This too shall pass

Poorvi Koutish has been voted out, I felt sad and my daughter cried....

I am talking about a singing reality show called Indian Idol where one of our top favorite contestants was voted out. Does it matter? Why, how?

Before that, a small story : Once king Akbar challenged Birbal to tell him a phrase that can make one happy when one is sad and make him sad when one is happy. The wise Birbal said "This too shall pass".....

Our religions and philosophies especially Bhagvad Geeta teaches us to be Nirvikar( unaffected).

Some people feel that these shows ruin the life of young contestants. They expose them to temporary glitter and fame at an early age and when they get eliminated, they are unable to face the harsh realities of life.

I think these reality shows teach us that :

1. A poor man's son/ daughter can become a success/ celebrity if he/ she has talent and hard work. So, focus on your strengths, work hard and the bad time shall pass...

2. The contestant who may be hot favorite for almost all episodes can get voted out in last round. So, good times shall also pass. Don't take them for granted.

3. The young viewers like my daughter experience happiness, dejection, anxiety, almost all emotions for contestants who are actually complete strangers to us. But once the show is over, life is normal soon again and we tend to forget them. It actually teaches us the importance and also the short shelf life of emotions.

I feel one doesn't need to suppress the emotions but find a way to live them and yet experience the detachment, the Nirvikarness....

History repeats itself...

It is said that the history repeats itself. Probably because we weren't listening the first time.

Some recent experiences convinced me on this :

(1) If you go to MG Road, Gurgaon on a weekend evening, you will see BMWs/ Audis or such expensive cars parked outside on the roads. I would like to believe that someone who can buy a car for Rs. 30 lakhs or more will have Rs. 50 to pay for authorized parking. So, I assume that these people park their cars on the roads not to save Rs. 50 but to escape from the hassle of getting into the parking queue. Now, imagine the hassle of getting a towed vehicle back, or worse, a stolen vehicle back.....

(2) People would walk on the crowded MG road, wave a hand to stop the speeding vehicle and run to cross the road. To save 5/ 10 minutes some people just outsource their life's responsibility to someone they don't know. The person who knows that there is a crowded road ahead and still driving at 60/ 80, either is drunk or doesn't care about pedestrians. Can someone treat his own life so cheaply? See it to believe it...

(3) You see the new age rich young ladies carrying numerous shopping bags on the escalators in the malls, leaving their infants to the poor maids, who in all probability, never handled a small kid before and escalators are like UFOs for them. What is more precious , the kid or a dress bought at 50% discount?