a name – scanners. Scanners are essentially people who flit from one thing to another, or take up different things, study it in detail, and move onto something else, or those who get bored easily, or some who are very curious and thus do many things etc.
It felt great to know that there are many like me, with a dozen things to list as favourites and must dos. I forwarded that book to many friends who came up and spoke of their focus conflict.
Saw an enactment of a short story on Sunday at Prithvi. It was about a girl who felt she was being followed by this old, angelic looking man. Everytime, it turned out that he pointed out to her laces being undone. Finally he asks her, how are you going to teach your children to tie laces? Then he said that if the world were to end, we would need to forward our knowledge to keep civilisation going. Like Noah did. He saved two of every species so we could continue our existence. He said that he has been looking for Noah everywhere, but hasn't been able to find anyone who does one thing perfectly, even if it means tying shoelaces. One task does master.
Specialists are revered today, but the concept of being an all rounder is coming back into existence now. People are bringing back hobbies and learning to live lives that explore more than one facet of their personality. I wonder sometimes, what would happen if everyone in the world was appreciated for doing many things in their lives. Would people pursue more interests, take time out for a hobby, or explore their limits without any guilt? Would we be more adventurous as a race, more dynamic, more active? Would our children have more options to be happy about?
In this age of chaos and drama, doing many things is probably the one right thing to do.
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