Hopeless Emptiness- Is there a way out ?

“Plenty of people are on to the emptiness. But it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.”

I did not fully comprehend what the words meant while watching the movie ‘Revolutionary Road’. However the sentence sounded relevant especially in the context of the movie where the protagonists (Kate Winslet and Leonardo De Caprio) find all attempts to break from their lackadaisical life futile and get sucked into the same routine despite attempts to break free.

Hence on a Sunday afternoon between elections news and IPL, I decided to chew the cud – bring back my semi digested understanding of the phrase ‘ hopeless emptiness’, chew it properly for better understanding, ask a few questions and then put my perspective into what I think are the major reasons for hopelessness and a possible prescription.

I had attended an Art of Living workshop at the behest of my friend who is a member of the foundation. The Art of Living is founded by Spiritual Guru and new age Hindu evangelist Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and has a strong network around the world. What I find most interesting is the revenue model where the foundation charges for a number of its unique programs –Art of Living Course Part I (this is a 6 days course with emphasis on correct breathing techniques. I found the breathing exercises really fascinating though I never ended up practising it post the workshop), Art of Living Course Part II, Breath-Water-Sound Program, Youth Empowerment Seminar etc.

In the words of the foundation “The Art of Living conducts several self-development and stress elimination programs that empower people to face life’s challenges gracefully. These workshops equip the participants with skills, and techniques that enhance the quality of their lives.
At the core of these unique programs is the Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful revitalizing breathing technique gifted to the world by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar after spending 10 days in deep contemplation, and silence. The technique is proven to facilitate physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being.

This workshop was unique because it was conducted by the guru himself. After the initial breathing exercises and Satsangs (devotional Speech and chanting of hymns), there was a question and answer session. I found this session extremely discomforting. The questions were very specific with participants wanting solution to their existential problems. Some wanted to forget the memory and the pain from the death of a beloved. Others wanted to know why they have been singled out for a certain handicap or how can they discipline their wayward kid, or how can they assuage the pain of cancer or a terminal disease. I could also discern the discomfort in the voice of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as he patiently attempted to answer these questions. He did not delve too much into the cause of the suffering as into the solution of continuing to meditate and practise breathing exercises. The funniest incident was when a woman insisted in hugging the guru (he was on a dais) and he kept on explaining that it was not required.

This incident left me with strong contrasting emotions. The first one was of disgust about how could someone discuss their pain and suffering in a public forum and ask for sympathy so openly. My first reaction was if you can’t solve your own problems, how can some one else solve it for you.

The second emotion was more mellowed and I realised I was lucky and privileged not to have been through the same suffering and hence I had no right to comment on the same.

I realised that organisations like the Art of living served three important needs of human being – the need to socialize ( we are gregarious by nature ) , the need to share and seek positive reinforcement and the need for an emotional crutch, a purpose and belief in a power bigger than self confidence and self motivation. My perspective changed and I felt how important a role was being served by such organizations.

I will not try to oversimplify such a discussion around emptiness and hopelessness. But I will try and establish my theory around the same and how I believe by questioning three assumptions in our life which we take for granted and through one attitude change we can deal with negative emotions much easier.

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Lateral Views : Procrastination – A cost saving tool?

“Economies of scale” I’m sure is basic knowledge for anyone who had/s economics as a subject. In simple term it means as business expands, the cost of production per unit comes down. It is proven and universally accpeted concept. This concept is not confined just to business and economic classes, it touches our day today life as well.

Witness to this will be… Say if you want to eat samosa yourself, you will buy from the nearby shack rather then make it yourself… but if you were with a bunch of friends or you have big family (say about 10 people) then you might as well fry it from your kitchen…because the cost (perceived) of frying from your kitchen for one person is higher then buying from a shack… but for 10 people the perceived cost of local production (from your kitchen) is lesser then buying from the shack.

The other evening while I was having my normal hybrid exercise (half-way walk and half-way jog), I was pondering on how can I reduce my personal expenses…Off late, due to pressure to take possession of my house, I’m kind of crunched in budget because I have to give a final settlement amount and also I need to have some woodwork done… Somewhere a thought just struck me, whether parting with my roomie (about 2 months back) was/is economically wise?

Going by the above concept and also by stereotypical assumption, household expenses when spread across more people comes down (put aside fixed cost like rent, electricity, cable, newspaper, maid, etc., which anyway are). So the answer to the above question was initially “Off-Course”; because the fixed costs were shared then. Since I was anyway prepared for bearing all the fixed cost myself, so I tried drilling down by probing the question a bit further to other cost. I tried using something similar to ceteris paribus concept (all other things constant) by putting the fixed cost environment constant or vanished. I tried analyzing the impact of variable cost in solitary because I thought (Economy of scale) my variable cost would have shot up like wild weeds. (Variable cost comprises of groceries, toiletries, entertainment, etc. this are cost based on consumption level – the more you consume the more the cost is).

So, with an ear phone plugged and sweat all over, drilling down my domestic cost and comparing against some previous month data, while at a motion of about 10 KM/Hr was quite woody in the head. But somehow I wade through the woods of my mind…

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The journey post the genesis

The Journey So Far…

“We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibres, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.”

Herman Melville (American Novelist)

Our blog is twenty days old and we thought it would be a good idea to share our blogging experience- not just the technical details about registering on the blogging site, deciding on the templates and reading on search optimization, but about the responses we received, both positive and negative, our pre-occupation about inviting friends and colleagues to write in the Guest faculty section and co creating the different sections and articles on life, love, society and of course lateralviews.

There is this saying that during recession people either plan a family or get an additional college degree. Since both of were confused on the first and did not have the money to pursue the latter, we decided to go on a different tangent- write a blog. It all started with 2nhalfpegs.

Boi was trying to figure out when is that we shed all our inhibitions and become honest. The context was not of course when subjected to a lie detection test or when hypnotised but when drinking. Now different people have different capacities but we were trying to determine what we normally call ‘the inflexion point’. Below two pegs you are just warming up, shedding a bit of your reservations, becoming a little more verbose (though there are some who become quieter with each peg) and argumentative, a little more honest, a little more reflective, and a bit more happy. More than three pegs you become unpredictable. Either you start getting overtly emotional or maudlin and talk about your lost love, unrequited love, your lost opportunity or your humungous success or you start with a long story of your life and you forget in between your narration which story it was or you ask everyone to hear you out and then forget what is it that you wanted to stay or you start barking, braying, mooing, neighing, snoring, slurring, purring, growling, laughing , guffawing ,screaming, blabbering and displaying all sorts of animal behaviour.

2nhalfpegs it is, came the verdict. This is when you are most honest. This 2 ½ discovery was as magical as Harry Potter finding his 9 ¾ platform to Hogwarts.

So we created this domain called 2nhalfpegs.

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